Throughout this year grade 3 has been focusing our learning through the lens of the First Peoples Principles of Learning, specifically:

Learning is holistic, reflexive, reflective, experiential, and relational (focused on connectedness, on reciprocal relationships, and a sense of place).

During a recent field trip within our community we connected with two local areas on traditional, ancestral and unceded xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam) land. Throughout the field trip students were direct to use their senses and to make connections to their surroundings. They were also asked to reflect on the importance of this place to indigenous people and the importance of stewardship.

This video is a collection of students feelings, ideas and observations.

We participated in a virtual field trip with Jess Silvey, a Coast Salish weaver and fiber artist. You can find out more about her at her website Red Cedar Woman. She provided us with the cedar strips and discussed with us different indigenous uses of cedar. Jess demonstrated how to weave cedar. We then had an opportunity to use our thinking core competencies as we practiced weaving cedar. It is not as easy as it looks!

"They belong to someone. They didn’t just appear in some pile of dirt, already carved or shaped. It belonged to someone. That’s how it was always explained to us."

sʔəyəɬəq—Larry Grant, 2014

While exploring the relationship between humans and their environment students were invited to examine some different types of tools that xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam) and other Indigenous People used and use. The Museum of Anthropology at UBC and the New Westminster Museum & Archives department have collections of belongings that that we were able to examine them during our in-class field trips.

As part of our ongoing learning we discussed different uses of materials found in nature. This includes the harvesting of trees and bark and the protocols that surround this practice. As part of Applied Design, Skills and Technology students worked independently to make a planter out of wood. Students were mindful of their limited materials and focused their attention on the task to ensure they were using their tools including a hammer in a safe and purposeful manner.

Students were able to experience a tour of the New Westminster Anvil Center Museum and Archives Department via an online field trip hosted by an interpretive guide from the museum. This interactive virtual program provided us with information on local Indigenous people’s technology, trade and their relationship with nature in the past and present. Students were encouraged to try traditional foods such as smoked salmon, dried cranberries and stinging nettle tea. Students also made connections to the plants and animals indigenous to the Pacific West Coast.