first nations awareness: putting it all together lesson #4 ...€¦ · salmon cycle mural time: 1-2...

First Nations Awareness: Putting It All Together Lesson #4

Aboriginal Nations Education Division, GVSD#61 1

First Nations Awareness:

Putting It All Together

Lesson #4

Salmon Cycle Mural

Time: 1-2 weeks

Materials:

Unlined paper, newsprint or large rolls of green, brown and blue papers, pencils, scissors,

crayons, paint, glue, First Nations art animals, pictures of totem poles, longhouses, canoes, boats,

fishing equipment to use as models, The First Salmon Ceremony (pg ) and Pacific Salmon life

cycle pie chart

Main Idea: Salmon is and was very important to Northwest Coast First Nations people.

Objectives:

Students will be able to:

listen to or read about the First Salmon Ceremony of the Saanich people;

make a story board illustrating the First Salmon Ceremony of the Saanich people;

analyze a pie-shaped chart that lustrates the life cycle of the Pacific Salmon;

make a list of all the challenges that face salmon in their life cycle;

dramatize the life cycle of the salmon;

make a mural of the life cycle of the salmon using realistic art and First nations art styles

The First Salmon Ceremony The First Salmon Ceremony of the Saanich People is from Saanich Salmon, School District #63 (Saanich),

Aboriginal Education Program and is used with permission.

Our Elders today remember times long ago when life seemed to be very different that it is today.

Everyone was allowed to eat the humpback so it was the one for whom we waited before we

carried out our ceremony. When the first humpbacks were found in our nets, they would be

brought to the camp and the First Salmon Ceremony would begin.

The Elders would tell all the children from the age of five to thirteen to bathe in the sea. Then

each child’s cheeks were painted with red ochre. Then fine, soft, white down was sprinkled on

the children’s heads.

Once ready, the children lined up in a row on the beach so they faced an Elder woman waiting by

a pile of fern leaves.



A special Elder then laid a salmon in the arms of each child. The head of the salmon pointed

towards the sea. The children gripped the dorsal fin with their front teeth and went in a line to

the women waiting near the fire pit.

Each fish was laid gently on a pile of ferns, touched with ochre, cleaned and sprinkled with the

seeds of the consumption plant.

The fish was roasted on the hot coals of fire and when they were ready, the children lined up to

receive the roasted salmon.

Before the children ate, a special Elder said a prayer to thank the Creator and to promise to show

respect for the salmon by not wasting any.

After they finished eating the fish, the remains were gathered into baskets by the Elder women.

The children then emptied them into the sea.

The spirit of the salmon was returned to the sea so that the People would always have salmon to

eat.

Initial Bridging:

After listening to the story, have an initial discussion with the students like the following - add

your own thoughts and questions:

Building a Bridge:

1. To life

Does your family have a kind of ceremony before you eat? (Grace, talking about the day, setting

the table…).

Does your family have ceremonies for special occasions like birthdays, Christmas, marriage?

What are some of these special occasions? What do you do at them?

It is important to be grateful for and think about where your food comes from? Why or why not?

How did the First Nations people make children feel important?

How do your friends and family make you feel important?

How can you make others feel important?

How can you show your gratitude for the food you get to eat?

2. To school

What ceremonies do you have at school? (assemblies, pledges, readings, art dedications, or

awards received…)

Are children important at your school? How do you know?

What ceremony do you have that starts and finishes the school year?

Why are these ceremonies important?

Who talks part in these ceremonies?

What do they do?

Sometimes school gives you “food for thought” instead of food to eat. What does that mean?

What did you learn at school that you are grateful for or that you are glad you learned?



How can you show your gratitude?

3. To when you get a job

What ceremonies do businesses or jobs have that begin and end the year?

What ceremonies are there when a person joins or retires from a firm?

How do people show that they are grateful for their jobs?

Why is it important to be thankful for your job?

What happens to you if you only see what is wrong with your job?

What happens to the job you do for your employer if you only see what is wrong with your

workplace?

4. To how you act and feel

How do you feel after you have eaten a really good meal?

Do you ever thank the cook for the cooking?

Why might this be a good idea?

Do you ever think about the plants and animals that gave their lives to feed you?

Why might thinking about them be a good idea?

First Nations people often thank the Creator of the plants and animals or the plants and animals

themselves for giving their lives to feed the people. Do you think that this gratitude would keep

First Nations people from wasting their food? Why or why not?

