Sample Activities

In the material that follows, it is assumed that instruction will occur at the grade levels as indicated on the chart, Scope and Sequence of Themes from Kindergarten to Grade 12. The activities designed for those grade levels are consistent with the foundational objectives and incorporate the Common Essential Learnings.

Involvement of students' in selecting or designing the learning environment as well as deciding upon activities to assist learning is fundamental to the communicative approach. Teachers should encourage students' to share their ideas. However, teachers may also require examples of teacher-initiated activities.

The teacher should keep in mind, however, that the following are sample activities and should be used with discretion. The teacher may choose to use the strategies as outlined, adapt them, or design new activities entirely.

Some General Comments

Learning a new language can be fun. It can be natural and meaningful, particularly if it is the language of one's culture. It can also be hard work. To engage and maintain student interest, it is important that students' experience variety in each lesson, that the lessons are relevant, and that the students' feel successful. Keep in mind the following:

• Introduce and practice vocabulary within a meaningful context. As much as possible, provide real situations where the language is used. Use rote learning sparingly.
• Teach in small chunks. It is better to know a little thoroughly than a lot not very well.
• Be sensitive to students' needs and interests. A talking circle may help reveal these. Encourage and accommodate student input as to what words or topics are dealt with. students' who have significant input will have a greater interest in and commitment to learning.
• Provide time to listen, observe and practice. Language is learned through repetition. However, repetition does not necessarily mean doing and saying exactly the same things. Nor does it mean rote learning. Add variety by making small changes either to the activity or by using words in different contexts.
• Consult other curriculum documents (e.g., Arts Education, Social Studies, Core French) for additional teaching ideas or examples of how various strategies might be used.
• Use tape or video recorders so that the students' can critique themselves. This may be somewhat intimidating at first, but the students' will quickly become accustomed to their use. Use them at all grade levels.
• Humour can serve as a powerful learning tool and can make the classes fun. Tell a joke, kid the students', and take kidding from them. Tell legends and sing songs with motions and movements, even with older students'.
• Build student confidence. Learning to speak a new language involves taking risks. This may be scary, especially for older students'. Give them the time and opportunities needed to succeed and build confidence. Allow them to make mistakes without feeling threatened or ashamed. Practising with partners rather than the whole class is one way to help build this confidence. Going slowly and letting students' really master some expressions and their usage will build confidence too. Build an atmosphere where making mistakes is normal and okay because that's the way we learn - through trial and correcting errors.
• Vary the activities in each lesson.
• Be sure that there is active student involvement throughout most of the lesson. students' need to listen, observe (e.g., body language), talk and do. The 'doing' part might involve games, conversations, action songs, handling objects, talking into a microphone, or role-playing.
• Consider switching roles occasionally - have students' be teachers. The students' might teach parents, partners, a group, or the class.
• Teach children to ask hypothetical as well as genuine questions (who? what? where? why? when? how?) in the language being learned.
• Generally speaking, teaching a language should be based more on an oral approach than on a written approach.
• Lessons may generally follow a plan like this:
  • Review what was learned the previous lesson. students' may repeat some of the activities, perhaps in a shortened version, or practice in some other way what they learned.
  • Introduce new material. Link it with what students' know. It may be an extension of the previous lesson, or something different. Wherever possible use real or simulated situations, objects and pictures.
  • Practice. Provide sufficient time for students' to really learn for themselves by listening, speaking and doing. Although large group practice may, at times, be appropriate, students' have more opportunity to participate actively with partners or in small groups.
  • Evaluate. This may be in the form of students' discussing what they have learned that period or during the week. It may be a checklist (class or individual), a review quiz, a teacher-student conference. It may be students' critiquing a video of themselves. students' need to reflect on what they have learned. They need feedback as to 'how they are doing'. students' may be involved in setting the evaluation process and criteria. Surprise evaluations generally add to stress, not learning.

Sample Activities

The following are some sample activities to introduce, practice, or review each content topic. Keep in mind that these are samples only. The students' and the teacher, deciding together, are in the best position to make decisions as to what activities are most appropriate for the class.

Emerging Phase

Content:	Greetings
Skills/activities:

• Set up a situation where two people greet one another (e.g., mother greeting child coming home from school). Discuss what they might say. Introduce the appropriate greeting and response. Have students' listen and practice. When you are sure they can say the words correctly, have students' working in pairs, taking turns giving the greeting and the response, as they role-play meeting on the street, coming into a room, or seeing 'long lost' friends.
• Introduce kinship terms, meeting relatives. Have students' practice. After they know appropriate greetings, have them bring hats (toque, cap, scarf, baby cap, etc.) to wear and share or have students' dress up using clothes in the kindergarten classroom. The hats or clothes may represent certain occasions or people of different ages. students' role- play the greetings and responses reflecting their attire.
• During lessons that follow, greet the students' as they come to class using the learned greetings. Expect appropriate responses.
• Practice meeting someone new. students' may be appointed to introduce a visitor or a new student to the class.

Content:	Self-awareness
Skill/activities:

• Make "People I Love" books. These could include photos or drawings.
• Introduce vocabulary using the students' books. Make phrases connecting the family member with a greeting (e.g., Hello brother! How are you sister?).
• Use the hats again. Have the students' role-play (small group or class) different situations of meeting and greeting family members.
• Introduce words showing relationships. Make simple sentences (e.g., "I love my mother", " Brother helps sister.")
• With older students' you might want to make up a family kinship chart.

