SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 83
Building a Wigwam at South Canoe

Students at South Canoe Outdoor Learning put their learning into action to build a wigwam, which they will use as an outdoor learning space!

Teacher Emily Styles explains that her Grade 3-4 class is reading "The Birchbark House" by Louise Erdrich, which is a story about an Anishinaabe family set in 1847. "Learning about first contact and the impacts of contact are part of the grade 4 Social Studies curriculum. Getting to know the characters in this book and vicariously experiencing some of the dynamics between an Indigenous nation living in their traditional way and the newly-arrived Europeans, including the effects of smallpox, has been a great way for my students to understand this part of our history in a personal way. The book describes a little about how the Anishinaabe made their wigwams, or birchbark houses, and the students were interested, so we looked up some videos of current Anishinaabe elders giving a tutorial and we followed their instructions to build our own version of a wigwam."

She added that asking permission was a big part of the learning. "We asked permission from the Land and offered ceremonial tobacco, we asked permission from our neighbour to respectfully harvest some of the saplings from their property, and we asked our principal for permission to build this temporary structure near our outdoor classroom space on our school grounds."

The students selected maple, birch, aspen, and willow for the frame because they're pliable. They chose saplings that were between 1 and 2 thick at the base - thick enough to be strong, and thin enough to be able to bend.

The class watched videos to learn how to lash the upright sticks and the cross-sticks together with a pattern (clove hitch, lashing pattern, frapping turns, and clove hitch) using biodegradable twine. They covered the wigwam with clear poly for windows, followed by a massive nature-brown tarp. Styles added that, while they knew plastic isn't very environmentally friendly, it wasn't the right season to harvest birchbark, nor did they have knowledge to harvest the bark without harming the trees. They made the wigwam big enough to fit a whole class, rather than a family dwelling, to avoid impacting the forest by harvesting that much birchbark - even if they were qualified to do so.

One highlight during the build was when they saw a salamander!

Then the students sewed through these layers with the twine to attach them securely to the frame. "When a big wind came through a week later and our wigwam held firm, we remembered that the main character in "The Birchbark House", Omakayas, was also grateful that she had sewn her stitches on so well when a storm came up: we were living the story!"

The wigwam did need a bit of repair after the first snowfall but Styles and her students made the repairs and are looking forward to seeing how it stands up to the winter weather.

This project took the class a month, working on it once a week. "It was a great project to do in the Fall to help our class work together on creating something tangible that they could be proud of and feel part of as a group. It offered them leadership opportunities when we made a photo-poster presentation to the other classes at our school and invited others to use the wigwam as a learning space."

Projects like these are made possible by the generous volunteering of parents who helped with every stage of this project. "We are so grateful for the committed parent community that we have at South Canoe. We would like to thank the Operations Department for their flexibility and understanding, as that is a crucial support to our ability to use the school grounds as learning spaces. We would also like to thank our neighbours, Mr. and Mrs. Gentles, for their ongoing support of our outdoor program, and we're thankful to the Land for offering kindness, forgiveness, lessons and learning opportunities every day that we are humble enough to receive them."

On November 21st, the class did a presentation explaining the process and answering questions about the wigwam. In attendance was Director of Instruction Jen Findlay, who told the students she was very impressed with not only what they had learned but also how they had used that knowledge to build the wigwam.

The wigwam project supports both critical thinking and the development of competencies in a hands-on, meaningful way, aligning well with SD83's Intellectual Development priorities.

If anyone is interested in coming to South Canoe for a student-led tour of the wigwam, please contact Emily Styles at estyles@sd83.bc.ca. "We would be happy to host you at our school."