Leah Warkinton, Chanelle Nicholson and Kelly Johansen,  worked on  revamping Catch the Spirit program – photo 250News.

Prince George, B.C.-It is called,  “Catch the Spirit”  a free teaching resource designed by teachers, for teachers all across Canada.

Designed for students from kindergarten through grade 8, the program uses five  themes to have students celebrate and learn about the Canada Games no matter what their level of sport.

The five themes  are :

• Unifying Canada
• Healthy Living and Sport
• Official languages
• Arts and Culture
• Goals and Leadership

The program  has been in existence for some time, but,  was in need of an update.  Eight teachers with  School District 57 worked together to streamline and upgrade the  program. So what’s been changed?  “Everything, it is nothing like the old one” says Leak Warkinton, one of the teachers who helped revamp the program.

“We wanted to make a resource that teachers look at  and its clear, it’s straight forward, it’s consistent, something you  can easily adopt into your classroom” says  Heather Park Principal  Kelly Johansen.  She says the  new program was peer-reviewed by educators across Canada to ensure it will integrate into  existing curricula nation-wide.

Warkinton  is  proud of the final product “It’s exciting to think teachers across Canada will be using this”.

Catch the Spirit had not been updated for at least 6 years says 2015 Games CEO Stu Ballantyne “We always said we would take everything from Sherbrooke (the last Games Host) and pass it on  to Winnipeg (the next Games Host)  in  better condition and this is one of those projects.”