What are some of the ways we waste food?

What happens because we waste food?

What are some ways we can treat the Earth’s plant and animals better?

Structural Analysis:

What do we know about the words we will be using?

Vocabulary:

Have several students define each vocabulary word in their words according to their own

associations or after hearing several sentences from you in which the words are used in context.

Also, explain any nonverbal cues or instructions that you use.

ceremony red ochre waste white down

consumption plant respect humpback

(pink salmon) spirit

ferns Elder dorsal fin gratitude

grateful creator remains special occasion

Add any other vocabulary from the story your students need to learn or review. See how

complete your students can make the definitions. (Elaboration thinking skill)



For example, a ceremony is something special that you do to show how important something or

someone is to you.

Operational Analysis:

How do we plan and complete what we are going to do?

To get your students in the habit of planning, completing tasks and solving problems,

demonstrate your way of analysing and completing a task. Then get students to tell your full

strategy back to you. After students can retell your strategy before they begin several tasks and

use it to complete the task, they can begin to modify and create their own strategies with your

help and later alone. This teaches your students to anticipate and avoid problems they might

encounter. You want your students to be flexible enough to solve problems on-the-spot as well

as to be able to think divergently and plan for the longer term solutions.

For example: Teacher modelling

Activity #1

The assignment for your class might be:

Make a story board that illustrates the First Salmon Ceremony

Say: “When I get an assignment or task like this, I start to plan what I need to do to finish it.”

1. I need to know what a story board looks like and what it does. (Show them the model

and explore what they see.)

2. I need to draw a blank story board (or fold a blank piece of paper in sections) that I can

change as I go along. So, probably the first story board will be a “rough or first draft” on

the chalkboard that I can erase from or add to as I go along.

3. I need to make a list of about six to eight things that happened in the ceremony and put

them in order. For example:

a) Our Elders today remember times long ago when the First Salmon Ceremony was

held to honour the salmon and thank the Creator.

b) When the first humpbacks arrived, the First Salmon Ceremony would begin.

c) All the children would bathe in the sea. Then their cheeks would be painted with red

ochre and white down would be sprinkled on their heads.

d) Now they were ready to line up and receive the salmon in their arms. The head of the

salmon faced the sea. The children gripped the dorsal fin in their teeth.

e) Each salmon was laid on fern leaves, cleaned, sprinkled with seeds of the

consumption plant and roasted in the hot coals of the fire.

f) The ceremonial Elder said a prayer of thanks and promised to show respect for the

salmon by not wasting any. Then they gathered the remains and returned them to the

sea.



4. I can draw these right onto the paper, one event per section of paper or per piece of paper

as a “rough or first” board.

5. Now I make a “good or final” copy of each page or section with the events in the correct

order and drawn or coloured or painted.

Do this strategy with your class, first as an overview, than one step at a time. Ask the class to

rehearse this strategy out loud. (Later they can do it silently when you no longer need to hear

and correct it.) Ask several students to repeat the strategy to you from memory until it seems

that most of the class knows what will be happening.

Life Cycle of the Pacific Salmon Pie Chart

Initial Bridging:

Do this even with young primary students so they learn to think more globally:

Building a Bridge:

1. To life

Where are the stages of a human being’s life?

How long were you at the “baby” stage?

How old is a teenager?

What can happen to a person to make him die early?

What dangers do human beings face?

In what environments do humans live?

Which environments help you live longer? or die sooner?

2. To school

What are the major stages of education? or schooling?

At which stage are you?

How far do you plan to go? and why?

What can happen to a student to make him/her quit early?

What dangers do you face at school?

What helps you stay in and do well at school?


What are the major stages of employment? At which stage are you? (pre-job, education, or part-

time after school, volunteer, shores at home)

How far do you plan to go in a job? (entry level worker, in charge of some people or a

department, company president, own the company)

What might make you change your job?

What dangers do you face at the workplace?

What challenges to you face on the job?

What is the difference between challenge and danger?

How can you make your job satisfying and safe enough for you?



4. To how you feel and act

How do you feel when you have a general idea of what is going to happen to you?

How do you feel when you never know what is going to happen next?

What would it be like to be always looking for danger, as the salmon does?

How do you think the salmon know where to go when it is time for them to spawn?

