School is coming to an end for the Christmas holidays. For PLP students, this means going all out to finish an outstanding final project. Our class has been learning about the Canadians identity before, after and during the First World War. We have been learning about the soldiers emotions, looking at what goes on in the mind of a soldier. Finding out the environment of war. Seeing who led what, who was allied with each other, and the cause. Learning how Canada became the country it is today. And what better way to show our learning than to create an immersive exhibition on Canada’s growing identity.

Our class was divided into 5 different groups showing different stages from the 1900s to the late 1930s. As you began the exhibition, you first walked through pre-war. At the end of pre-war you signed up to join World War One. After joining the war you walked through the trenches during wartime. When leaving the trenches you walked through the conscription stage. After losing your voice to booing Robert Borden off the podium, you then moved onto post war, where discrimination to women was huge. As you finish walking through post war you end up in the depression, where you work your behind off to make money.

My group was the trench group. By far I think we had the hardest one. We had to make a trench people can walk through and feel like they’re in a war environment. With only about 30 giant boxes that had to be fully painted, our group successfully pulled of an amazing trench. Especially with only about a week to do it. My group consisted of some of the most hard working students in PLP, Marley Harman, Michael Fourie, Nash Jacoe, and Mike Crema. Our group together went above and beyond to make life like trench. We stacked two boxes on top of each other about 6″ high. We painted the boxes all black with some some brown paint we pretty much threw at it. Mike had built a go kart a few years ago, so we put some cardboard around it, painted it green, and turned it into a mobile tank. The people walking through loved it. We all had certain parts in our exhibition. Michael Fourie was a general who toured the people around the trenches. Mike Crema was our mechanic and tank driver. Marley Harman and myself were soldiers on there downtime playing cards and smoking cigarettes. Nash Jacoe was our medic in his tent with his morphine and other tools.

If any one of our group members wasn’t apart of this, our project wouldn’t have been even close to as good it was. I wish we had more time to work on this so we could make it absolutely perfect. But with the time that we had I think we did an amazing job. The whole exhibition itself was great. Every group put hard effort and care into their project and it turned out astoundingly. This exhibition made our way of learning more clear and fun. It made me understand what I was learning because I felt like I was a Canadian soldier in the trenches.