Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 23/5/2017 (1214 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

With crayons and paste close at hand, students at Ryerson School are illustrating their ideas of what it means to be Canadian in a big way.

The kids at the kindergarten to Grade 6 school in Fort Richmond are creating a float that will have a little piece of each of them integrated into it for the Pembina Trails School Division Canada 150 Project.

The division-wide initiative to acknowledge the 150th anniversary of Confederation will take over Investors Group Field on May 24 with a performance from a 2,250-piece student band, speeches from Lieutenant Governor Janice Filmon and activist Michael Champagne, and 35 floats created by students from each school.

Student Adebare Adegbosin’s thumbprint will form part of a collage of prints that will fill one of a dozen paper tracings of students at Ryerson. The cutouts will be pasted inside a giant "hamster ball" that will roll into Investors Group Field on Wednesday.

Over the past months, students at Ryerson have been engaged in studies on diversity and inclusion within Canadian society for the project. Earlier this year, the school hosted a Canadian citizenship ceremony, learned about the country’s climatic zones and landscapes, studied prominent Canadians (such as Senator Murray Sinclair, Louis Riel, and Roberta Bondar), and analyzed Canadian immigration policies.

"We learned that every Canadian has a background from diversity and everyone is different," Adegbosin, 12, said. "I learned that no matter who you are you can make a life in Canada."

Grade 6 student Hailey Bazan said her class talked about how historically some groups of people were discriminated against by Canada’s immigration policy based on religion and ethnicity.

DANIELLE DA SILVA - SOU'WESTER Pictured from left are students Kyara Collingwood, Udochukwu Okoluem and Daria Lissits as they work on their contribution to the school’s parade float, a globe covered with tracings of students from each classroom.

"Immigration was very different back then," Bazan said.

She and her peers participated in a mock immigration process and learned about the point system and received identity cards and visas.

Sheena Braun, principal at Ryerson School, said hosting a citizenship ceremony resonated with students and brought the idea of diversity and inclusion home for many.

"It was very important because many of the students have been through that or they’re working towards becoming Canadian citizens," Braun explained. During the ceremony, two students shared their experience of immigrating to Canada and the reception they received.

"One girl talked about the fact when she arrived in Canada and arrived at Ryerson School in Grade 1, she was so worried about being different," Braun said. "When she got to the classroom people were talking different languages, people looked different and there were even different food smells at lunch time.

"She said ‘I knew I was going to belong.’"

In other schools across Pembina Trails, students also studied the topics of environment and sustainable development, and reconciliation of Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. Based on their studies, a book of promises has been created by students to make Canada a better place. The book will be unveiled at Investors Group Field.

The community is invited to take in the students’ work from 6 to 8 p.m. at Investors Group Field (315 Chancellor Matheson Rd.).

Facebook.com/TheSouwesterWPG

Twitter: @SouwesterWPG