Often people think they are in danger when they are only faced with a challenge. An example

might be the fear of an exam becoming so great you think you are in danger, but you really face

the challenge of getting prepared?

Can you think of other examples like this?

Structural Analysis:

Vocabulary:




environment salt water alevine fishery

pie chart spawning fry escape

stages eggs fingerlings heading up-stream

fresh water hatched adults



1. Display the pie chart or give each student or group a copy of the chart.

2. Count the divisions.

3. Discuss the labelling of each division.

4. Discuss the time salmon spend in salt and fresh water.

5. Make a list of all the challenges faced by salmon. Make it very specific so that students have

many things to choose from for their mural later. For example: bears, raccoons, ravens, sea

gulls, dogs, wolves, eagles, First Nations Fishermen, sports fishermen, large fishing fleets,

waterfalls, disease, lack of food, pollution, industrial heating of the water, hydro-electric

dams, seals, sea lions, killer whales, sharks, other fish, change in the river or stream bed

because of logging, mining, land development for housing or industry…

6. Colour code the pie chart by colouring in each stage of the fresh water vs. the salt water

stage.



Activities

Activity #1

Make a story board illustrating the First Salmon Ceremony

1. Demonstrate your strategy for doing this activity.

2. Ask: Where are story boards used? (in comics, to develop a movie or TV show plot, to

illustrate a book)

3. Tape six sheets of paper (or fold a single piece of paper into sections) and tape them to

the chalkboard. What does a blank story board look like? In which direction do the

events of the story go? (left to right) What will I do in the blanks?

4. Students choose whether to include words on the story board.

5. Students may choose to make an entire story board on their own, in groups or as a class.

6. Draw a rough draft and colour a final draft of the story board. Display the boards.

Activity #2

Analyze a pie-shaped chart (this chart is not to scale or in proportion) that illustrates the

life cycle of the Pacific Salmon

A pie-shaped chart can show the stages of the Pacific Salmon’s life, how long the stages are,

what the stages are called, how long the salmon spends in fresh and salt water, and what can

happen to the salmon during its life.

Summary:

What things did we do and learn today? Brainstorm the answer to this question with students

and put the results on the chalkboard or on a chart. Ask other questions such as: What things did

you learn about this subject today? What activities did we do? What happened first, second,

etc.? What things did you learn about yourself? (Give some examples) What things did you

learn about salmon?

Summative Bridging:

What things did we do and learn today that will be important to us in our lives? Have a

discussion with our students and ask questions like:

How can we use what we learned today to help us in our lives?

Did we learn anything that might help us in school? What?

Did we learn anything that might help us later, when we get jobs?

Why is it important to help the salmon survive? How can we help the salmon survive?



Life Cycle of the Pacific Salmon

Fresh Water

Salt Water

Eggs (3000)



Activity #2 continued

Summary:





learn about salmon?

Summative Bridging:

What things did we do and learn today that will be important to us in our lives? Have a

discussion with our students and ask questions like:



Did we learn anything that might help us later, when we get jobs?

Why is it important to help the salmon survive? How can we help the salmon survive?

Activity #3

Create a play about a school of salmon

Main Idea: We can show the life of salmon by creating a play.

Initial Bridging: How is creating a play like life? School? To when you get a job? To your

feelings and actions?

Structural Analysis: Vocabulary - narrator, plot, set, characters, costumes or masks


1. Students (or you) choose groups for students to work in.

a. writing the dialogue for the narrator based on the pie chart analysis and the list of

challenges

b. making the set, back ground and props

c. making costumes or masks

d. being the characters (a school of salmon only two of which make it to the end to

spawn, animals, fishermen, etc.

e. audience (this can be your class or another class, or community group like some

elders)

f. director/producer

2. Students carry out their group’s activities

3. The actual play is performed

4. Students evaluate all the groups, and write down suggestions or improvement next time.



Summary





learn about salmon and staging a play?

Summative Bridging

What things did we do and learn today that will be important to us in our lives? Did we learn

anything that might help us in school? What? Did we learn anything that might help us later,

when we get jobs? Did we learn anything about working together and feelings? What? How

can we work together to help the salmon survive?

Activity #4

Make a salmon mural

Main Idea:

You can work together as a group to design and make a salmon life cycle mural using realistic

and First Nations art styles.

