Some Castlegar kindergartners have been getting skating lessons from their local hockey heroes.
Kindergarten students from Kinnaird Elementary spent Tuesday morning on the ice with the Castlegar Rebels, who helped the kids learn to skate and whisked them around the ice on chairs.
“They’re so excited,” said Elaine Pilla, kindergarten teacher. “Some of them are extremely nervous of course, but we had one girl last week where she wanted nothing to do [with them], she was so shy, and then by the end of the hour session she had a Rebel that was helping her skate along the ice.”
The skating sessions are part of the school’s Learn to Skate program.
“[It] just provides an opportunity for both of the kindergarten classes to play together. Kindergarten is all about play based learning, so it develops friendship, … as well as the skating skills,” said Pilla.
Though the kindergartners will only have three sessions in total, their skills are already improving.
“The development of these kids within three sessions is absolutely amazing,” said Pilla.
“It’s good to see that the kids are improving,” said Carson Wornig, captain of the Rebels. “It’s really fun. It’s nice see that they enjoy having us out here.”
Pilla was impressed with the way this year’s Rebels team interacted with the kids.
“All of [the Rebels] have been really good, but this group in particular, they just seem to gravitate towards the kids, and start talking to them and asking them questions,” she said. “It’s just a really, really neat program to have them interact with each other.”