National Aboriginal Day

Today we celebrated Aboriginal Education. Although the name may be changing, the goal of the day – to celebrate and acknowledge the first people on this land, remains the same. Mrs. Keiver put together a fantastic morning of activities complete with games, stories, art projects, and yummy bannock.
Which station did you enjoy the most?

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Heartbeat

To celebrate Earth Day this year our school met up with the neighbouring K-3 school where we played our drums, all made out of recycled materials, together. All 360 students played the heartbeat and some other beats as well. It was a very special experience. A big thank you to Mrs. Driscoll and Mrs. Keiver for making this happen!

What is your favourite beat to play on your drum?

How can you do something to take care of the Earth?

Little Drummer Boys and Girls

This week we started to make our drums for our upcoming Earth Day celebration. We are making the drums and mallets all from recycled materials! They sound great. We hope you can join us for our drumming circle on Friday, April 21! Stay tuned to see how they turn out!

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How are we making our drums? What symbols are you using on your drum and why?

Have you ever made a musical instrument out of recycled materials before? If you have, what was it?

A Special Visitor

We had the privilege of having a member from the Ktunaxa Nation visit our classroom this week!

Bonnie told us how to say a few words in the Ktunaxa language and also how to say the word, Ktunaxa properly:

For more examples of this language, check out the First Voices website 🙂

What story did Bonnie share with us? Did she read it from a book or how did she tell it?

Have you ever been to the Ktunaxa reserve?

How Raven’s Feathers Turned Black

We got to enjoy the beautiful outdoors by taking our nature journals out to the outdoor classroom. Here we like to sketch, colour, or write about the nature we see around us.

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After, Mrs. Sharpe told us an interesting Aboriginal legend about how Raven’s feathers turned black. Next, we got to play a game based on the story.

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Here is another version of how Raven’s feathers turned black:

Which version of how Raven’s feathers turned black do you like best? Have you heard any other versions?

How do you play the game that went along with this legend? How could we change the game to make it last longer?

The Legend of the Talking Stick

As has become tradition in our class at the beginning of the year, today Mrs. Keiver joined us to create a talking stick for our class. She shared this Aboriginal story with us about the talking stick:

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Next, we each got to choose an item to add to our diamond willow stick.

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This talking stick is special to our class and will be useful during class discussions and meetings. I can’t wait to try it out!

What did you add to our talking stick?

Arctic Way of Life

We have been learning all about the arctic this month in Social Studies. Ms. Sorenson brought in some interesting things for us to check out from her family, including a polar bear claw and a whale’s tooth! Mrs. Keiver has been sharing stories about the Inuit people and also about polar bears.

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What was your favourite thing that Mrs. Sorenson brought in?

Which part of “Growing Up Arctic” have you liked the best? Penguin or Polar Bear? Or would you like to see the Walrus or Seal?

Ktunaxa Study

Our class has been studying the Ktunaxa culture in Social Studies. Mrs. Keiver led an art project with our class to look at animals in our local area using the Ktunaxa language. Each student chose an animal to draw. Next, we crumpled up the paper to resemble deer skin. We have also been visiting the First Voices website to help our understanding of the language. Check it out!

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Which animal did you choose?

What have you learned about the Ktunaxa culture?