Water Wonders: Where Did All the Salmon Go?

On one of our walks in the forest the children were keen to have me read the signs along the way. When we came to Musqueam creek there were signs informing of the salmon habitat.

"Where did all the salmon go?" wondered Ryleigh

Musqueam Creek is Vancouver’s last wild salmon stream supporting runs of wild Coho, Chum and Cutthroat Trout. It is estimated that at one time this system supported returns of more than 300 Coho per year. Today returns are much smaller hovering around 50 Coho per year.  

The children are curious about where the creek goes and where the salmon are and so we've begun to investigate the salmon life cycle and will be exploring the role salmon and the Fraser River play in the lives of the Musqueam people who live in our community. 

 

The children watched the story Sammy the Salmon Youtube 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvsSXhDjMmI  

and made salmon puppets, using only black and red like many of the drawings we researched beforehand. They used their puppets to dance the salmon dance.