School Wide Read Aloud Book 4:
My Heart Fills with Happiness by Monique Gray Smith
Words of the Week:
Heart - Deh
Sing - Nigaam
I am happy - N’gchi-nendam
I love you - Gizaagin
Click here to access the Words of the Week PDF
Showing posts with label resources. Show all posts
Showing posts with label resources. Show all posts
How Chipmunk Got His Stripes
School Wide Read Aloud Book 3:
How Chipmunk Got His Stripes by Joesph Bruchac and James Bruchac
Words of the Week:
Chipmunk - Goonsenh
Fox - Waagosh
Owl - Kokoko
Rabbit - Waabooz
Click here to access the Words of the Week PDF
Last Leaf First Snowflake to Fall
School Wide Read Aloud Book 2:
Last Leaf First Snowflake to Fall by Leo Yerxa
Words of the Week:
It's Snowing - Zoogpo
Fire - Mshkode
Canoe (or boat) - Jiimaan
Click here to access the Word of the Week PDF
Indigenous Authored Books
Hello, Boozhoo! It's been awhile since we've posted but we wanted to let everyone know that we are still here and still working hard to bring Ojibwe into our schools. During our TLLP project, we were able to invite Elders into our classrooms to share stories and lessons with our students. We would learn several Ojibwe words from the stories and then turn those into our school wide Ojibwe Word of the Week learning. For those of you who have followed along on this journey, Thank You and Miigwech! We hope that you have been able to learn with us!
One of the challenges of our TLLP project was that not everyone in our school was able to hear the stories being shared in our classrooms. So, we decided to change how we were going to choose and learn Ojibwe Words of the Week. We decided that we would choose words from an Indigenous authored book and then educators would be able to read the book in their classrooms.
We are fortunate that each month Nicole reads and records the books for P.E. McGibbon. The first Monday of each month we play this recording is played on our video announcements so that the entire school gets to hear the story together.
We will post our book choice and words each month if you would like to learn with us. Miigwech!
Nicole, Chantima, Allie, Jen and Gretchen
Turtles Race with Beaver by Joseph Bruchac and James Bruchac
Words of the Week:
Mzhiikenh - Turtle
Amik - Beaver
Makwa - Bear
Waawaashkesh - Deer
Click here to access the Word of the Week PDF
Online Stories
One of the goals of our project was to have local First Nations community members share oral stories with our classes. We were able to meet that goal and had several rich learning experiences for our students. But we realized that not all of the classes in our schools were able to access the Indigenous voices we were fortunate enough to hear. The next step was to look at books that were written by Indigenous authors. Our hope was to record Indigenous voices reading these books and make them available to everyone in our school communities. Stolen Words below:
Nicole Gooding, teacher at P.E. McGibbon Public School in LKDSB reads "Stolen Words" by Melanie Florence
Ojibwe Word of the Week: June
This month we decided to continue with the idea of a pow wows and chose words from the book "Bow Wow Pow Wow". We read this book to our classes, watched videos about the significance of pow wows and reflected on our own visit to the Lambton College Pow Wow earlier in the year. This book had a lot of animals so we decided on four animals for the words of the week. We have found that our students make good connections when the words are animals.
Ojibwe Words of the Week: June
Nimosh - Dog
Waabooz - Rabbit
Esiban - Raccoon
Gaag - Porcupine
Click here to access the Ojibwe Word of the Week PDF
Ojibwe Words of the Week: June
Nimosh - Dog
Waabooz - Rabbit
Esiban - Raccoon
Gaag - Porcupine
Click here to access the Ojibwe Word of the Week PDF
Ojibwe Word of the Week: May
This month we decided to focus our words on members of the family. We read the book "Jingle Dancer" to our classes, which focuses on a little girls' journey to create her very own own jingle dress. She visits different members of her family to talk about her dress and get jingles to add to her dress. When she gets her dress made she hopes to dance at the next pow wow.
Late spring and summer are when local First Nations communities host Pow Wows, so we added the word Pow Wow to this month's words as well.
Ojibwe Word of the Week: May
Mishomis - Grandfather
Ngashi - My Mother
Noos - My Father
Biiweziimag - Family
Jiingtamog - PowWow
Click here to access the Ojibwe Word of the Week PDF
Late spring and summer are when local First Nations communities host Pow Wows, so we added the word Pow Wow to this month's words as well.
