November 24th-26th: Thanksgiving Break, NO SCHOOL
2021-22 School Year Calendar
What’s happening in the Puffin Nest?
This week, students experienced the final episode of our NW story-path unit. Students held a celebration that focused on honoring traditions, community values and generosity.
In our classroom this week, students learned about the “First Salmon Ceremony” and what an important event it is.
At our Out & About, we journeyed to the backyard garden for our "First Salmon Ceremony" where we enjoyed a feast of traditional foods. This was followed by playing traditional games.
Students reflected on the role of ceremonies and celebrations in human societies with the following questions:
- Why are ceremonies and celebrations important to communities?
- What ceremonies do you know about?
- Why was it important for early Northwest Coast people to continue celebrating the First Salmon ceremony?
In our NW Story path unit, students have investigated the culture of early people of the Northwest Coast. They have built an understanding of this place and time in history and learned about the forces that threatened this culture during the nineteenth century through roleplaying critical historical events and reflecting about their experiences.
Each week during our unit, students wrote short stories about their experiences from their character's perspective. We focused on beginning with a lead sentence to spark interest and draw the reader into the story, retelling the important event and providing clear information, using words to create vivid pictures, and including interesting details about the event. We also worked to edit carefully, making sure that our sentences sounded right and made sense when we read them out loud. Finally, we took the time to write carefully and neatly so that the stories would be easy to read and share.
Level 2 "Inclusive Community" Read-Aloud Series
Beginning the second week of November, we will engage a weekly "Inclusive Community" read-aloud series. Through these read-alouds, we will learn about and celebrate diversity in our community.
November: Indigenous People’s Month