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Springs has sprung, and this means that many non-human beings are waking up, and welcoming us back to the natural world. These lessons take different understandings of Indigenous understandings in nature, and relate them to the Elementary program. Spring time is the perfect time to get outdoors and explore after the long cold winter.
This Video is for Teachers, more so, to understand more about Strawberry Teachings
This Video is for Teachers, more so, to understand more about Strawberry Teachings
K4/5: Strawberries
K4/5: Strawberries
The spring time is when things are starting to wake up; strawberries are considered the leaders of the fruit as they are the first to appear, and the rest of the berries follow. These invitations allow for young children to explore an important food in Indigenous cultures.
Invitation 1: Walk outside! I can especially attest to the fact that in the end of May and in June, there are small patches of wild strawberries that grow along the bike-path in Chateauguay, so exploring and looking for them can be a fun opportunity. But also, allowing the children to explore their natural surroundings is fun and exploratory.
Invitation 2: Across the community of Kahnawà:ke, you can always find strawberry juice; it's a simple creation that is loved by everyone. The children can help with the process, crushing the strawberries with their hands or a masher, and they can all enjoy this healthy drink: Strawberry Drink Recipe
Invitation 3: Counting the seeds with strawberries is a good way for children to explore strawberries and develop their counting skills. Here is an activity instructions for children to make their own numbered strawberries
Strawberry Songs to teach in Circle: Click here
Grade 1: Permission of the Fireflies
Grade 1: Permission of the Fireflies
With the spring time comes the opportunity for all of the plants to grow in the natural world; some of those plants that we pass everyday in the our yards and parks can actually be used as medicine. A teaching that I've heard from my elders is that you are not supposed to begin picking medicine until the fireflies come out; that is the signal that the plants are ready for their final job.
As a class, you can bring your students out to observe all different kinds of plants that are growing in their environment; in April, May and June, there may not be fireflies yet, and so you can teach the children not to pick any until they see them.
Together you could make medicine, or you could create a display together with the class of many different plants that you can find in your own environment that are medicine, and have each of the children create a firefly and a plant they saw outside; the display can teach other students in the school that they shouldn't be picking anything from the ground until they see the fireflies!
During quiet time, you can also play the Firefly experience with the lights off so that the children can experiene the fireflies twinkling in their classroom. More Firefly Soundscapes
Activity Making Spruce Gum & Indigenous teachings: Click here for Lesson Plan
Firefly Art Ideas: Click here
Picture Book: Sam and the Firefly
Extra Resources:
https://blog.mountainroseherbs.com/herbal-activities-for-children
Grade 2: Butterflies
Grade 2: Butterflies
Exploring butterflies from Indigenous perspectives is a beautiful starting place in grade 2 for the spring awakening. Exploring the developmental stages of butterflies with students using the medicine wheel is a way to explore Indigenous understandings of butterflies. Link for document on that can be found here
Activity 1: Butterfly Life Cycle: Students can create visuals of butterfly life cycles. Activity here
Activity 2: Exploring the Anishnaabe story of Nanabush and the Butterflies. Lesson plan and resources can be found here
Activity 3: Walking! Taking students out to spaces in the spring time where they are exposed to nature can allow them to explore what kind of butterflies are in their natural surroundings. There is a laminated Quebec butterfly species chart that you can purchase for your class to be able to do some butterfly identification together. You can also follow long with some of these class made guides available at this link here
Field Trip Idea: Taking students to the Insectarium in Montreal is a way for them to explore more butterflies and other insects; in the south shore, at the cross of the 10/30, there is also Bfly. This center is an immersive experience for children to explore butterflies among other child-oriented activities. Finally, Ferme Guyon in Chambly has a butterfly pavillon that can be added to a field trip itinerary as well.
Resources:
https://www.natgeokids.com/uk/discover/animals/insects/butterfly-life-cycle/
https://m.espacepourlavie.ca/en/insects-arthropods/monarch
https://birdwatchinghq.com/butterflies-in-quebec/
https://davidsuzuki.org/story/the-butterflyway-story/
https://resources4rethinking.ca/en/resource/nanabosho-and-the-butterflies
Grade 3: Sugar Moon Teachings & Legends
Grade 3: Sugar Moon Teachings & Legends
Anishinaabeg culture has stories and teachings related to the first people to make maple syrup, and how sap was discovered. There are some videos related to this including the story of Nanabush and the sweetwater. There are already designed lesson plans below that relate to math ( which is not listed in the QEP section of this website): Indigenous Lesson Plan: Tapping Trees and Maple
For this grade, I would consider the story as a part of a storytelling unit. You could have the children determine what the moral of the story is and what part of history are they teaching ( aka how maple came to be); you could review other Indigenous legends about animals coming to be or otherwise, and then have the children write their own stories of "coming to", asking them to include a lesson in it.
Field Trip Idea: This is an excellent opportunity to either visit a sugar shack to observe the process of how it's made OR you could try to visit the sweet beaver maple production on the reserve : Read article here
Extra Reading:
https://grasac.artsci.utoronto.ca/?p=136
https://thekidshouldseethis.com/post/making-maple-sugar-anishinaabe-tradition-video
https://gwentuinman.com/2014/03/11/maple-syrup-a-sweet-lesson-from-the-first-nations/
Grade 4: Opening the Gardens
Grade 4: Opening the Gardens
At this level, it is an important opportunity to learn about the Indigenous agricultural practices and connections to gardening from the past and present (especially after learning about the sedentary and nomadic nations of Quebec in grade 3). Students can explore different types of soil properties to fullfill their science requirements, but can also do some planting and community work along the way.