Initial Bridging:

After listening to the story, have an initial discussion with the students like the following - add

your own thoughts and questions:

Building a Bridge:

1. To life

Have you ever worked with a group or team to get something done? (Family, potlatch, sports,

school, day care, community). Tell me more about that.

What were some of the good things that happened because people worked together?

What would you change that didn’t work so well?

Was someone in charge? Who?

How did that work out?

Could everyone remember what they were supposed to do? Why or why not?

Did everyone get to give their opinion?

Did everyone do their share?

Did you get the project done on time? Why or why not?

What is your favourite way to work? (alone, small group, whole class, with adult, with friend)

2. To school

Is the school staff like a team or work group? How do you know?

Is your class a cooperative group? For what things?



When isn’t it a cooperative group? Why? What was your last cooperative or group project?

What worked about that? What didn’t work?

What would you change to make it better?

How can a mural make the salmon cycle easier to remember than just hearing about it or reading

about it?

Who benefits when you make mural?


What happens when people on the job work cooperatively with each other?

What happens when one or some people don’t want to work with others?

When it is OK to work alone?

When is it OK to work as a team on the job?

Name some professions. When do people work in groups and when do they work alone?

Does someone need to be in charge? Why or why not?

Do directions have to be written down on the job? Why or why not?

Who does the writing on the job?

Who does the reading?

Who keeps track of the time?

DO you need to keep track of time? Why or why not?

Does someone need to tell the workers how well they are doing? Why or why not?

Does someone need to tell how the job is doing? Why or why not?

4. To how you feel and act

How would you feel if you did your job well and the work got finished because of what you did?

Has that ever happened?

Has your sports team ever won a game? Why did the win?

What happens when someone does not want to work or play on the team?

How do you feel when that happens?

What can you do to help that person?

Have you ever felt like not participating? Why?

Is it ever OK not to participate? When?

How would you feel if everyone on your team did his/her job?

Structural Analysis: What do we know about the words we will be using?

Vocabulary:




Professions Cooperative Appreciation Mural

Keeping tack Directions Contribution Deadline

Being in charge Staff Staying on topic supplies



Add any other vocabulary from the story your students need to learn or review. See how

complete you students can make the definitions. (Elaboration thinking skill)

For example: in cooperative groups there is a:

reader the person who reads the directions, assignment, story etc.

recorder the person who writes down what the group is going to do, what decisions, the

group makes, how long it will take to do the job, who is going to do what, what

material or help the group needs.

monitor the person who makes sure people stay on the topic, takes care of supplies, know

what the others are working on, makes sure everyone gets a chance to give their

opinion, and goes and gets the help the group decides it needs.

encourager the person who is like the cheerleader, tells the others how well things are going,

shows appreciation for each person’s contribution, encourages the group members

who are having trouble, gets others to speak up an share.

presenter the person who gives the final talk about the project, tells how htings went, puts

the mural up so that others can see it.

time keeper the person who looks at the clock to make sure materials get taken out and put

back on time, works with the monitor so that no one person takes too much time

talking or doing his/her part of the project, has the final deadline for the project

written down.



To get your students in the habit of planning, completing tasks and solving problems,

demonstrate your way of analysing and completing a task. Then get students to tell you full

strategy back to you. After students can retell your strategy before they begin several tasks and

use it to complete the task, they can begin to modify and create their own strategies with your

help and later alone. This teaches your students to anticipate and avoid problems they might

encounter. You want your students to be flexible enough to solve problems on-the-spot as well

as to be able to think divergently and plan for the longer term solutions.

For example: Teacher Modelling



Activity #4

The assignment for your class might be:

Make a wall mural that show the life cycle of the Pacific Salmon

Include, say “When I get an assignment or task like this, I start to plan what I need to do to finish

it.”

1. The class needs to decide what will be on the mural. What scenery? What people and what

animals? What will they be doing? How can the First Nations art designs be incorporated?

Native Indian art-style heads and realistic bodies? A First Nations eagle sitting in a realistic

tree? Use the list of dangers and challenges to salmon, as well as the First Salmon ceremony

as possibilities? Should the mural be drawn, painted or have different textures and papers on

it? Sometimes the trees of a forest can be mass-produced by cutting out paper trees from 3-4

tracers for the less creative group members. Can the mural itself be cut out of three long

strips of paper? (a blue shy, brown or green earth, a different blue for sea or river). Will

there be any three-dimensional parts like a house sticking out of the mural, or trees whose

branches stick out from the mural? What supplies will be needed and where can they be

found? What books or designs will be needed?