Ojibwe Word of the Week: May
Mishomis - Grandfather
Ngashi - My Mother
Noos - My Father
Biiweziimag - Family
Jiingtamog - PowWow
Click here to access the Ojibwe Word of the Week PDF
Ojibwe Word of the Week: April
In preparation for some exciting events, this month we have decided to choose words that are related to PowWows and dancing. This month our schools will be attending the Lambton College PowWow. It will be an incredible opportunity for our students to engage in some indigenous cultural activities. They are very excited about watching and trying out some dancing! Which brings us to our second event, the Great Lakes Woodland Dance Troupe. During the month of May, both schools will be hosting the dance troupe and we look forward to their singing, dancing and storytelling!
Ojibwe Words of the Week: April
Ngamwin - song
Mnidoominesag - beads
Dewegan - drum
Niimi - He or she is dancing
Jiingtamog - PowWow
Click here to access the Ojibwe Words of the Week PDF
Dewegan - drum
Niimi - He or she is dancing
Jiingtamog - PowWow
Click here to access the Ojibwe Words of the Week PDF
Do Better When You Know Better
At PE McGibbon we have video announcements which means there is a lot of media. The student announcement team uses video, images, audio recording, and music to share information. At the end of our announcements we always have the land acknowledgment followed by O Canada.
One day as I was listening to a student's voice read the land acknowledgment over an image of the Canadian Flag and I thought to myself, "This doesn't seem right." I wondered if there was a more appropriate and authentic way to share the land acknowledgement with our staff and students. When I sat and reflected on what the land acknowledgment really said, it made me think about Treaty 29. My school is on Treaty 29 land and it seemed like the only time we talked about this was during Treaties Week. I know we could do better.
I talked to Gretchen about the idea of making some land acknowledgment videos with images of Treaty 29 and Aamjiwnaang. The purpose would be to acknowledge the indigenous groups who lived in the Sarnia area before the treaty, the treaty itself and the current Aamjiwnaang community. She agreed it would be a good learning opportunity and I got to work making some new videos.
Below are some of the examples we created to share with our staff and students. We created these videos using Apple Clips.
One day as I was listening to a student's voice read the land acknowledgment over an image of the Canadian Flag and I thought to myself, "This doesn't seem right." I wondered if there was a more appropriate and authentic way to share the land acknowledgement with our staff and students. When I sat and reflected on what the land acknowledgment really said, it made me think about Treaty 29. My school is on Treaty 29 land and it seemed like the only time we talked about this was during Treaties Week. I know we could do better.
I talked to Gretchen about the idea of making some land acknowledgment videos with images of Treaty 29 and Aamjiwnaang. The purpose would be to acknowledge the indigenous groups who lived in the Sarnia area before the treaty, the treaty itself and the current Aamjiwnaang community. She agreed it would be a good learning opportunity and I got to work making some new videos.
Below are some of the examples we created to share with our staff and students. We created these videos using Apple Clips.
Ojibwe Word of the Week: March
This month we continued to focus on words from Joanne Robertson's book "The Water Walker". Some of the words in the book are spelled differently in our local communities. We talked to area Ojibwe speakers and decided to use local spelling.
Ojibwe Words of the Week: March
Chi-Miigwech - Thank You Very Much, Big Thank You
Chi-Miigwech - Thank You Very Much, Big Thank You
Migizi - Eagle
Ojibwe Word of the Week: February
As you may have noticed, we did not have any new Ojibwe words for the month of January. Instead, we chose to make January a review month. Each day on our announcements we reviewed a different word. This gave staff and students a great chance to refresh their memories on how many Ojibwe words we have learned so far this year!
When we thought about what words to do in February, Gretchen suggested words from Joanne Robertson's book "The Water Walker". It is an amazing true story about an Ojibwe Grandmother that walks to raise awareness for the need to protect our water for future generations. Gretchen has held several workshops within our school board on how to use "The Water Walker" to make curriculum connections in the classroom. We made sure to share with our respective staffs, that copies of the book are available in our schools so that everyone can learn together.
In other VERY EXCITING NEWS, Joanne Robertson agreed to help us out with Ojibwe Word of the Week. She made two of the videos this month. We cannot thank her enough! Chi-Miigwech Joanne!
