One of our school’s goals this year is to learn to develop the four quadrants of the Circle of Courage in our lives. The four colours stand for belonging, independence, mastery and generosity. We’ll be working on each of these areas in our classroom this year.
The whole school got to watch as students from all of the classes took part in raising two tipis by our playground. They also got to watch a First Nation dancer and to hear a drum. It was a great opportunity for the students.
Photo by Dan Orescanin
As part of our learning about the First Nations people, we attended a special First Nation storytelling and dancing event at Yara Centre. The video below shows one of the dancers that we watched doing a Fancy Shawl Dance. The students loved sitting on the “grass” and participating in this event.
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.