Today was a very exciting day as we had special visit from Blackfoot Elder Randy Bottle (Saa'kokoto).He shared some stories with us. One story was about how bears hibernate - the story goes: a bear was hungry so he went to the lake. He saw a fox who had a big pile of fish. He asked the fox for a fish, but Fox said "no" because it was for his family. Fox was using his tail to catch fish under the ice. So, Bear went to the other side of the lake to try to fishing by himself. Bear had a great big tail, and put it through a hole in the ice. Bear fell asleep while fishing. The next day Fox saw Bear and decided to wake him up by shouting "Bear wake up!" He was startled and jumped up. But, his tail was frozen in the ice and it ripped off. He was so embarrassed his tail was gone so went into a cave to sleep for the winter.
We also learned that Mother Earth ("Na'a") uses her "paintbrush" to paint the world with beautiful colors that sometimes change through the seasons. For example, white is used for snow in the winter, whereas greens, pinks, yellows, reds, browns, oranges, and purples are seen in the summer and fall for leaves and plants. He also taught us how to count in Blackfoot. Something interesting about the numbers was that there is no "0" they use the word "nothing" to represent "0". Finally, we can make jewelry out of berries such as Wolf Berries.
We also worked hard on finishing our good copies for Prairie Poems. Next week we hope to make the covers for our poetry books and assemble it with our paintings and good copies
Reminders:
1. Special helper for next Monday (Jan. 21) is Karthik. Please remember to bring your favorite stuffy, toy or action figure :)
2. As the weather is getting colder and there is more snow on the ground, please remember to bring appropriate outdoor clothing, such as: snow pants, jackets, mitts/gloves and hats.
3. Some people are still finishing up their good-copy of the prairie poems - they are taking it home for homework (in the dark blue folders). Please do as much as you can over the weekend and bring it back for Monday! :)
4. Enjoy the weekend and stay warm!
