Learning Story – Fish scale art
The Week of October 5, 2023
What Happened?
Fish scale art, bison stroganoff, tarps/shelters, sliding hill, fiddling, dancing, rope maze, tipi
Why is it Important?
Today we began creating our community and we used many tools to do this. Offering tobacco and fireweed to the fire is an important way to acknowledge the Land and our ancestors, to ask for a good day, to show gratitude and to start our day the best way we can. The Bushkids took the lead on this and we are so proud of them. We created a safe space by introducing ourselves and our favourite foods. We cooked and shared bannock and bison stroganoff together. We cleaned, prepared, cooked and ate a chicken! Many generations were welcomed to Bushkids which included the gentle and supportive guidance of knowledge holders Edna Paul and Russell Mercredi. We reminded each other of our boundaries at Bushkids that keep us safe – always keep an educator in sight and to gather as a group when you hear the wolf howl. The returning Bushkids welcomed the new Bushkids into their play. The youth volunteers made a great effort to create community by hanging up and decorating everyone’s picture. We noticed lots of leadership, initiative and openness today at Bushkids while connecting to the Land and allowing the Land to lead our learning.
What Does This Mean For Next Time?
We hope to clean and prepare more birds together since it is fall time. Many families are hunting right now so we will bring in a moosehide that we completed and share stories of fall hunting. We will encourage the Bushkids to participate in all of the ways to take care of the camp – setting up, starting fires, making tea, preparing the food, serving the food, cleaning up! We will play some Dene games to continue creating community, to understand the purpose of the games and most importantly to have fun together.