Activity 1: Understanding soil properties and testing the soil in different ways can help students to understand what is needed in order for a crop to be successful. There are a number of soil experiements that can be done here . An added element is to explore different videos or guest speakers from Indigenous communities about the practices that different Indigenous people take in order to have successful growth.
Activity 2: Planting is important, and while the students may not get to see the whole process of their planting as it grows throughout the summer time when they aren't in school, a project that the class could undertake is to create a stock of seed starters. The students can be responsible for starting different kinds of vegetables and herbs that are popular for people to plant, and following the end of their school year, when people start planting, they can either sell them as a small fundraiser to the community or they can give them away. Tomotoes, cucumbers, cabbages, different herbs; this is an opportunity for the students to be able to be able to contirbute to a more social movement of food sovereignty. They can also create cards that explain how to take care of the plants for their future owners, and attach those to the plants.
Activity 3: Learning how to plant a 3-sisters garden, which is something that my ancestors have been doing for a very long time, cna be very rewarding and interactive for students to be able to connect to the teachings of the land that they are on. There are a number of activities that you can do around the 3 sisters integrated garden found here if building a garden for your school isn't feasible. More 3 Sisters Garden Activities
Resources:
https://seewhatgrows.org/seeds-of-inspiration/
Grade 5: Goose Hunt in the North
Grade 5: Goose Hunt in the North
Geese are something that we see come and go every year with the seasons, but they are a major part of culture in Quebec's northern Indigenous communities; they are relied upon for food, and are the reason that many communities take goose break in the spring; a time for the whole community to go out on the land and hunt some of their food for the summer ahead.
There are several ways in which you can explore the goose hunt, one of the most interesting ways is to literally learn about bird migratory paths, and the seasons with which they move, and perhaps how the shift in climate is changing the timeframe of the goose migration.
Activity 1: Learning together about the goose hunt for Indigenous communities can be important; learning traditional knowledge is not something that is always considered "academic" or pertinent to school. Students could design their own curriculum with survival tips, and other skills that they value so imagine a school that is open to any and all cultural ways of life.
Activity 2: Students can go for walks (my favorite activity) and make observations about where they see geese. Were they observed flying over head in a V formation? Where they hanging out by the river? How many were there? All of this data collection around the geese can be crowd sourced into a map online for the students to visualize their data collection. National Geographic has a map making website, and the I'm sure there are others that I don't know about that could be help ful as well.
Activity 3: Lessons from the Geese campaign for the school. Here are some lessons from geese that are outlined in a nice document; if you brainstorm with students after learning about the migration process, they will be able to also figure out other lessons. Students can create a campaign poster ( in groups, or solo) highlighting some of the lessons from the Geese that can be used in our classrooms, on the playground and in our lives. They can even make a plan about geese, if you wanted to extend that far, to teaching their younger peers about teamwork and commitment to community.
Resources:
NFB Film Modern Goose : A Film about Geese living in our human world.
NFB Film The Owl who Married a Goose : Discussions around the use of terms Eskimo and Inuit.
https://airtunilik.com/en/what-is-goose-break-holiday-in-canada/
https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/goose-break-cree-tradition-goes-back-centuries-1.2630520
https://www.audubon.org/news/for-these-cree-first-nations-canada-geese-are-central-cultural-revival
https://cssspnql.com/en/hunting-fishing-and-trapping-a-tradition-that-is-still-very-much-alive/
Christi Belcourt Artwork
Grade 6: Relationships with Nature
Grade 6: Relationships with Nature
In Grade 6, this is an opportunity to work on developing their relationships witht he natural world in a more impactful way. Students at all grade levels enjoy walking, and so when spring comes, I encourage people to take their classes out as often as possible. Having students learn their surroundings in their neighbourhoods.
Activity 1: Nature comes through in all kinds of Indigenous artwork and symbolism. Alot of this has to do with the different cultures innate connection to the natural world. Teaching students about Metis Arts form of pointillism is a good place to start. The students can create their own artwork inspired by this style (there are links below with ideas). You can pair this with the walking aspect mentioned above where students can choose a scene or a specific tree/plant that they've observed on their walk and can use that as their base for their artowrk. One of the aspects of Metis dot art is that there is usually a sense of symmetry involved int he pearn, and on each side, there are some small details that differ.
Activity 2: Exploring some of the environmental issues that exist across the province is an opportunity to explore now just Indigenouse relationships with the natural world, but also all human interactions. In relation to Science and CCQ, it is possible for students to do group projects on some of the environmental injustices that exist within the province of Quebec, emphasis on the environmental impact humans have, and how this inadvertently affects other humans. Students could create campaign posters or booths to teach their peers. The Suzuki Foundation has Quebec specific resources here
Resources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gktriwbs2x4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpPifyQ797k
https://www.leahdorion.ca/gallery_relatives_with_roots.html
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