Below is the video we played to introduce our words of the week from "The Water Walker". We wanted to share our focus and we needed to address the word "water". Last year, our students learned that the Ojibwe word for water is biish. In the book, water is nibi. Watch the video to find out how we explained this to our staff and students.
Ojibwe Words of the Week: February
Nibi - water
Nokomis - Grandmother
Nokomis Giizis - Grandmother moon
Jiimaan - Boat or canoe
Click here to access the Ojibwe Words of the Week PDF
When we thought about what words to do in February, Gretchen suggested words from Joanne Robertson's book "The Water Walker". It is an amazing true story about an Ojibwe Grandmother that walks to raise awareness for the need to protect our water for future generations. Gretchen has held several workshops within our school board on how to use "The Water Walker" to make curriculum connections in the classroom. We made sure to share with our respective staffs, that copies of the book are available in our schools so that everyone can learn together.
In other VERY EXCITING NEWS, Joanne Robertson agreed to help us out with Ojibwe Word of the Week. She made two of the videos this month. We cannot thank her enough! Chi-Miigwech Joanne!
Below is the video we played to introduce our words of the week from "The Water Walker". We wanted to share our focus and we needed to address the word "water". Last year, our students learned that the Ojibwe word for water is biish. In the book, water is nibi. Watch the video to find out how we explained this to our staff and students.
Ojibwe Words of the Week: February
Nibi - water
Nokomis - Grandmother
Nokomis Giizis - Grandmother moon
Jiimaan - Boat or canoe
Click here to access the Ojibwe Words of the Week PDF
Word of the Week Activities in the Primary Classroom
At this point, I was noticing my students recognizing some of our Ojibwe words outside of the morning announcements. Through different read alouds and in speaking to Ojibwe visitors, students were beginning to use greeting words more comfortably. Jen and I discussed ways to allow our students to feel more comfortable with other Ojibwe Words of the Week as well. Knowing that repetition and practice with words would aid in their learning, we tried out these activities with our students as a word work.
Drawing out the words:
Pic Collage:
Adding the drawings to our Ojibwe Word Wall:
Pic Collage:
Chatterpix:
Word of the Week Choice Board
As we neared the end of December I was looking for a way to review all of the words we had learned so far. I knew I wanted to create an activity that allowed for student choice, voice, and creativity. Keeping this in mind I created a choice board where students were able to decide on which activities aligned with their interests and strengths while still speaking and writing our Ojibwe Words of the Week. This is what the finished product looked like.
As you can see the choice board includes both tech (Clips, PicCollage, voice votes, etc.) and non-tech activities to appeal to all learning styles. It also allows for independent and partner work which my students also appreciated.
I asked my students to complete 4 activities from the board however this number could be changed to suit your needs and the needs of your classroom. Along those same lines, this choice board was created with my grade 6 class in mind. That being said, these activities could be amended and edited to suit older or younger students as well. It is important to note that my students were given a copy of the Words of the Week to reference as well. Don't forget you can print PDF word wall cards of your own visiting the Word of the Week section of this blog or by clicking HERE.
Here are some examples of student work from my classroom.
 |
| Word Search created on Graph Paper |
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| Waterfall spelling created in PicCollage |
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| Poster created in PicCollage |
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| Word Values Activity |
If you are interested in using this choice board in your classroom please click HERE to access a PDF. Enjoy!
- Allie
Ojibwe Word of the Week: December
This month our words continue with a storytelling focus. We chose words from the Ojibwe story Kiyoshk and the Box.
Kiyoshk - Seagull
Kokoko - Owl
Makak - Box
Click here to access the Ojibwe Words of the Week December PDF.
Kiyoshk - Seagull
Kokoko - Owl
Makak - Box
Click here to access the Ojibwe Words of the Week December PDF.
Treaty Recognition Week in Grade 6
The first week of November is Treaty Week in Ontario. For me, it is important to approach this week with the goal in mind of educating my students on what exactly treaties are, who was involved, and stress how the Indigenous people who signed these treaties were not treated fairly. This was a busy week for me as I was focused on Treaty Week in my own classroom, created daily announcements for the school, and encouraged other staff members to cover the topic in their own classrooms as well.
