E.S. Laird Middle School Grade 8 students Bennett Amos and Tayton Graham take their turn at skinning a rabbit as part of a cross-curricular land-based learning day. Geoff Lee Meridian Source
Grade 8 students at E.S. Laird Middle School rolled up their sleeves during a cross-curricular land-based learning day that brought their book learning to life.
Pemmican making, skinning a rabbit and fire starting are some of the traditional Indigenous survival skills students practised last week after reading about them in a fantasy novel, The Barren Grounds.
“The purpose is to enrich the learning that is going on in the classroom. These are just the hands-on enrichment activities to make it more real and applicable to life,” explained teacher Leslie Hyland.
“We wanted them to have hands-on experience. What does pemmican taste like, because the characters eat pemmican? All these things are directly connected to the novel, but they also tie into our science curriculum.”
Skinning rabbits related to trapping, traplines and survival food in keeping with the book.
The skill was demonstrated by Derek Hyland who teaches a land-based cultural leadership program at Bishop Lloyd Middle School with students like Tayton Graham taking a turn using a pocket knife.
“We were cutting the skin off so we could skin the animal right around the leg part,” said Graham with fellow student Bennett Amos working on another part of the rabbit.
Graham says the exercise teaches survival skills if they ever need to skin and eat a rabbit, something he can relate to on his family’s farm.
“I’ve skinned beavers and stuff like that, but never rabbits,” he said, noting he would probably eat it in the wild if he had to.
Teacher Christine Johannessen was on hand to talk about fire starting fits into the curriculum and the book.
“Today, we’re learning about states of matter, so the students will start their fires and then they’ll put ice in a tin can to show the change in state from a solid to liquid and gas.”
“We are also tying it to their novel study, The Barren Grounds, where it’s a bit of survival.”
The catch was, students only had three matches to get their fire going.
Students Gaven Sutton and Kolby Miller teamed up to create a flame on their second match.
Sutton said the trick is to “block off the wind, put your hand and body in the way,” while Miller noted their fire starter kit included a mix of wax, sawdust and some dry lint.
The hands-on learning also extended to a dissected fetal cow to teach body systems to students.
Hyland called the event a total school collaboration.
