Little Bear’s Vision Quest by Diane Silvey, illustrated by Joe Silvey 

Before reading Little Bear’s Vision Quest written by Diane Silvey we discussed the importance of stories and how they are an integral part of Indigenous culture. Students learned that stories are not just for entertainment but they are told to teach lessons and these lessons typically focus on ways to overcome a struggle, how to change one’s attitude or behaviour, and how to be our best self. In this particular story, Little Bear learns to be kind, thoughtful and respectful towards others after being banished to a remote island and reflecting upon his behaviour. The students quickly observed that throughout the story, Little Bear’s coat was initially brown (as seen in the cover of the book). Once he had cleansed himself from the bad, negative thoughts and spirits and welcomed the Power Spirit, he was cleansed, and his body was now pure. Once he was pure, the students were in awe when they noticed that his coat was now pure white. The students thoroughly enjoyed this story and the various themes and lessons that they took away from the story.

What we took away from the story:

– Reflect on your actions and problem solve

– Treat others like you want to be treated

– People can change

– Be in control of your emotions

– Be respectful to others

– You always have good inside of you

– How to take responsibility for your own actions

– How to understand consequences

Our art work was inspired by Little Bear’s Vision Quest. Students drew their background, then applied water colour paint and then decided how they wanted to represent Little Bear. If you look closely you can see how the students chose to represent Little Bear, some decided to represent Little Bear being entirely pure, others wanted to portray him as he transformed towards his purity self. I believe these turned out beautifully. Underneath we wrote about what lesson we took away from this story.

Math:

The Gr 2s continue to power through their addition and subtraction unit focusing on numbers 1-18, next up comes working with numbers 1 – 100! Stay tuned to learn about some strategies that we will learn and employ to support us with our solving problem abilities.

The Gr 3s continue to work on their multiplication facts. As we become more familiar we have been relying on a multiplication chart to support our operations.

Social Studies: 

As we continue to learn about our Earth, we have been discussing pollution and the effects that contaminants have upon our air, land and water. Look at the images below, with your family, can you brainstorm and discuss the affects that the pollutants in the images have upon the environment?

In the images below you can see we did a similar activity in class. The students reflected upon the images of pollution and determined how these actions affect our planet.

Happy Friday + see everyone on Monday!