Happy Friday, division 2! Today was all about wolves! But before we go any further, here is the DIVISION tutorial I tried to upload yesterday:
We started our day activating prior knowledge and making connections to wolves. Then I read to the students “Wolf Island”, by Celia Godkin. This story illustrates the ecological impact of removing a keystone species in a region, and we discussed the connection to our learning about the fur trade. We also reread the Coast Salish story, “Why Ravens and Wolves Hunt Together” by Celestine Aleck and discussed the symbolism of the wolf in various indigenous stories. This led to discussion of what it means to be a part of a wolf pack. We spoke about trust, loyalty, and teamwork—and about how we are all needed and play a role in ecosystem.
Then I painted a demo of a watercolour wolf face and students made their own artworks, painting themselves into our “wolf pack”. We will put up our display our “Wolf Pack” on the bulletin board on Tuesday when we’ve added our related writing pieces!
As well, students had the opportunity to see 20 minutes of episode one of the ten-part CBC documentary series, “Canada: The Story of Us”, which is a beautifully produced multi-perspective mini-series highlighting events from European contact with Indigenous peoples of North America to end of the World Wars. (PLEASE NOTE: The version of the episode we watched was censored for elementary students. This version had edited out two graphic war-like scenes. I discussed with students that they should talk with their parents/guardians about the show and decide whether watching the rest of the episode right for them. The link to that censored version is here: https://youtu.be/Fa5UZNNXebs
Inquiry Ninja 