residential schools in Canada

There is currently a tremendous focus on developing public awareness and understanding in Canada about the history of Indian Residential Schools in Canada. From the 1830s to 1996, children from First Nations, Metis and Inuit families were required to attend Indian Residential Schools, usually far away from their communities.

The BC School Trustees Association just voted to support education efforts in line with the goals of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. More information about this work can be found HERE.

Two of the goals of the commission are to "acknowledge residential school experiences, impacts and consequences" and to "promote awareness and public education of Canadians about the IRS system and its impacts." I was able to acquire an education kit called 100 Years of Loss and we have the banners hanging in the library, detailing a timeline of the history of residential schools.

At Blair, all of our students will be read age-appropriate and recommended children's literature that introduces this significant shared history.

The intermediate classes at Blair are all reading the novel Fatty Legs by Christy Jordan-Fenton and Margaret Pokiak-Fenton. This is an award-winning novel that is written for children aged 9-12. The story is about an eight year old Inuvialuit girl who leaves her remote island to attend residential school. The story is about her struggle at the school and how, with a strong spirit, she overcomes poor treatment by one of the nuns.

Although this novel does not introduce many of the tragic and devastating details about what happened to the children that attended residential schools, many of the students have questions and may want to know more. A good resource for information for parents to share with their children is the Truth and Reconciliation Commission website linked above. Another online resource of information can be found HERE.

Parents are welcome to come in to the Blair Library to see the 100 Years of Loss banners that are now on display.

~Ms Novakowski

Spuds in Tubs 2013: the potato parade outside

This week we topped up each tub with soil and mixed in another scoop of plant food.

We loaded the tubs on to a cart and had a potato parade to take them outside.

The 5 Spuds in Tubs program tubs are sitting at the front of our school near the flag poles. Alongside them are some burlap bags with potatoes growing in them as well - a project four other classes are working on.

~Ms Novakowski

ocean animal storytelling

To complement a science study of ocean animals that the students in division 7 have been working on in their classroom, we began some storytelling experiences before spring break. I read the students the aboriginal story The Salmon Twins by Caroll Simpson which incorporated factual information about many ocean animals as well as information about supernatural beings. Story themes included a journey, personal transformation, respect for elders, sharing resources and being responsive to the natural environment.

After reading and discussing this story, the students worked by themselves, in partners or triads to create their own stories. They were provided with natural materials such as rocks, shells and pieces of wood as well as some paper and cork to create ocean settings. Once a setting was designed, the students chose from a variety of ocean animal characters and developed a storyline.

The students used the iPads to take still photographs, setting up a "photo shoot" for each part of their stories. The criteria provided was to take 3-5 photographs, use scientific facts about ocean animals and to include an aspect of aboriginal culture or worldviews that we have discussed.

Three apps were suggested for use for this project: Haiku Deck, Sonic Pics or PixnTell. Both Sonic Pics and PixnTell allow for students to record their voices so that this could be an oral storytelling experience. The students chose which app they wanted to use and submitted their files by email.

One student's Haiku Deck story can be viewed HERE. (click to link)

Some of the students' PixnTell projects can be viewed below:

~Ms Novakowski

Spuds in Tubs 2013: hilling and watering

This week we added another bag of soil to each tub to "hill" up the soil around the potato plants. The grade four and five students helped with this task.

The kindergarten students watered all the tubs.

The plants are all quite tall and are ready to move outside so we will  have a bit of a potato parade next week and move them outside!

~Ms Novakowski

Chocolate Lily Book Awards: Final Voting

This week, the primary classes all reviewed the seven nominated titles for the Chocolate Lily Picture Book Award. Each student was able to vote for their favourite book and a class favourite was tabulated for each division. These votes and results will be sent into the provincial organization and we will find out in May who the provincial winner is.

At Blair, four classes voted for I Want to go to the Moon, two classes voted for Louis the Tiger who Came from the Sea and one class voted for Can Hens Give Milk?. Have a look at all our previous posts on these books for more information!

This week the older primary students completed their recording sheet which included a response box for each book title. For each book, students were asked to make connections, ask questions, decide on the theme, give the book a score or take the perspective of one of the book's characters.

Some of the students from division 9 created images from their favourite books using the Doodle Buddy app on the iPads.

We have two copies of each of these wonderful books thanks due to a generous contribution from the BLAIR PAC! They are now all available for the students to take home and enjoy with their families.

~Ms Novakowski

Spuds in Tubs 2013: first growth

On returning from spring break, the students and staff were excited to the healthy growth that happened over the holidays. We have healthy strong plants started!

After all the classes get to see this first stage, we will be "hilling" the plants with another bag of soil. Two of the tubs are growing taller plants than the others and the students have all been speculating why that might be! Their thoughts include:
one tub is closer to the window so it got more sun
maybe one tub got more food than the others
maybe one tub got more water

Some of the kindergarten students did some close observations of the plants and noticed they were "hairy" and "fuzzy".

~Ms Novakowski

young readers

One of the most satisfying experiences of being a teacher-librarian is noticing young children becoming immersed in books and experiencing the joy of reading. This week, our youngest students were so excited to choose their library books (they really seemed to miss the library over spring break!) and quickly sat themselves down with their selections and started reading.

My heart was warmed on a chilly spring day!

~Ms Novakowski