Social Justice for Little Learners

Grade Level: PS 4

Topic: Indigenous Issues (Language, Relationship with Nature)

Book Title: “We All Count, A Book of Cree Numbers”

Author: Julie Flett

Link to Purchase: https://a.co/d/cfwsUzv

Link for Online Read-Aloud : https://youtu.be/1_lTapLk_UY?si=xurcAzbeyGwqR5UR

Discussion Prompts/Questions:

• “We love to count! Do you know how to count in a different language?”
• “In this book, we get to help count people, animals, and special things…and we learn how to say numbers in the Cree language. Learning and respecting languages is important…every language counts!”
• Take the opportunity to work slowly through the pages and count, with one-to-one correspondence, all of the objects/items as you read the text.

Follow-Up Activity:

• Play with numbers! Have children sort and count animals, order numbers, and count objects in their space. You can also sing familiar number songs and do exercises (3 jumps, 2 spins, 5 wiggles, etc).

BC Core Competency Connections:

Personal and Social

• Positive Personal and Cultural Identity
  • I am aware of myself as different from others.
• Social Awareness and Responsibility
  • I am aware that other people can be different from me.
  • I can identify when something is unfair to me or to others.

Thinking

• Creative Thinking
  • I get ideas when I play.
• Critical Thinking
  • I can explore materials and actions.

Communication

• Communicating
  • In a safe and supported environment, I respond meaningfully to communication from peers and adults.
  • In familiar settings, I communicate with peers and adults.
• Collaborating
  • In familiar situations, I can participate with others.

BC Curricular Connections:

• Understand (Big Ideas):
  • Stories and other texts help us learn about ourselves and our families. (ELA K)
  • Everyone has a unique story to share. (ELA K)
  • Stories and traditions about ourselves and our families reflect who we are and where we are from. (SS K)
  • Strong Communities are the results of being connected to family and community and working together towards common goals. (Career Education K)

• Know (Content):
  • Ways in which individuals and families differ and are the same. (SS K)
  • Cultural and social awareness, achieved by exploring self-identity, acknowledging cultural differences, honouring indigenous traditions (Career Education K)

• Do (Curricular Competency):
  • Comprehend and Connect
    • Engage actively as listeners, viewers, and readers, as appropriate, to develop understanding of self, identity, and community. (ELA K)
    • Recognize the importance of story in personal, family, and community identity. (ELA K)
  • Create and Communicate
    • Exchange ideas and perspectives to build shared understanding. (ELA K)
  • Acknowledge different perspectives on people, places, issues, or events in their lives. (SS K)
  • Identify fair and unfair aspects of events, decisions, or actions in their lives and consider appropriate courses of action. (SS K)
  • Share ideas, information, personal feelings, and knowledge with others. (Career Education K)

FPPL Link:

• Learning ultimately supports the well-being of the self, the family, the community, the land, the spirits, and the ancestors.
• Learning is holistic, reflexive, reflective, experiential, and relational (focused on connectedness, on reciprocal relationships, and a sense of place).
• Learning involves generational roles and responsibilities.
• Learning recognizes the role of Indigenous knowledge.
• Learning is embedded in memory, history, and story.

BC ELF Link:

• Families have the most important role in contributing to children’s well-being and learning.
• People build connection and reconnection to land, culture, community and place.
• Play is integral to well-being and learning.
• Relationships are the context for well-being and learning.

TFT Through-line Link:

• Justice Seeking
• Community Building
• Servant Working