After all of our talk about First Nations last week, we got the chance to hold our own drumming celebration in our class. There was singing, dancing, and drumming! We learned that we actually shouldn't refer to it as as "pow wow" because pow wows are huge celebrations that take months of planning, and they tend to be private festivals held on reservations (although sometimes they will hold them publicly on Indigenous Peoples' Day). So... ours was just a celebration instead as we learned to appreciate the First Nations culture and language, practiced doing the traditional male and female dance moves, and even learned to say hay čxʷ q̓ə ("thank you" in the Katzie language). This was a special experience for Madame because she actually got to be taught by a Katzie elder on the reserve here in Pitt Meadows how to make a drum. That drum was among the ones that we used during our celebration. Madame from 2 years ago... Madame was so touched by the experience back then that she wrote a blurb about it on Facebook. Here's what she said back in 2019: I live about 5 minutes from the Katzie First Nations reserve but I’ve always felt it was off limits. It’s Katzie land and I wanted to respect that. But I was invited today to take part in a drum making workshop at their community centre (a building that they fought for 30 years to have built and that is now such a central part of their community). It was such an eye-opening and wonderful experience. And just in case I’m the only one in Pitt Meadows who didn’t know this, you actually CAN go for a stroll through their land. Everyone I spoke with was super open and welcoming and they even have a gift shop. 😊 A big thank you to the Elders and the other volunteers for opening their lives to us and sharing their stories and songs. I feel like my life was enriched today. A stop sign on the Katzie reserve. Another special experience this week was having Ms. Kwan come lead us in some outdoor resiliency games. The games were meant to stimulate discussion around "self-awareness, mindfulness, optimism, empathy, building positive relationships, coping with feelings and motivation", etc. We were very engaged in this active workshop and had such a great time learning more about ourselves and our own limits. A partner trust activity... using words to lead our "blind" partners through an obstacle course. Math class this week took place in the sand pit as we worked in partners to compare the capacity of various containers. Which container did we estimate to be the biggest? Which one would be the smallest? We checked our estimations by pouring sand from one container into the other. And then... we just built sandcastles, because why not?? ;-) Our little tadpole babies are growing so big! And by big, we just mean slightly bigger than before...they're really only about the size of Madame's thumbnail. This photo was taken a few days ago, but two of them are now pretty much full-on frogs with no tails remaining. They're kind of a big deal around here. We all marvelled at them climbing the sticks in their aquarium. Other fun pics from the week... Madame's neighbour gave us a bunch of flower cut-offs from the nursery where she works. We had fun sorting them by colour, feeling their soft centres, smelling them, etc. We explored the pond by City Hall on our forest walk. We noticed a lily pad but didn't see any frogs or fish. Thank you to Andi for these forest photos!
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