2. The class needs to decide how many groups could create the different parts of the mural. For

example: who draws what, who paints what, cuts out what, glues what, measurers what, tapes

what?

3. The class needs to decide when they want to complete the final project.

4. Groups need to be formed, by interested or assignment by the teacher.

5. The groups need to assign roles like the ones in the vocabulary lesson. Assist them with this.

6. Each group needs to practise the roles using a simple problem first. They can start with:

what supplies do we need and who is responsible for collecting them?

7. Each group needs to make a plan and present it to the teacher for feedback before they begin.

8. Each group begins their tasks.

9. At convenient times review progress with the group monitors and all the group members.

10. When the mural is finished, celebrate!!! Ask the class how they would like to celebrate.

They could also formally dedicate the mural with a ceremony they create.

11. Display the mural.



Activity #5

Make story circle

Use the Saanich Curriculum material and follow the instructions. The first Salmon Ceremony

circle activity is used with permission from the First Nations division of the Saanich School

District #63

The First Salmon Ceremony of the Saanich People

Our Elders today remember times long ago when life seemed to be very different

that it is today.

Everyone was allowed to eat the humpback so it was the one for whom we

waited before we carried out our ceremony. When the first humpbacks were

found in our nets whey would be brought to the camp and the First Salmon

Ceremony would begin.

The elders would tell all the children from age five to thirteen to bathe in the sea.

Then each child’s cheeks were painted with red ochre. Then fine, soft, white

down was sprinkled on the children’s heads.

Once ready, the children lined up in a row on the beach so they faced an Elder

woman waiting near a pile of fern leaves.

A special Elder then laid a salmon in the arms of each child. The head of the

salmon pointed towards the sea. The children gripped the dorsal fin with their

front teeth and went in a line to the women waiting near the fire pit.

Each fish was laid gently on a pile of ferns, touched with ochre, cleaned and

sprinkled with the seeds of the consumption plant.

The fish was roasted on the hot coals of fire and when they were ready the

children lined up to receive the roasted salmon. Before the children ate, a special



Elder said a prayer to thank the Creator and to promise to show respect for the

salmon by not wasting any.

After they were finished eating the fish, the remains were gathered into baskets

by the Elder women. The children then emptied them into the sea.

The spirit of the salmon was returned to the sea so that the People would always

have salmon to eat.

(Used with permission from Saanich School District #63 and adapted from an account given by a

Tsawout man to Diamond Jenness in the early 1900’s. This version was checked and approved

by Victor Underwood, Sr. in November 1984)



Story Circle

Instructions:

You need scissors, glue and construction paper cut 30 cm x 30 cm

1. Cut out all the pieces

2. Arrange the pictures in a circle with the paragraphs under them

3. Glue the pictures and paragraphs on to construction paper



Story Circle

Instructions:

1. Make your pictures into a circle first.

2. Fit the blank strips so they fit under the pictures - be careful, they are different sizes.

3. Print your own words into the blank strips.

Used with permission from Saanich School District #63



Salmon



Summary:

What things did we do and learn today?

Brainstorm the answer to this question with students and put the results on the chalkboard or on a

chart. Ask other questions such as: What things did you learn about this subject today? What

activities did we do? What happened first, second, etc.? What things did you learn about

yourself? How did you learn best?

What things did you learn about First Peoples legends? What things did you learn about the

Pacific salmon? What things did you learn about First Nations people with regard to salmon?

What things did you learn about working in a group? What things would you do differently?

Summative Bridging:

What things did we do and learn today that will be important to us in our lives?

Have a discussion with your students and ask questions like:



Did we learn anything that might help us later when we get jobs?

Why is it important to learn about First Nation ceremonies, and how First Nations people use

their environment (past and present)?

How can that help all of us today?

How is salmon important to us all?

Did we learn anything about how feelings affect the workplace? What?

Did we learn anything that might help us work better in groups? What?

What did we learn about drama that might be useful to us in other areas of our lives?

What things did we learn about gratitude?

How can that be helpful in other areas of our lives?

Of what use are ceremonies?

Why are they important in our lives?

first nations awareness: putting it all together lesson #4 ...€¦ · salmon cycle mural time: 1-2...

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