Pow Wow, Special Guest and Happy Summer!

It has been a fun filled last week of school in the 1-2s! It was great that many of you were able to go to the Pow Wow over the weekend to experience some of the music, dancing, traditions and crafts of Native American life from the past that continue to be cherished and practiced today. Check out the pictures below to get a glimpse of the festivities.

We were also very lucky to have a special guest visit our class - Little Mouse, who was one of the hosts of the Pow Wow. Barbara (Little Mouse is her Native American name) is of Blackfoot and Abenaki heritage and works with Maddie's mom (how lucky for us!).  She came wearing her regalia and brought regalia that she made her son and daughter when they were younger. Aiden P. and Katy got to be models to dress in the regalia and help act out some of the stories Little Mouse told about Gluskabe and Ash Face (a Native American Cinderella story). These stories were enjoyed by all of the kids who also liked to see not only the items of clothing, but how they would be worn. It took the mystery out of how a breech cloth was put on, for example.

Barbara also brought in lots of artifacts made by members of her family including a beautiful carved  wooden cradleboard and shaker rattles made from wood and horn. She explained to the students how mothers carry their babies in a cradle board on their backs so that their hands are be free to carry other items. Or, if a mother has work to do, she can hang the cradle board from a tree branch allowing her to still interact with her baby while she gets other tasks done. Barbara also shared how the lullaby Rock-a-Bye-Baby was an adaptation of a Native American song sung to babies which combined the Native American tune with English lyrics. This helped us better understand what the part about babies and boughs breaking! Check out pictures below from her visit to our classroom.

This is the last post from our eventful school year - hope you all have a fun-filled summer vacation!

Abby's representation of the story of Gluskabe and the creation of the world.

Second Round of Stations

With one week to go, we've just wrapped up our second round of Native American Study stations. In this set, students up their weaving skills using a challenging bead loom! We were impressed (and a little surprised in a good way) at the level of patience and frustration tolerance groups demonstrated. In fact, many kids are hoping to get a bead loom of their own to enjoy! Here is a link to the kind of loom we used if this is something your child is interested in -
 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004BNF8JA/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_awdb_py-9CbPG76RMJ

Groups also did some poetry writing. Each child made a revised version of a Chippewa poem about an animal. They could choose the animal they wanted to be the subject of their poem, but used the structure and style of the original poem. After they wrote their poems, they used scratch art paper to make an illustration for their work.

At our visual spatial station, kids created a shield from a cardboard circle. In reality, these shields would have been made from many, many layers of rawhide which would be protection from arrows though not later weaponry brought by the settlers. Kids chose a spirit animal to emblazon on their shield using cray-pas and added other decorative elements.

For gross motor/kinesthetic, the kids got a work out grinding corn! They each had a brief experience with this on our Drumlin Farm field trip, but now they had more time to really develop a system whereby they could get enough power to grind the corn without losing kernels to the ground (a tough balance). While they were excited to take home with "corn flour" to make nokahik with, we let them know that our stones and mortars and pestles had not been sterilized for cooking uses. They may ask to try to grind their own corn at home to bake with though...

At our games station, kids learned and played a new set of games. The first is a Native American version of Rock, Paper, Scissors called Tillikum, only the hand gestures represent fire, earth and water. Fire scorches earth and is represented with fingers held up like the flames of a fire. Water douses fire and is represented with a hand with fingers facing down (like a waterfall). Earth absorbs water and is represented by a flat hand held out. They really enjoyed playing this game and now use it as they would rocks, paper, scissors to settle disputes.

The new task at the musical station was to learn a traditional Native American chant that they practiced reciting to the accompaniment of traditional Native American drums, shakers and rattles.

Now all our efforts are on preparing and practicing for our showcase next Tuesday! Hope to see you there! Check out the pictures below for a little preview of coming attractions: