Taanshi!

Taanshi! Which means "hello" in Michif, the language of the Métis Aboriginals.  Friday was National Aboriginal day and we had the great honor of learning a little bit about Métis culture and history from Jason Landry, Evan's father.  

Both Evan and his dad wore their traditional Métis sashes and captivated us all with the history of the Métis flag.  We also learned that this flag happens to be one of the first Canadian flags used.   

 

While the flag has no official name, it is made up of the infinity sign and symbolizes the joining of two people, the First Nations and the early European immigrants.  The infinity sign also symbolizes the continuation of the Métis Nation.   

Jason also brought a ceremonial sweetgrass that is often braided and is used in prayer, smudging or purifying ceremonies for us to see.  

 

After learning about this interesting history and traditions the students were treated to some home made "la galet", also known as bannock.  The bannock was served with special Saskatoon berry syrup to dip it in.  There was not a crumb of bannock or a drop of syrup left over! 

Thank you Jason and Evan for teaching us about the Métis!  We all learned so much!

 

Although this was our second to last week of school, the students have been very busy finishing off their wacky science unit.  This week a new scientist, Professor Von Atom, kindly demonstrated to the class a very exciting experiment involving baking soda, baking powder, vinegar and water.   

 

 

Students mixed both baking soda and baking powder with water and then with vinegar. 

In this picture you can see the students predicting what will happen during the experiment in their "Wacky Science" booklets.  Once everyone completes their predictions they then conduct the experiment and record what actually happened.

As you can see, the students loved watching the mixture explode.

The students also conducted an experiment called dancing raisins.  They poured 7-up into a clear glass and put 5 raisins inside.  The raisins pop up and down in the cup for quite some time. 

This will be the end of our wacky science unit since we are approaching our last few days of school.  Here is one final salute from the brilliant scientists of Division 1 and 2! 

Stay tuned for our final post next week and have a happy weekend!