From School Bus to Stanley Cup: A Grade 2 Class' Big Score
By Danielle Klatchuk, RAM Learning Team
May 2, 2025
Field trips are the best type of chaos! Take yourself back to grade school, and the bubbly feeling of excitement that only riding a yellow school bus to visit a new place can bring.
My favourite part of being an educator at RAM is when students first turn the corner and enter our lobby space... giant mammoths, a plane hanging from the ceiling, an Albertosaurus skeleton. There’s always this collective gasp and moment of wonder. You can’t help but smile, the kids’ energy is infectious!
Sometimes little learners ask the biggest questions
During a very cold week in February, I hosted a Grade 2 class from St. Paul Elementary School for a program called Museum School. The Grade 2’s focus or BIG question for the week was “how do different identities build a community?” We got to visit the museum collection spaces, meet with curators and special guests, and this class even got to go to City Hall to learn more about Edmonton as a community. It was a jam-packed week, and I loved watching their moments of wonder, learning, and curiosity!
As I got to know the kids, I learned they were big sports fans. For one of our lessons, I brought them to the Oilers story case in RAM’s Human History Gallery. Harking back to the weeks BIG question, the class and I chatted about Edmontonians becoming a community when cheering for the Oilers and how sports often form a large part of our identity.
Except the kids pointed out that the exhibit did not talk about their own identities as Oilers fans. Questions such as “Where are McDavid or Draisaitl?” or “Why are there no objects from the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs?” were exclaimed. As an avid Oilers fan myself, I shared many of their feelings about the community impact of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs, which gave me many new grey hairs but also some long-lasting memories. As a museum, we try to collect objects that tell a story of a moment in time. While it’s impossible to truly capture the incredible feeling of being in Edmonton during a Stanley Cup run, collecting stories like this help us speak to the wider community of our province, and how we come together during these big moments.
This sparked an idea: could the students find a way to help us tell the story of the Oilers’ 2024 Stanley Cup playoff run? Ms. Stachniak and I started planning an inquiry-based project focusing on identity, community building, museum practices, and for the Grade 2’s to practice their writing skills. Our mission: get the Oilers to donate to the museum!
Scoring a major win for RAM’s collection and preserving Alberta history
The Grade 2’s wrote a letter to the Oilers asking for items relating to the playoffs, community building, and the city’s ‘loyal to the oil’ collective identity. (They may have also asked for a pizza party with Connor McDavid, but we had to curb those expectations.) Once they got back to their classroom at St. Paul, the kids walked to the neighbourhood mailbox and sent their letter.
To our surprise, the Oilers Entertainment Group (OEG) responded! OEG gifted three items: a practice puck from Game 6 of the Stanley Cup final in Edmonton, an orange pom pom, and a metal fan cup. We were thrilled! The items perfectly tell the story of the playoffs, not only from the perspective of the game itself but also the fan experiences in the stands or fan park.
In April 2025, Jillian Richardson, Curator of Labour and Industry and I visited the Grade 2’s at St. Paul. All the kids were dressed in their Oilers gear ready to cheer on the team for this upcoming playoff season. During our visit, we officially accepted their donation into the Museum, which expands our collection and preserves a legacy of fans and an iconic moment in Oilers sport history.
A story to cheer about
This donation highlights how Albertans of all ages can contribute to the stories told in their provincial museum. And we can all agree, that is something to cheer about! Who knows, maybe this will be the start of an exhibit case on the next generation's Stanley Cup dynasty years. LET’S GO OILERS!
A special thank you to:
- St. Paul School and Ms. Laura Stachniak
- Louren Sansregret, Oilers Entertainment Group
- Julia Petrov and Jillian Richardson, RAM curatorial staff
Learn more about Inquiring Minds and Museum School here.