Orange Shirt Day Lesson Plans - ETFO Limestone

Orange Shirt Day Lesson Plans
http://www.mbteach.org/mtscms/2016/09/10/lesson-plans-and-resources-for-orange-shirt-day/

Orange Shirt Day is held every September 30th. The Manitoba Teachers’ Society
– together with Manitoba’s education partners and many Indigenous
organizations – will be honouring residential school survivors.

Lesson Plans and Resources:
Kindergarten – Grade 3
   •   Read a book that talks about the first day of school such as Jessica by Kevin
       Henkes, Scaredy Squirrel by Melanie Watt or The Kissing Hand by Audrey
       Penn.
   •   Have students talk about their feelings about the first day of school or
       when they were courageous/brave.
   •   Read Phyllis’s story
   •   Have students colour the two sided shirt template
   •   Create a class book illustrating Phyllis’ story with promotes and student
       illustrations

When I was Eight by Margaret Pokiak-Fenton
Olemaun is eight and knows a lot of things. But she does not know how to read.
Ignoring her father’s warnings, she travels far from her Arctic home to the
outsiders’ school to learn. Based on the true story of Margaret Pokiak-Fenton,
and complemented by stunning illustrations, When I Was Eight makes the
bestselling Fatty Legs accessible to younger readers. Now they, too, can meet this
remarkable girl who reminds us what power we hold when we can read.

   •   After reading the book have the students colour orange hearts and write
       messages for Olemaun. These messages may be words of understanding, or
       I know/I wonder questions about her experience at the school.
       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSBrkJn3NeI (Also available
       read online on youtube)

Grades 4-8
 •   Shi Shi Etko by Nicola Campbell (see attached lesson plans) ENG |
     FRE
     In just four days young Shi-shi-etko will have to leave her family and all
     that she knows to attend residential school. She spends her last days at
     home treasuring the beauty of her world — the dancing sunlight, the tall
     grass, each shiny rock, the tadpoles in the creek, her grandfather’s paddle
     song. Her mother, father and grandmother, each in turn, share valuable
     teachings that they want her to remember. And so Shi-shi-etko carefully
     gathers her memories for safekeeping.

 •   Fatty Legs by Christy Jordan-Fenton
     www.annickpress.com/Fatty-Legs
     Eight-year-old Margaret Pokiak has set her sights on learning to read, even
     though it means leaving her village in the high Arctic. Faced with unceasing
     pressure, her father finally agrees to let her make the five-day journey to
     attend school, but he warns Margaret of the terrors of residential
     schools.At school Margaret soon encounters the Raven, a black-cloaked
     nun with a hooked nose and bony fingers that resemble claws. She
     immediately dislikes the strong-willed young Margaret. Intending to
     humiliate her, the heartless Raven gives gray stockings to all the girls — all
     except Margaret, who gets red ones. In the face of such cruelty, Margaret
     refuses to be intimidated and bravely gets rid of the stockings. Although a
     sympathetic nun stands up for Margaret, in the end it is this brave young
     girl who gives the Raven a lesson in the power of human dignity.

 •   Red Wolf by Jennifer Dance (see attached lesson plans) ENG | FRE
     Life is changing for Canada’s Anishnaabe Nation and for the wolf packs
     that share their territory.In the late 1800s, both Native people and wolves
     are being forced from the land. Starving and lonely, an orphaned timber
     wolf is befriended by a boy named Red Wolf. But under the Indian Act, Red
     Wolf is forced to attend a residential school far from the life he knows, and
     the wolf is alone once more. Courage, love and fate reunite the pair, and
     they embark on a perilous journey home

•   No Time to Say Goodbye: Children’s Stories of Kuper Island
    Residential School by Sylvia Olsen, Rita Morris and Ann Sam
    No Time to Say Goodbye is a fictional account of five children sent to
    aboriginal boarding school, based on the recollections of a number of
    Tsartlip First Nations people. These unforgettable children are taken by
    government agents from Tsartlip Day School to live at Kuper Island
    Residential School. The five are isolated on the small island and life
    becomes regimented by the strict school routine. They experience the pain
    of homesickness and confusion while trying to adjust to a world completely
    different from their own.

•   I Lost My Talk by Rita Joe (see attached lesson plan) ENG | FRE
    This poem by Rita Joe talks about her experiences at the Shubenacadie
    Residential School in Nova Scotia. The poem talks about loss of identity,
    loss of language and the reclaiming of identity.

•   Tebatchimowin: Promoting awareness of the history and legacy
    of the Indian Residential School System.
    http://staging.legacyofhope.ca/wp-
    content/uploads/2016/03/Tebatchomowin_Guide_2014_web.p
    df
    This resource was developed as a joint Indian Residential School
    commemoration project between the Wabano Centre for Aboriginal Health
    and the Legacy of Hope Foundation. The guide includes important
    historical information and definitions as well as lessons plans for 6
    activities:
       1. Project of Heart: Students create art on symbolic tiles to
           commemorate survivors and their experiences.
       2. Giving Voice to the Brick: Using photographs of an Indian
           Residential School students will engage in a creative writing project
           that will allow them to explore their feeling and reactions to what life
           was like for Indian Residential School students.
       3. The Apology Revisited: Students use the federal governments
           apology as an introduction to the Residential School system.
       4. Bearing Witness: Students listen to testimony of survivors and
           intergenerational survivors. The intent of this activity is to bear

witness to real experiences and learn from their stories, express
           compassion and become advocates for change and reconciliation.
        5. Sacred medicines: Students will learn about the four sacred
           medicines and how they are used.
        6. Nunali: Art and Identity: Students will use Inuit art to create their
           own works to reflect their own identity.

