Some
of these activities can be done in the classroom, but some are better
left for the outdoors or the gymnasium. All of these activities should
be demonstrated and supervised by the teacher. It is important to make
sure the students understand the need to respect other people and other
cultures.
Social
Topics
- Draw a picture of the people who live in your house. How many people
are there? If you live with just your family, do you know someone who
shares their house with their extended family (other people like grandparents
or aunts and uncles)?
- Describe what a whole day and night in a longhouse might be like for
someone your age, if they couldn't go outside. What kinds of things
might they do? Think about what you do at your house when you can't
go outside. How does the amount of space influence the types of things
that you do?
- Compare the kinds of games played in the Arctic with the ones that
people played on the Northwest Coast and in the Eastern Woodlands. What
impact did the environment have on the types of games that the people
played?
- You could also try out some of the games with your classmates or your
siblings.
Food Topics
- Compare types of food with the Inuit, the Haida, and the Huron
- Where do you get your food? Do you have a garden, or do you buy everything
from the store? What kinds of things do think you could eat if you had
to survive outside? (CAUTION: DO NOT EVER EAT ANYTHING IN THE WILD,
MEANING OUTSIDE YOUR HOUSE OR A RESTAURANT, UNLESS YOU ARE WITH AN EXPERT.)
- Try to grow your own corn or beans. This is a good activity to do
as a class or on your own. You could try to dry some corn by hanging
it and then try to grind it into cornmeal. You could also find a recipe
of an authentic First Nations dish and try it out. www.kstrom.net/isk/food/r_corn.html
- Where do you store food in your house? What kinds of things do we
do to make food last a longtime?
Building Topics
- Would an igloo fit in your classroom? Move the desks into a circle.
Take the meter stick and mark out how big an igloo might be. You could
also do this on the field or in the gym. If you were really energetic,
you could take a measuring tape and measure out how big a Huron longhouse
and a Haida house might be. How many people can you fit in these spaces?
How long can you stay inside these spaces?
- Draw a First Nations house or a totem pole.
