Curriculum Focus Grade: 8

As students bead, they reflect on Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee teachings and consider how drawing on Indigenous ways of knowing and being in addition to Western knowledge system can enable humanity to address complex global challenges more effectively.

Students learn about the Haudenosaunee Great Law of Peace and the Anishinaabe 7 Grandfather Teachings and reflect on how these teachings can position us to address global conflicts in a good way.

Students learn about the Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe 13 Moons and think about how they can engage reciprocally with the land during different times of the year.

As an example of how Indigenous people view the land as first teacher, teacher discusses the Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe Clan System with students.

Students learn about Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee ceremonies and land-based practices that enter community members into reciprocal relationships with the natural world. Students reflect on their own cultural traditions that encourage reciprocity with the natural world.

Teacher is introduced to the importance of storytelling to Indigenous ways of knowing and being and the value of integrating Indigenous Knowledge into STEM teaching and learning.

Students learn the The Ohen:ton Kariwatehkwen (The Words that Come Before all Else or the Thanksgiving Address) and reflect on how it positions humans in a rich, interdependent web of relationships with elements in the natural that must be related to with reciprocity. As an extension students journal in an outdoor sit spot about what they are grateful for in nature.

Students take on the role of different people/animals affected by a water issue and have a town hall meeting to discuss its impacts.

A culminating activity for students to research a current Canadian environmental issue and design a social justice campaign for their school.

Students keep a personal water journal to track their own water consumption and understand ways they can contribute to making positive change on a personal level.

Students build a water filter out of materials found in a wetland

: Students use an egg carton to learn about how contaminants spread in a watershed and about the difficulties related to oil spill cleanup.

Students play a tag game that visually demonstrates how microplastics, toxins, and mercury accumulate in fish and humans, and illustrates the interconnectedness of living things.

Students learn about the impact of salt on local lakes by testing for key indicator species like zooplankton.

: Using dish soap students will test for water hardness vs. softness to determine the concentration of minerals like salt present in nearby bodies of water.

With a focus on Constance Lake First Nation students learn about the lack of access to clean drinking water in Indigenous communities across Canada. Students also learn about how technology can be used monitor water health and other changes in the natural world.

Students learn about watersheds and how they relate to the value of interdependence and the Indigenous Law of Water. Students also consider parallels between Indigenous land-based knowledge and Western scientific knowledge.

Students learn about the water contamination from oil sands and how scientists are helping to clean it up.

Discuss the Indigenous Law of Water and investigate toxins from personal care items that are harmful to aquatic environments.

Students listen to Anishinaabe water songs and the meaning behind them. Students reflect on how songs (music) possess power and can create powerful social change.

Students learn about Indigenous ceremonies that are related to water. Students research another culture’s ceremonies related to water and share them with the class.

Map an Indigenous trade and travel route along Canada’s first highway, navigating waterways from Kingston to Mexico.

Students research the original Indigenous names for local waterways and create a map with those names.

Students brainstorm where water is found and how it moves though our environment. Students then play a game to demonstrate how water moves through the water cycle using local examples.

Learn about the four parts of the medicine wheel, collect items from nature and create a story that connects items.

Students review the Ohèn:ton Karihwatéhkwen (The Words That Come Before All Else) and consider the centrality of water to Haudenosaunee and other local Indigenous groups.

Students explore Indigenous and Western perspectives on forests. Examining logging protests that occurred in Fairy Creek, BC as a case study, students consider how drawing on two-eyed seeing can help to generate meaningful solutions to complex global issues.

Students discuss what Indigenous land-based knowledge and Western science is with their teacher and generate an understanding of how to foster knowledge mutualism.

Students learn about the holism that exists within themselves and within their family, community, nation, land-base etc. Students set goals on how they can foster holistic wellbeing.

Together, students determine what the topic of the Learning Bundle is and brainstorm everything they already know about water.

Students practice reciprocity by releasing their good intentions and thoughts into a local water source.

Students learn about Water Walkers and the important work they do protecting local water sources.

Students think about the connections of life to water through examining a piece of art by Métis artist Christi Belcourt. Students will then create their own artwork depicting their connections to and interdependence with water.

Students evaluate passages and images related to water and predict what perspective they are from. Students then compare and contrast the Indigenous and Western scientific views and understandings of water.

Students learn about the two-row wampum and how it can be used as a metaphor for using Indigenous land-based knowledge and Western science together. Students design wampum inspired beadwork to consolidate their learning.

Students reflect on the plants and animals around them that provide for their holistic well-being and learn about the Honorable Harvest and how it relates to the gifting of tobacco.

Students learn how to construct a meaningful, personalized, land acknowledgement in which they articulate the ways in which they are actively working towards reconciliation and striving to live in reciprocity with the land in a manner that will protect it for the next 7 generations.

Students engage in a land-based meditation reflecting on how they can live in reciprocity with the land. Following this, teacher leads a discussion with students regarding the nature of the Original Instructions that are transmitted through the land to Indigenous peoples.

Students listen to the Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee creation stories and reflect on how these stories have shaped Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee culture. Students learn about how Indigenous ways of knowing and being are contained in Indigenous languages and the impact of colonization on language loss.

Students are introduced to the Anishinaabe practice of smudging and reflect on how its teaching to see and hear the best in others and speak about others with kind words can inform how students engage in the learning in this Bundle.