On Monday I had my class complete a simple sticky note activity. Purple for "Things I Already Know" about Treaties, and pink for "Questions I Have" about Treaties. Below is a picture of what this ended up looking like.
As you can see we definitely had more questions than we did knowledge. It was also interesting to note that much of what "we already knew" was somewhat idealistic and not exactly accurate. I knew we were in for an eye opening week.
Tuesday we were lucky enough to have a guest speaker/presenter visit our junior classes to discuss treaties. Esbikenh taught us about the importance of provisions, wampums, and why it is important to learn about treaties. This was a great interactive experience for my students to take part in. Thank you so much to Gretchen for setting this up for us at A.A. Wright!
Throughout the rest of the week we had valuable conversations about how in Ontario we are ALL treaty people, our own ancestral backgrounds, and how many individuals in our class have strong cultural ties to the nations who are represented in our treaties here in Ontario.
At the school level there were announcements read each morning to give some background on Treaty Week and what that means living in Wallaceburg. These are the topics that were covered each day:
All in all, I think it was a week of rich learning for our students. I am hopeful that their increased knowledge of treaties in Ontario, and who was involved in them, will lead to a more in-depth understanding Indigenous perspective and history moving forward.
Thanks for reading!
- Allie
On Monday I had my class complete a simple sticky note activity. Purple for "Things I Already Know" about Treaties, and pink for "Questions I Have" about Treaties. Below is a picture of what this ended up looking like.
As you can see we definitely had more questions than we did knowledge. It was also interesting to note that much of what "we already knew" was somewhat idealistic and not exactly accurate. I knew we were in for an eye opening week.
Tuesday we were lucky enough to have a guest speaker/presenter visit our junior classes to discuss treaties. Esbikenh taught us about the importance of provisions, wampums, and why it is important to learn about treaties. This was a great interactive experience for my students to take part in. Thank you so much to Gretchen for setting this up for us at A.A. Wright!
Throughout the rest of the week we had valuable conversations about how in Ontario we are ALL treaty people, our own ancestral backgrounds, and how many individuals in our class have strong cultural ties to the nations who are represented in our treaties here in Ontario.
At the school level there were announcements read each morning to give some background on Treaty Week and what that means living in Wallaceburg. These are the topics that were covered each day:
- Monday - General introduction to Treaty Week. Posed the questions what is Treaty Week? Why do we recognize it? What do you think you will learn this week?
- Tuesday - Unfortunately I was sick this day and an announcement was not read.
- Wednesday - Overview of the McKee Purchase and Treaty 2, which is the treaty area that we live in here in Wallaceburg.
- Thursday - Focused on Bkejwanong (Walpole Island) and how it is an exception to Treaty 2 since it is unceded territory. Quickly discussed what unceded means and why Bkejwanong is unique.
- Friday - Tied our Ojibwe word of the week initiative to Treaty Week by explaining we were honouring the Indigenous people in our area who were not treated fairly during treaty negotiations and respecting the language of the Indigenous people who continue to live in our area.
I also created a couple of short videos in Clips that could be showed in classrooms. You can check one of these out below:
Background information on the McKee Purchase and Treaty 2.
Staff members were also directed to our Program Department's blog to check out all the fantastic resources that Gretchen had curated for us to use! If you would like to check those out click HERE.
All in all, I think it was a week of rich learning for our students. I am hopeful that their increased knowledge of treaties in Ontario, and who was involved in them, will lead to a more in-depth understanding Indigenous perspective and history moving forward.
Thanks for reading!
- Allie
Ojibwe Word of the Week: November
This month our words of the week are changing from what we were doing the last two months. We started with learning greetings/sayings in Ojibwe, but after two months we are ready for a change. We have decided to learn an Ojibwe story each month and pull words from the story to use as our words of the week. If you'd like to know more about how we decided on this idea, please read our other blog post about meeting with Nancy from the SLNFC. The first Ojibwe story we are going to learn is the story of Turtle Island.
We needed to share why we are switching gears with our school community as well, so we shared why with a clip in our video announcements. We have shared that video as well.
Maang - Loon
Mzhiikenh - Turtle
Nigig - Otter
Zhashkoonh - Muskrat
Click here to access the Ojibwe Word of the Week November Words PDF
We needed to share why we are switching gears with our school community as well, so we shared why with a clip in our video announcements. We have shared that video as well.