 •   Where Are the Children
     http://wherearethechildren.ca/
     This website contains archival photographs, stories, and resource lists
     which allow students to explore the history and legacy of residential
     schools.

Grades 9-12
 •   Manitoba Education and Training: From Apology to
     Reconciliation: Residential School Survivors
     http://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/cur/socstud/far/doc/index.html
     This Manitoba Education and Training resource was developed in response
     to the Government of Canada’s formal apology to Aboriginal people who
     attended residential schools. The project was created to help Manitoba
     students in Grades 9 and 11 understand the history of the residential school
     experience, its influence on contemporary Canada, and our responsibilities
     as Canadian citizens. This resource includes a video of the stories of
     survivors and intergenerational trauma as well as lesson plans and
     blackline masters organized in three clusters : The Past, The Present and
     the Future.

 •   We Were Children: A film by Tim Wolochatiuk
     https://www.nfb.ca/film/we_were_children/trailer/we_were_c
     hildren_trailer/
     For over 130 years, more than 100,000 Indigenous children were legally
     required to attend government-funded schools run by various Christian
     faiths. These children endured brutality, physical and mental hardship and

cultural denegration. Told through their own voices, ‘We Were Children’ is
    the shocking true story of two such children: Glen Anaquod and Lyna Hart.
    Adapted from EV Staff

•   America’s Native Prisoners of War-Aaron Huey TEDtalk
    https://www.ted.com/talks/aaron_huey?language=en
    Aaron Huey’s effort to photograph poverty in America led him to the Pine
    Ridge Indian Reservation, where the struggle of the native Lakota. His
    haunting photos intertwine with a shocking history lesson.

•   They Call Me Number One by Bev Sellars
    The first full-length memoir to be published out of St. Joseph’s Mission at
    Williams Lake, BC, Sellars tells of three generations of women who
    attended the school, interweaving the personal histories of her
    grandmother and her mother with her own. She tells of hunger, forced
    labour, and physical beatings, often with a leather strap, and also of the
    demand for conformity in a culturally alien institution where children were
    confined and denigrated for failure to be White and Roman Catholic.

•   500 Years of Resistance Comic Book by Gord Hill
    A powerful and historically accurate graphic novel which portrays
    Indigenous peoples’ resistance to the European colonization beginning
    with the Spanish invasion under Christopher Columbus and ending with
    the Six Nations land reclamation in Ontario in 2006.

•   Rabbit Proof Fence- A movie directed by Phillip Noyce
    This award winning film set in 1931 documents the journey of three
    aboriginal girls in Australia who were plucked from their homes and sent
    to a Residential school where they were to be trained as domestic staff. The
    story focused on their escape from the school and their trek across the
    Outback.

•   National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation
    http://umanitoba.ca/centres/nctr/
    The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation is located in Winnipeg at
    the University of Manitoba. Part of the mandate of the NCTR is to house
    the statements, documents and other artifacts gathered by the Truth and

Reconciliation Commission and to make them accessible to all Canadians.
     As a result the NCTR continues to create ways to ensure that teachers and
     students are able to access primary and secondary source documents. The
     website provides access to the following:
        o Links to a variety of educational resources that can be used in the
            classroom (Educational Resource Tab under “Resources”)
        o Access to the NCTR database (Access Your Archive Tab under “
            Access the Database”). Examples of documents that teachers and
            students are able to access include but are not limited to:
            descriptions of Residential schools, student enrollment records,
            school newsletters, photographs, news stories and financial records.

Additional Resources
 •   7 Generations: A Plains Cree Saga, David Alexander Robinson

 •   Muffins for Granny (Film 2006) Director: Nadia McLaren
     Looking to understand her loving but troubled grandmother, McLaren
     interviews seven First Nations elders about their experiences in residential
     schools. Mixing stark animated moments with human faces and home
     movie footage, Muffins For Granny is a raw and honest documentary about
     a difficult chapter in Canadian history.

 •   Project of Heart http://projectofheart.ca/teacher-guideslesson-
     plans/

 •   Where Are the Children wherearethechildren.ca

 •   We Were So Far Away weweresofaraway.ca

 •   Forgotten: The Metis Residential School Experience
     http://forgottenmetis.ca/en

 •   Stolen Children: Residential School Survivors Speak Out
     (YouTube)

This short documentary, produced by CBC, consists of a series of
    interviews with Residential school survivors about their experiences
    attending school.

•   RIIS from Amnesia (Youtube) is a short documentary on the Regina
    Indian Industrial School (RIIS), its descendants and legacy. Run by the
    Presbyterian Church of Canada, the school opened its doors in 1891 and
    was located on the outskirts of Regina, Saskatchewan.

•   Finding Heart (Youtube) is a short documentary on the life of Dr. Peter
    Bryce who as a Chief Medical Officer worked to highlight the mistreatment
    of Indigenous students within the Residential school system and advocate
    for improved treatment and environmental conditions

•   British Columbia Teachers Federation Project of Heart e-book
    http://www.bctf.ca/HiddenHistory/
    This eBook is intended to be an interactive resource leading educators from
    the story to the ‘back story’ utilizing links on each page to offer related
    resources. Throughout this book you will find Project of Heart tiles with an
    ‘aura’ which indicates that this is a link. Click on each of these tiles to find
    additional resources including films,
•   videos, documents, articles, activities and more.