Learning to Jig

Ms. Kempel, our school division’s First Nations consultant, has been teaching us about the Metis culture and some Metis jigging steps. We first learned the resting step, and then some fancy steps called bunny hop, marching step, front cross, ankles up and chigallop (pronounced chee-ga-lo). See if you can tell which ones we are doing in the video below!

Jingle Dance

One of my former students visited my class today to perform a First Nations Jingle Dance for us. She even taught some of the braver children how to do the dance.
From her, we learned that the Jingle Dance is a healing dance and that if we weren’t feeling well, the sound of the jingles would help us to feel better.