The Lucknow Sentinel, 2016-02-17, Page 1The
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Wednesday, February 17, 2016
Darryl Coote/Reporter
When teacher Khushbu Masrani's Grade 2/3 class first learned about the Syrian refugees relocating to Canada they took it upon themselves to make them posters to welcome them to their new county.
Ripley -Huron Community School students ready to welcome Syrian refugees
Darryl Coote
Reporter
It started with a YouTube
video and grew from there.
Ripley -Huron Community
School Teacher Khushbu
Masrani is no stranger to
showing her Grade 2-3 split -
class students news reel clips,
but when she showed them
one of Prime Minister Justin
Trudeau welcoming Syrian
refugees to Canada, it
sparked a sense of curiosity
in her kids.
"I showed them the You -
Tube video and they were
[asking me] why are they
leaving their country?"
The clip spurred a conver-
sation about the civil war in
Syria and the unrest millions
of its citizens are fleeing.
"I talked to them about the
war that is happening in
Syria and showed them
some before and after pic-
tures of Syria," she said.
Her students, who range
in age from 7-9, were begin-
ning to understand, she said,
the reasons they would leave
their country of birth.
Coincidentally, the Grade
2 curriculum has a unit on
worldwide communities that
asks for the students to com-
pare themselves with some-
one the same age from
another part of the world.
"And they compared their
lifestyle with a Syrian kid,"
Masrani said. "So they got to
know how different it is
because they are living in
refugee camps."
And that's how the con-
versation started, she said.
From there, the students
learned that Syrians were
coming to Canada as
refugees.
"And after that I said 'Why
don't we welcome them to
our country too?" she said.
A1119 of her students then
took up their coloured pen-
cils to etch out posters to
welcome Syrian refugees to
Canada.
"I'm welcoming them to
Canada so they can be free
and not in the war where it's
all dangerous," Msaon Keru-
ager, 7, said while pointing out
his poster from the other 18.
"There's a war going on
there," he said matter-of-
factly, "and so Justin trudeau
said he'd take in the one's
with kids and the seniors."
Jett Kittmer used his
poster to highlight the
opportunities Syrian refu-
gees in Canada can enjoy.
"The reason I think they
should be here is because
they should ... not be in the
war. And they'd be in peace
here and not in a great war.
... they should be free to join
archery sports, hockey, do
basketball, do hockey. They
should be able to have great
opportunities," he said.
When asked if Masrani
planned on giving the students
posters to Syrian refugees
when they arrive, she said she
wasn't sure how to arrange
that, but that's the plan.
"I'm still looking into it
Cause I know some refugees
are coming in this area;" she
said.
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