Grade 6 students learn in intergenerational classroom at long-term care facility in Saskatoon

You don't typically get this kind of wisdom in a Grade 6 classroom.

"Any card game you're playing, you've got to play it without too much emotion," saidBob Gourley to a table full of girls who are in the midst of playing a game to learn math skills at Sherbrooke Community Centre, a long-term care facility in Saskatoon.

You learn about other people and you get to hang out with elders or people that aren't your age... and it's really, really fun.- AmeliaMackenzie

The group is part of an intergenerational classroom called iGen.Gourlayis a community day program participant. The Grade 6 girls are at school.

"The more emotional you get, the more likely it is you're going to lose," Gourlay.

• Sherbrooke care home keeps seniors active, creative

A selected group of Grade 6 students spend one year learning in the long-term care facility, surrounded by elders.

The goal of the program is for kids to have close and continuous relationships with elders and residents who have different abilities.

"You learn about other people and you get to hang out with elders or people that aren't your age... and it's really, really fun," said Amelia Mackenzie.

"Kids are in conversation with elders, they are playing games with each other, they are catching up with each other, visiting, so there's lots of comradery that happens through their time together," said KeriAlbert, the lead teacher of the iGen program.

The students have told Albertthey are more likely to talk to people who are different than them.They also find it easier to relate to people of different ages, and many say they really enjoy the friendship and stories.

Grade 6 student Maria Wagner said the most important thing she has learned is not to judge people for the way they look.

"Before iGen, if I saw someone out on the street in a wheelchair, you'd kind of stare at them, but now that I have been in Sherbrooke this year, you don't really notice it anymore," said Wagner.

Albert said the elders light up each time the students spend time with them.

"They talk about the energy the kids bring to their interactions, they talk about the friendship they have. They talk about that the kids see them as an individual and as a human being and that they don't really look at the physical characteristics or challenges that that individual face."

Mackenzie said both generations benefit.

"It's sort of a trade, like, you can teach an elder something and they can teach you something, too so you're trading."