Learning Story – Working on the Hide
The Week of April 22, 2025
What Happened?
Today we spent a lot of time working on and around the hide. The Bushkids were asked to consider working on the hide at some point during the day. We centered the invitations to play beside or near the hide to encourage engagement.
Several Bushkids were still very excited about last week’s puppet show, and they created a new theatre and then performed a comedy show, where the puppets shared jokes. Some kids drew and played chess by the hide, while others collected natural parts for the mud kitchen. ???
The Bushkids circulated around the hide all day engaging at different points. A fox came around and we decided that since we were going on a hike we needed to take the hide down to protect it, so all the Bushkids helped remove all the ropes and rolled the hide up, so that we could work on it again next week.
After the hike, we gathered by the empty frame to close the day in a good way. The Bushkids were asked if the hide had taught them anything that day.
“It takes a lot of time and work.”
“It’s fun!”
“It’s teaching me patience.”
“Prayer”
“You can make earrings out of the scrapings.”
Why is it Important?
Each Bushkid is on their own journey of learning. Welcoming them to join in the process of scraping and tanning a hide allows them to make their own decisions and build autonomy. It is clear why we invite them to join and that we will ask again, but that the decision is theirs.
Some Bushkids will use a scraper for less than a minute and then move back into their play. Others will engage in the process and ask many questions eager to learn. Both are important stages in learning, and we value them all.
Dene Kede page xxvi
“Cyclical Learning
Through repeated exposure to experiences, children began to learn at their own rate of readiness. Reality was not hidden from children because it was thought they were not ready for it. Children were constantly learning as they lived life.”
Dene Kede p.182
Students will:
-Recognize qualities of leadership in others and appreciate them.
-Recognize qualities of leadership in the self, and develop them: take opportunities to take responsibility, spend time learning from elders, listen to others.
What Does This Mean For Next Time?
The hide will remain a central part of the Bushkids’ days over the next four weeks. We will continue to invite them to participate in the different stages of tanning a hide. We will also introduce new invitations to play near the hide, so that even if the Bushkids do not fully participate, they will still be able to observe it.
The Bushkids were very eager to hike today and asked to do it again next week, so we will create time and space to go explore different areas of the Land near the site. We are considering doing a tour of NACC backstage because of their interest in puppet shows, we could do a hike to get there and explore different places along the way.