For one of my lessons this week I did a first nations craft with my students; we made dream catchers. As soon as I mentioned dream catchers to the class they were extremely excited, which made me excited. We started by reading a short book as well as a Aboriginal story and some back ground knowledge about the dream catcher. The students had many questions and wanted to learn more. When I told them we would be making a dream catcher they became even more excited. It was nice to see them so interested in a topic and asking such great questions. As I did the lesson I was getting a little discouraged because they were needing a lot of assistance, especially the grade 2’s. The problem with making the dream catcher was that it involved a lot of knot tieing and my students aren’t that confident and capable tieing knots yet. Though it was a difficult task for many of the students they never became discouraged or uninterested in it which I took as a good thing. Though it ended up being a lot of extra work for me, I found that the interest evoked by the students and the proudness they showed in their finished piece made the work worth it. I also think that it was good to challenge them a bit and it proved to not be too much of a challenge as it didn’t discourage any of them and they were engaged and on task the entire time.
It is so true that sometimes the projects we undertake are a lot of work for us! That being said, it is wonderful to watch as your students complete and fall in love with them! The dream catcher is a terrific way to help students understand parts of the Aboriginal culture.