In humanities this week, students learned that the foundation of First Nations cultures is through oral tradition. Within this tradition, storytelling is the primary means of passing culture from generation to generation. Those responsible for passing on the stories and keeping the oral tradition alive are the Elders. Storytelling is an art that First Nations peoples have used for centuries as a way to entertain, convey information, resolve conflicts, and teach important values. Students listened to the stories “Two Birds” and “How Turtle Got Its Shell” and reflected on the events and lessons in them with writing & drawing tasks, and discussion as a whole group. Students also formed small groups and were given three different First Nation stories to read together and reflect on the lessons taught in each of them. Students will be practicing the art of oral storytelling next Monday when they share a family story with their peers. A letter about this went home on Thursday and is attached below. Students were told to practice their story multiple times over the weekend so they were confident and ready to present on Monday. Today, students started working on a design challenge that each class in grade four will be working towards in the next couple of weeks. Their goal is to design and build a more inclusive playground that is inviting to people of all ages and abilities. Students started the design process by viewing photos and videos of inclusive parks. They visited our current play structure and interviewed myself & Mr. Baker to assist them in designing an inclusive playground that is functional and appealing for all ability levels and age ranges. We also had some special guests at the end of the day. Grade 8 students visited our classrooms to share their Aztec stories which the students really enjoyed!
We are also finishing the last week of February with NCS Spirit week! There will be daily activities as listed below: Monday – Twin Day Tuesday – PJ Day Wednesday – Pink Shirt Day/Hitman Hockey Game Thursday – Dress Like Your Favourite Meme Day (must be appropriate) Enjoy your weekend! —Ms. Jagger
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It was a busy short week as there is no school on Thursday and Friday due to Teacher Convention. Paper copies of report cards went home on Monday and the signed envelope should be returned to school. Students enjoyed the dance/activity afternoon on Wednesday, and decorating pysanky eggs in the morning! In humanities, students continued reading our novel study “Owls in the Family” and only have two chapters left. We can’t wait to see how the story of Wol and Weeps will end, as it has been a funny & heartwarming journey so far! We also looked at ways First Nations groups used pictures and images to communicate their way of life and major events in their past. We learned that Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park contains 90% petroglyphs (stone carvings) and 10% pictographs (painted images). Visual pictures were also displayed on story robes and on teepees. These images and oral stories were the main ways First Nations culture was passed down from generation to generation. We viewed some of these pictures and were able to see animals, teepees & weapons depicting hunts and battles. Students were shown some additional images and what they meant, and then tried “writing” their own story using these symbols. They were to imagine they went out on a successful buffalo hunt and to retell what happened through just pictures. Students shared their stories with one another, and they were very successful in being able to decode the story events! We also used pictures and images to decorate our pysanky eggs on Wednesday morning. Students learned about the meaning of specific images and what they represented. For example, flowers symbolize love, charity & good will; deer and horses symbolize a wish for good health, wealth & prosperity; and the sun and stars symbolize life itself, growth & good fortune. Our guest speaker Jean also showed us a set of eggs decorated with NHL logos! Students decided what image they wanted to draw on one side of their egg, and then used a kistka instrument and beeswax to trace them. Multiple layers of dye and beeswax were used to create a colourful design! Jean will be soaking off the beeswax and varnishing the eggs this weekend and will be returning them to us after the long weekend. Please bring in a container to transport your egg safely home on Tuesday. A big thank-you to all the parent volunteers who were able to help us out in the classroom!
Have a great long weekend!! —Ms. Jagger It was a cold and busy week at Nose Creek! Just a reminder that forms & payment are due next Wednesday for our field trip to the Hitmen game on February 27th. Report card marks are currently on-line in PowerSchool and paper copies will be distributed on Monday. Next week will also be a short week with no school on Thursday & Friday (teacher convention), and on Monday (Family Day). There will a dance & activity afternoon on Wednesday (the cost for the dance is $2 & tickets will be on sale next week), and 4C was given a list of class names today if they want to hand out valentines after lunch on the 13th. As well, the new deadline to buy a school yearbook is now February 24th. Both classes are looking forward to our upcoming visit from Mrs. Richardson on Wednesday morning as she will be teaching us about Ukrainian pysanky eggs! In humanities, we discussed how in the late 1800s & early 1900s, thousands of new immigrants were coming to Alberta. The Ukrainians were the second-biggest group of settlers to come to Alberta other than the British, and many settled in the parkland region as it reminded them of home. The Ukrainians knew a lot about farming and coal mining, so they made a big contribution to Alberta. Students will be able to decorate their own egg and learn about this Easter tradition! Also in humanities this week, we continued learning about the First Nation groups of Alberta. We looked closer at the Woodland Cree & Dene Tha’ that live in the Boral Forest, and the Dene Suline that live in the Canadian Shield. The land provided them with fish, moose, caribou, elk, and many other animals native to these regions. Hunters were taught respect for the land and the life that lived on it. Students learned how to build a teepee by using an interactive site. They kept track of the steps in their writing journal and worked on making each step specific so if someone was reading their directions, they would be able to set up a teepee easily. Both classes also worked on some research by working on a tic-tac-toe assignment. They picked a specific First Nations group of their choice and researched provided topics to complete one row, column or diagonal for tic-tac-toe! At the end of the week, students completed a visual journal double page with a completed map showing where each group lived, and a couple of facts & illustrations they learned about each on the accompanying page. We will finish these up next week. We also discussed how the cultures of the First Nations have been passed down from generation to generation, and some of the ways this has happened. One way is through traditional knowledge through oral teaching & stories, often by Elders of each nation. Another way is through pictographs (painting on stone) & petroglyphs (an image carved, incised or scratched into stone). We watched a video about Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park, a sacred and spiritual place, that contains paintings & carved images in the rock with some being thousands of years old. These carvings show important events in the lives of the people that lived nearby and can tell us a lot about past events. Another way we can learn about Alberta’s history is through the finding of artifacts which can build a picture of how people may have lived in the past. We will be going into more depth on these topics in the coming weeks.
