Roots Class (K – 2nd) w/Marie:
We are talking in the big group about the harm it has done to our understanding of our history when Thanksgiving has been presented as a story about a friendly encounter between cultures. This sounds like a kind story of helpful sharing but it hides the truth about the great harm done to indigenous people when white settlers came to this land. We have learning to do to recognize hurt that has been done and commit to learning about native cultures to honor indigenous people.
In that spirit we watched a beautiful video of na
tive dancers, hearing about the meaning and sacredness to the people. My class then pulled up the website Native Lands. If you put in your address it shows you the tribes who were there before you were: https://native-land.ca/
Learning more about the Coahuiltecan tribe in our area, we listened to a creation story featuring the San Marcos River and saw children and grownups performing some of the dances from their tribe. https://youtu.be/-cMwWCp00Rc
With more time I would share the book Fry Bread by Kevin Noble Maillardhttps://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MibEeGiFThM
Seedlings Class (3rd – 5th grade) w/Piaf:
We began by sharing our impressions of the video of native dancers that Marie shared with the entire group. Why is it important to know the true story of Thanksgiving as Unitarian Universalists? How can knowing and teaching the true story be part of this month’s theme of Healing? We then discussed where we would want to send our healing energy around the planet, to people around the world, to our country and in our own selves. We listened to a beautiful healing song (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaqNvF5oeZc) as we thought about what we wanted to heal in ourselves and sent our healing energy to each other.
Finally, we discussed activities we might like to do at our December park day, including making kites, racing paper airplanes, and playing games.
Wildflower Youth Group (Middle & High School) w/Solveij:
This week, youth began by sharing their thoughts about Thanksgiving and the video of young indigenous dancers that we saw all together. Then, we discussed the ongoing mural project that the youth have been working on for two weekends so far. Finally, we ended with a new game.