As you know, BEST participated in Orange Shirt Day the last week of September. Orange Shirt Day was designed to educate people and promote awareness in Canada about the Indian residential school system. Prior to the day, we read and discussed a version of Phyllis Webstad's story called "Phyllis's Orange Shirt" which presents a complicated issue in a simplified way for younger students. We wanted them to understand why we were preparing to wear orange. On the actual day, we read the book "You Hold Me Up" by Monique Gray Smith which was written to prompt a dialogue among young people, their care providers and educators about reconciliation and the importance of the connections children make with their friends, classmates and families. It fit well with our ongoing encouragement to show love and support for each other and to consider each other's well-being in their everyday actions in our learning spaces. Following the book we shared how others held us up. We wish you could have been there to hear the wonderful things the children had to say about their families and the things that made them feel loved. Simple things like hugs, putting band-aids on booboos and reading bedtime stories together. It was heart-meltingly sweet and a lovely way to wrap up the lesson. Comments are closed.
|
Mrs. Bowden &
|