Maang - Loon
Mzhiikenh - Turtle
Nigig - Otter
Zhashkoonh - Muskrat
Click here to access the Ojibwe Word of the Week November Words PDF
Below is the video we shared to explain the new direction for Ojibwe Word of the Week
Words of the Week for November
Treaty Recognition Week
Since 2016, the first week of November has been recognized as Treaty Week. We wanted to create awareness about the topic for our staff, students and school communities. We recognized that treaties are a complex topic and in order to make them accessible to students we needed to simplify without losing the importance of the information. We decided to make short videos with treaty information and facts that would be shared daily throughout the week. One of the ways we simplified the idea of a treaty for younger children was to present it as a promise. Chantima and Jen teach primary grades so they focused on the importance of keeping promises and what can happen if a promise is broken. They started the conversation by watching an episode of Franklin the Turtle called "Franklin's Promise", and then had classroom discussions about the importance of promises between people. Then, they connected those ideas and feelings to treaty relationships between the British Government and Indigenous People.
Below is the first Treaty Recognition Week video that was shared with their schools.
Below is the first Treaty Recognition Week video that was shared with their schools.
We also found a bunch of resources on our school board's elementary program blog. Gretchen curated a great list to support teachers and students. Click here to check out her resources!
Ojibwe Word of the Week: October
This month we continued our focus on common phrases that students and teachers can use every day. Our words of the month are:
Baamaapii - See you later/Later on
Wiijkiwenh - Friend
Biindigen - Come in
Gaawii mijda - I'm sorry
Click here to access the Ojibwe Word of the Week October Words PDF
Baamaapii - See you later/Later on
Wiijkiwenh - Friend
Biindigen - Come in
Gaawii mijda - I'm sorry
Click here to access the Ojibwe Word of the Week October Words PDF
Orange Shirt Day Resources
Orange Shirt Day is a day to honour the survivors of the Canadian residential school system and remember those who never returned. In the weeks leading up to Orange Shirt Day both of our schools participated in a variety of activities to help support student and educator understanding of the residential school system and why we wear orange on September 30.
Our team created a list of resources to share with teachers in our buildings. We curated websites, found photos/videos to use as provocations, and found virtual and hard copies of picture books. Click here to access the PDF with links and information we shared with our teachers for Orange Shirt Day 2018.
Picture Books
These are some of the books that were read to students throughout our schools. Chantima and Jen teach primary grades and used these books to help their student's understand the impact residential schools had on indigenous children and their families.
When I Was Eight by
Not My Girl by
Stolen Words by Melanie Florence
Shi-Shi-Etko by Nicola Campbell
Shin-Chi's Canoe by Nicola Campbell
One of the challenges of reading picture books in a large school is having enough copies for everyone! We included some YouTube links to picture books in our resources list, but some of them were not quite what we were looking for. We would love to have some of these books read by local indigenous community members. Stay tuned!
We did find some of the books on TumbleBooks and the app epic! If you use app epic! in your classroom, there is a small selection of books you can share with your students and you should check them out! We created a collection for Orange Shirt Day and shared it with our staffs.
Orange Shirt Day Video
Our school board shares an announcement about Orange Shirt Day that can be shared in schools. Since our school has video announcements, we created a video using images from OrangeShirtDay.org. This video was an effective way to share Phyllis Webstad's story and the origins of Orange Shirt Day with everyone in our school community.
Where To Start?
If you are an educator looking for a place to start, we found the resources below very helpful.
We all live on indigenous lands which means reconciliation affects all of us. As educators, we have the opportunity to shape children's views on the past, present, and future. With the TRC, we have been charged with the responsibility to teach the truth about our national history and foster a respectful understanding of indigenous culture in order to live reconciliation in the present. Below is a section of the TRC Calls to Action that are specific to education.
Gretchen suggested to our team that we read these books before starting to dig into the TRC Calls to Action. She was correct! Reading these books gave us a deeper understanding and appreciation for the challenges indigenous communities have faced and continue to face today. These books put so many things into perspective and framed the conversation of why it is imperative that we need to make actions toward reconciliation. We have added some of our reflections while reading these books in the Reflections section of the blog.
We encourage you to find these books at your local library or book store and read about how decisions made hundreds of years ago continue to affect indigenous communities today.
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