Have a wonderful weekend and stay warm!! —Ms. Jagger Below are some websites to help guide your research for the First Nations tic-tac-toe activity:
First Nations Tic-tac-toe Research Sites: Blackfoot (Kainai, Piikani, Siksika) https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/blackfoot-nation https://www.warpaths2peacepipes.com/indian-tribes/blackfoot-tribe.htm https://www.ducksters.com/history/native_americans/blackfoot_nation.php Cree (Woodland or Plains) https://www.ducksters.com/history/native_americans/cree_tribe.php https://www.warpaths2peacepipes.com/indian-tribes/cree-tribe.htm http://www.bigorrin.org/cree_kids.htm Dunne-za https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/article/beaver-native-group Tsuu T’ina https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/sarcee-tsuu-tina Nakoda https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/stoney-nakoda http://www.rockymountainnakoda.com/who-we-are Complete the on-line activity below. In your writing journal, write the step-by-step directions on how to build a teepee correctly. When done, write three additional things you learned about teepees from completing the activity.
http://www.learnalberta.ca/content/wonbt/html/index.html In humanities, we started the week with students presenting their research to Ms. Moneybags about the importance of our fossil heritage in Alberta. Presentations were well done and Ms. Moneybags was so impressed that she sent a video response to students on Thursday that she would leave her money to the Royal Tyrrell Museum! We also started learning about the First Nations people who were the first to live on the land that became Alberta. Students learned that each nation is different and has its own unique culture & its own language. We went over the main cultural groups and where they live in Alberta. These groups include the Nakoda; the Woodland Cree; the Plains Cree; the Tsuu T’ina; the Siksika, the Piikani & the Kainai (Blackfoot); the Dene Suline; the Dunne-za; and the Dene Tha’. We have started learning about each of these nations in more depth. This week we looked closer at the Nakoda who lived in the Rocky Mountains & Foothills, the Blackfoot who lived in the Grasslands, and the Plains Cree who lived in the Parkland region. These were migratory people who moved according to the seasons & their food source. For the Blackfoot & the Plains Cree this was primarily the buffalo. Students learned about how they hunted bison including using buffalo pounds and buffalo jumps. The buffalo was greatly respected and almost every part was used in some way, from food, to clothing, to travel, and much more. We also learned about their portable shelters called teepees (or tipis). They were easy to move and fit their nomadic lifestyle. Teepees were warm in winter, cool in summer, and protected against the strong Prairie winds. We learned about Blackfoot teepee designs before students made their own miniature version. The bottom of a teepee represents the Earth, the middle represents animal spirits, and the top represents the sky. On Thursday, students received a letter for our upcoming school-wide field trip to the Saddledome for the “Be Brave” Hitman hockey game on Wednesday, February 27th. Please return the form & payment by February 13th. Yearbooks are also currently on sale with the deadline for purchasing a book being Tuesday, February 12th—a great keepsake of their year for students! 4C & 4D will also be having an upcoming guest visit on Wednesday, February 13th. We will be making Ukrainian pysanky eggs! We will be requiring some parent volunteers to help us out in the morning (2 sessions—4D from 8:30 to 10:10, and 4C from 10:20 to 12:00). If you are a registered volunteer and able to help us out in the morning, please contact myself or Mr. Baker. Stay warm this weekend! —Ms. Jagger |
If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact me at:
[email protected] Submit assignments to: [email protected] Archives
June 2019
CategoriesResources for Practice
Reading: ReadTheory TumbleBooks Word Activities: Sight Word Bingo Sight Word Game Letter Blocks Bookworm TextTwist Coconut Vowels Word Toss Spelling: Spelling Practice Spelling Spree Story Writing: Story Writing Game Create your own Comic Storyboard Creator Poetry: Poetry Tools Rhyming Dictionary |