Mr. Child’s Return!

Posted on May 7, 2012 by mrswatson123

We would like to say Gilakas’la (thank you) to Mr. Child and his daughters for visiting our school last week. We have fond memories of their last visit and were very excited to welcome them to our school again.

Mr. Child and his daughters came to teach us about button blankets and to share the many beautiful blankets that belong to his family. Mr. Child taught as about the different symbols on the blankets, how they are made, and the special stories and traditions that are attached to them.

After lunch we all went down to the gym and got to learn more about the blankets, masks, and drums that Mr. Child brought with him. We got to pass the masks, drums, and regalia around for each student to touch. Mr. Child also told us some amazing stories that went with the masks he brought over. We especially liked the stories about Tsonokwa (Dzoo-noo-kwa), the Wild Woman of the Woods.

To wrap up a wonderful afternoon Mr. Child played one of his drums and sang a special thank you song for us. Then we all danced two dances together in a circle.

What an amazing day! Here are a few of our favourite parts:

Bradley-I like the button blankets and the masks.
Lily-I liked it when we were dancing around in the circle.
Sharon-When we were talking about carving it reminded me of my dad doing frog carvings.
Karin-I got to be partners with one of Caleb’s daughters, named Mariah.
Kennedy-At lunch, Natalya and Kiara told me about the dance we did.
Ana-At lunch I was showing the girls around the forest.
Jacob-I loved the button blankets. They were so cool. The button blanket with the eagle done in sequins was my favourite.
Solomon-I liked the story that Mr. Child told about the Tsonokwa (Dzoo-noo-kwa), the Wild Woman of the Woods.
Gwen-I liked how the blankets were all designed with the buttons and I liked the masks.
Sophie-I am part aboriginal, but I didn’t understand most of the kwakwala.
Quang-I liked the rattles because they have nice pictures on them.

We hope that Mr. Child, Mariah, Natalya, and Kiara will come back again soon!

Connecting with California

Posted on March 5, 2012 by mrswatson123

This post is long overdue, but things have been very busy in our classroom and Mrs. Watson was away a lot last week.

On February 26, when we invited some special guests into our classroom, we had a chance to Skype with our friends in Mrs. Yollis’ class in California. We got to know Mrs. Yollis and her students during the Our World, Our Stories project that we were both a part of in the fall. We were very excited to have a chance to connect with them again and to learn a little more about the United States and how it compares to Canada.

Before the call we spent time researching facts we could share and figuring out the different jobs we would have during the call. Here are some of our jobs:
Greeters-Lily and Jacob
Back Channel Recorders– Sophie and Kennedy
Note Taker– Karin (Good to have someone doing it the old fashioned way with pencil and paper just in case
Photographer-Trista
Videographer-Sharon
Fact Sharers– Karin, Mia, Sophie, Ana, Kennedy, and Quang

We opened the call by singing our verses of, Make New Friends, the song the classes involved in Our World, Our Stories sang as part of our final celebration. Here is a video of the whole song!

Next we shared information about our countries. Take a look at the cool facts we shared about Canada and how we compare to our friends in the United States:

Sohpie shared that Canada has an area of 9,984,670 square kilometres and Mia shared that America has an area of 9,826,675 square kilometres.

Karin shared that the population of Canada is 34,108,752. Even though we are a larger country than the United States, Trey shared that their population is approximately 313,000,000. Wow!

Quang shared that Canada is divided up into 10 provinces and Territories. Parsa explained that the United States is also divided up, but into 50 states.

Ana showed the picture she drew of our Canadian flag and explained that red and white are our colours and that the maple leaf is our emblem. Leila showed us the American flag and told us what the symbols on their flag stand for.

Kennedy shared that Canada has two national animals, the beaver and the Canadian horse. We found out from Madison that the bald eagle is America’s national bird (You can see a great clip of Madison demonstrating the bald eagle’s wingspan in the video from our Skype call below).

Mia shared a fun fact about Canada with our friends: Canadians eat more mac and cheese than any other country in the world. Matthew and Aidan told us about the highest and lowest points in North America, which both happen to be in the United States.

Here is a great video of some of the highlights of our Skype call. Great job, Sharon!

A huge thank you to Mrs. Yollis and her students for helping us to learn more about the United States. We also want to thank our friends for being so patient with our poor Internet connection that day. Heavy rain and snow were to blame for the trouble, but we still managed to have a wonderful time together. We hope that we can Skype with you again this year!

What types of dances do you like to do?

Have you seen any of the landmarks we shared in person?

Are there other Canadian landmarks that you would have included?

Have you ever tried weaving?

What was your favourite part of the Aboriginal Day celebration?

What was your favourite part of our Skype call? Have you ever visited the United States before?