How has the natural North American environment, through interactions with its original peoples, influenced Canadian society?

Integrating aboriginal arts across the grade 3 and 4 curriculum, Central Public School worked with Aboriginal drama/music/storytelling artist Heather Majaury and fabric artist Maggie Vanderweit.

Students used traditional aboriginal fables to explore science, social studies and language arts curriculum. They made shakers, and a medicine wheel, learned to sing traditional songs, painted rocks and planted a Three Sisters Garden in a community garden in front of the school with Heather. With Maggie they learned about petroglyphs and pictographs and created their own symbol representing themselves. Here are some special moments shared by the teacher:

"When we arrived back to class and the students were painting their rocks, a few students spontaneously began singing the Cherokee Morning Song - Wen De Ya Ho. It completely changed the tone of the class and all of the students joined in as they painted. It was as if the class took a collective breath and calm spread throughout the room."

 "One offshoot of our project was to look at the work of celebrated Ojibway painter Norval Morrisseau and create works inspired by his style. The entire class was intrigued by his paintings and engrossed by the stories that inspired them. Two boys in particular in my class experience considerable anxiety when assigned writing tasks… They both gravitated towards an assignment that involved creating an original painting inspired by the work of Morrisseau, and wrote thoughtful responses conveying the meaning behind their work. The pride and enthusiasm that they experienced was a true testament to the power of art."

"There are a few boys in my class that are reluctant singers. Heather taught my class a variety of songs, but each one had a specific purpose. The context of singing Sacred Corn Mother while planting our 'Three Sisters' garden was enough to motivate those reluctant singers to participate."

"Even before our ArtsSmarts project, our class began almost every day with a community circle. Heather contributed a new aspect to our community circle that many of my students particularly appreciated. Using the four directions of the medicine wheel, Heather invited the student to assemble themselves within the circle based on how their view themselves: listeners, doers, readers, feelers. To watch some of my students take so much pride in their strength and identity was special. One girl in grade 3 continually reflected back to it and mentioned it as something that was extremely meaningful to her."

"On the day that the students completed their shakers it was great to listen to meaning of each of their design elements: symbols to represent friends and family members, colour to represent their learning style etc. A few of the explanations were so thorough and well thought-out that it was clear that this was a task that allowed them to fully express themselves. Throughout the project there were many moments like this where  different students related to a specific form of expression: dance, song, visual arts, writing etc., which allowed them to fully convey their message with passion and enthusiasm."