The False Face Society was an Iroquois healing group. They had an important job, to get rid of bad spirits.  They used masks, rattles and dance to scare away the evil spirits.

When making a mask, the Iroquois walked through the woods until they found a tree whose spirit spoke to they.  Some would carve their mask directly on the tree and only remove it when completed, while others would carve an outline of the face, cut out that section of the tree, and carve their mask in secluded shelter until it is complete.  The mask was polished then decorated with hair, feathers, and other adornments.

The 4/5 students created their own unique False Face Society masks, inspired by the Iroquois.

 

 

 

 

The Iroquois Indians played the Sacred Bowl Game during the last day of the "Ceremonial of Midwinter" which marked the end of the year. The wooden bowl was decorated with clan symbols.  To play the game a player placed six nuts, which were colored on one side, inside the bowl and hit the bowl against the ground. If five of the six nuts turned up the same color, the player scored one point and took another turn. The first player to reach 10 points won the game.

Partners worked together to create their own Iroquois Bowl Games.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Language Arts Time

 Students practicing short story creative writing inspired by pictures.

Students studied a picture and let a story unfold.  This gives students experience painting a picture with words.  They wrote some very imaginative pieces!

 

 

 

 

 

Having fun hiking with our buddies on Robert C. Parker Day!

 

 

 

The 4/5 students continue their unit on the Iroquois, learning about Native American Medicine Bags.

You might think that a medicine bag should only be carried by a Native American Medicine Man or Healer. That was one type of medicine bag - quite large as it would contain many herbs and articles, sometimes as many as fifty items.

But there is a personal type of Medicine Bag carried by many Native Americans, including the Iroquois.  It can range in size from a small pouch to a long bag. A personal Medicine Bag was not for healing others but to maintain personal harmony - with the physical, spiritual, and supernatural. A youth might have a small Medicine Bag.  As they added experiences, they also added things to their bag, so over the years, they often needed to replace the smaller bag with one larger in size.

These bags were used to carry plants for medicine and also to hold personal items and good luck charms.

 

The 4/5 students created their own Native Americans Medicine Bags and filled them with items of importance.

                                                                                                             

 

   

                                  

    

Each Friday, the 4/5s have "Buddies" with the 3 and 4 year olds.  It is one of our favorite times of the week.  The 4th and 5th graders are so wonderful with their buddies, whether they are playing with them, drawing or writing a book together, or reading to them.

 

 

                                           Buddy Poem

 

    "My Buddy"       

You're my best buddy,
 A caring, spirited friend,

I love the time we spend together
 We read, we run , we play, no matter what the weather.
 

You make me laugh and smile

You add joy to my days

You make me go that extra mile

You're very special in so many ways!

                    

Author: unknown

 

The 4/5's Hopes and Goals for the year.

 

 

Students determined their goals for this year and created original Dreamcatchers.

Legend has it that the Dreamcatcher can be used to help reach goals by capturing and making use of good ideas, dreams, and visions that slip through the center hole, while bad dreams, ideas, and thoughts become entangled in the web.

 

Everyone loves a good book!

The 4/5's enjoying independent reading time

 

 

 

 

The 4/5 students were very thoughtful while writing compliments about one another during the 

 "How Others See Me" activity.

 

 

 

 

 

Social Studies: The Iroquois

Students learned about the Native American Legend

13 Moons on Turtle's Back

 

For each of the thirteen scales on a turtle's shell, there is a Native American moon legend.

Many Native Americans children are taught to examine the segments on the back of every turtle. There are thirteen large segments which represent the thirteen moons, which make up the lunar year. By counting the smaller segments around the lower edge of the shell, you will find there are 28 segments, which represents the 28 days between             new moons.

 

 

Students created 13 Moons Turtle rattles, with turtle's shell on one side and one of the 13 moons on the other.

 

   

 
 

In science class the 4/5's are learning all about bee keeping and the Honey Bees!