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 

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.

A Morning at Bkejwanong

Chi-Miigwech to Minogiizhgad for sharing Ojibwe language with us related to our experience this morning.

What a privilege.
This morning, Jen, Ally & I were invited by Gretchen and Minogiizhgad to his home at Bkejwanong in hopes that jigaa ninaatigo waaboo (the sap is dripping). We were joined by Language Consultants and Ojibwe Language Teachers from the the Lambton Kent District School Board. We began with a walk through the ninaatigo kaan (maple tree bush) while Minogiizhgad shared stories of Nanabush (or Nanaboozhoo) and the his discovery of maple sap as another form of Mother Earth's medicine for her people.

We even had an opportunity to explore, feel, and choose a tree to tap ourselves.

What humbled me most is realizing what makes the Anishinaabe culture so beautiful is that in everything there is meaning. All practices and interactions are done so with intent and purpose. As Jen and I taste tested the maple sugar that was created after skagamezigeng (the process of boiling sap), Minogiizhgad looked at Jen and I with a smile and said, "those smiles on your faces, there is the medicine".

We ended our morning inside one of the most intricate structures I've experienced, the Bkejwanong Teaching Lodge. The physical work that went into the Lodge is evident in every log, branch, and hand-stripped piece of bark that brought to life a design that was studied and recreated by a piece of film discovered of a Potawatomi family building their own lodge in the 1930's. An Ojibwe Language teacher who took part in the building of the Bkejwanong Teaching Lodge shared that the experience gave the Bkejwanong men a sense of purpose and community that will forever connect them to one another. The Lodge is used for ceremonial purposes and has become a prominent setting for the people of Bkejwanong to gather, embrace, and share. 

Chi-Miigwech Minogiizhgad and Gretchen as well as our fellow learners this morning for an experience the deepened my understanding, admiration, and gratitude. 

Visit from Joanne Robertson

On February 5th the junior students at A.A. Wright were so lucky to have Joanne Robertson visit us.  Joanne is AnishinaabeKwe and a member of Atikameksheng Anishnawbek.  She is the founder of the Empty Glass for Water campaign to bring attention to the drinking water crisis in Indigenous communities across Canada.  Joanne is also the author of the book "The Water Walker".

This is a fantastic true story about an Ojibwe grandmother (nokomis) named Josephine Mandamin and her love for water (nibi) and the need to protect it for our future generations.

Joanne spoke with us about the importance of fresh water and the water walks that she has been on in an effort to raise awareness of this cause.  Our students were so taken by the distance that Joanne, Josephine, and the other Water Walkers walked in an effort to spread their message.  They were also excited to learn that the Water Walker's visited Walpole Island and prayed for the St. Clair River a couple of years ago.  To learn more about the Mother Earth Water Walk you can visit their website HERE.

Not only was Joanne a fantastic presenter with a great message for us she also was gracious enough to help us out with our Words of the Week videos for February.  Our team decided to pull words from Joanne's book to focus on.  To access these videos and PDF word wall cards click HERE.

Also, as we know water is a theme that weaves its way through each grade of the Ontario science curriculum.  To learn more about how to incorporate this learning into your lessons, as well as watch a fantastic book review of "The Water Walker", please check out Gretchen's blog post HERE.

Family Event: Shaker Making at A.A. Wright

As a result of the Calls to Action in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission we have been working on inviting community members from Bkejwanong (the First Nation closest to A.A. Wright) into our school to share Indigenous ways of knowing and learning in meaningful ways.  Recently, we invited Cecil Isaac to come in after school and lead some of our families in shaker making.

We started our event by sharing a meal together.  This is always a great opportunity to share, chat, and build a sense of community with our families.  After we had finished eating Cecil began to walk us through the process of creating our deer hide shakers.

The first thing that we needed to do some soak the hide overnight the night before so that it would be pliable and ready to sew on shaker making night.  We cut the hide out in advance to save the students and their families the hassle on the night of.  We used a leather punch to create holes around the edges and then our students and their adults used sinew to sew the two pieces of hide together.  Once this was done the kids packed their shaker with sand to give it shape as the hide dried.  The last step for the evening was to put the dowel handle in and wrap sinew around it to keep it in place while the hide dries.

It was so fantastic to see some of our families coming together, working on a common task, and creating a traditional Anishnaabe instrument.  We are all looking forward to night two where we will come back to together remove the sand, and fill our shakers with beans.  After we fill our bellies with another shared meal first, of course.

Check out the pictures below from shaker making night 1!

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

Migizi - Eagle

Gimaa - Leader or Chief

Click here to access the Ojibwe Words of the Week PDF

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

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:

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

Waterfall spelling created in PicCollage

Poster created in PicCollage

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.

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:

• 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