Content:	Numbers (1 - 10)
Skill/activities:

• If you have an appropriate counting rhyme or song, teach it to the students'. If not, you might make one up with the class. It may be chanted or sung to the beat of a drum.
• Have ten objects (e.g., toy cars, stones) on hand. Show the class one of the objects to introduce word for 1, have students' repeat; show 2 objects and say the word, have students' repeat. Then, beginning with 1, count to 2. Continue perhaps to 4 or 5 during the first lesson. Have the students' working in pairs or small groups, counting as they show objects. After they can count, have students' test each other.
• The students' might use dice and a simple board game like Snakes and Ladders to practice saying the words and counting. If board games are not available, draw a simple one and photocopy it.
• Incorporate counting activities on a daily basis (e.g., number of students' absent today, days until Sharon's birthday, crayons in the box, score in a game).
• Have students' place objects like stones into egg cartons, counting as they go.
• Incorporate activities with Math lessons.

Content:	Food
Skill/activities:

• Select or brainstorm a list of foods that students' like. Have the real thing or a picture of it as you introduce the word. Pass around the picture or article as students' say the word. Using food and number words, make phrases.
• Have students' working with partners to practice saying sentences like "I like eating ____." Have students' draw webs showing "foods we like", "foods other people like".
• Have the students' bring a grocery store bag and pictures of foods from grocery store flyers. Mount the pictures on construction paper. Display them around the room. Role-play a shopping trip where students' each select 5 (or more) items and place them in their bags. Working in pairs or small groups, they take turns unpacking their bags one item at a time, identifying each item as they do so.
• Make an outdoor garden or plant some fruit and vegetable seeds indoors. Have students' describe their plants as they grow.
• If the students' are ready to read the words, make up puzzle cards with the picture of a food item on one end and the word on the other. Cut each puzzle piece in a different way. Place in an envelope. students' may use this puzzle as a review or in their free time. Since each piece is cut in a different way, the game becomes self correcting. Perhaps some older students' could make this for the class.
• Have the students' plan menus for a favourite meal. If possible, prepare and eat the meal.
• Make up or follow some simple recipes (real or fantasy) for nourishing snacks.
• Pretend the whole family is involved in making or serving a meal. Tell a simple story like: "I cut apples. My little brother cooked peas. My mom made bannock. My big sister cut the deer meat. She ate 3 helpings."
• Discuss feast protocol (e.g., men serving, seating arrangement, portions to young and old, extra food taken home). If possible have students' participate in a feast. Emphasize the significance and value of appropriate behaviour. Perhaps have several feasts per year so that children will learn behaviour. students' may watch Elders and learn from them.

  Note: Formal ceremonies should be authorized and/or conducted by Elders.

Content:	Animals, Birds
Skill/activities:

• Relate the 'meat' words learned to the names of animals the meat comes from. Make up simple sentences. For example, "I eat rabbit stew."
• Have on hand lots of animal/bird models, pictures or stuffed toys to introduce and practice the new words.
• Have students' select nick names for themselves (e.g., Running Bear). Have students' greet one another using these names.
• Have students' working in groups with pictures of birds/animals, felt pens and chart paper. Each group may draw a shape to represent a forest or a field with a tree or pond in it. After the teacher has modelled the activity with a few students', students' may take turns naming an animal/bird and putting it into their field. The next round they name it and set it free. Have them count how many - in your field? can be used for food? are domestic? have fur? can swim? can fly? After the game, the students' may draw and label as many as they can in their `field.
• Have each students' make a paper mask to represent an animal or bird. From behind the mask, students' introduce their animal or bird and talk about it briefly.
• Visit a farm, marsh, trap line, reserve or wooded area. Develop related concepts and language with the students'.
• Play 'follow the leader' in the classroom or where there is space to walk in a line. The teacher names different animals or birds and all the students' imitate how it moves or the sounds it makes as they keep moving in a line. Give them only a few seconds for each animal.
• Read or tell appropriate stories and legends. Teach songs about animals or birds.

Content:	Colours
Skill/activities:

• Introduce colours in relation to previously learned terms (e.g., red fox, brown rice) using appropriate pictures or articles. Use items in the classroom (clothing, books, pictures) that have the colours being introduced.
• Have students' cut shapes using construction paper. Print the name of the colour on one side. Turn shapes over to hide the word. Have students' take turns turning one piece over and saying the correct colour word.
• Have students' sit in circles of 4 or 5 with one beanbag for each group. One student says a new word (e.g., white) and tosses the beanbag to a person who then adds a word (e.g., white geese). Keep going to see how long a phrase or sentence can be made. students' may help each other. Start again with a colour word.
• Discuss the 4 colours which various Indian groups use and the meanings of the colours. If applicable, discuss the colours associated with the children's Indian names. (Note: Some students' may not be allowed to discuss their Indian names as they may be considered sacred.)

Content:	Clothes
Skill/activities:

• Introduce new vocabulary along with familiar words (e.g., red mitts, 2 moccasins) using articles and pictures. Have students' repeat phrases. Include some examples of ceremonial or traditional clothing.
• Use the clothes line/pegs activity described in Sample Lessons.
• Play a 'dress up and name the clothes' relay. Divide class into teams at one end of room. Place 5 (or more) clothing items at the other end of the room for each team. Each student in the team has to name each article and put it on, then name it and take it off, then return to the team for the next person to do the same. Words or phrases must be said correctly or be repeated three times.

Content:	Months
Skill/activities:

Note: In some languages the words naming the months are very difficult. The teacher may wish to introduce these words incidentally during the year as the months occur. It may be unreasonable to expect students' to say or remember them.

• Display calendars printed in the language being taught. These can be used all year. Introduce the name of the month along with its meaning. Read or tell legends or other stories related to that month. List names of children who have birthdays during that month.
• As an opening activity for each class, write on the board or ask questions related to the day of the week, the date, the weather, and something special happening that day.
• Have students' make a web for each month as it occurs. With the name of the month in the centre of a sheet of chart paper, draw pictures or write phrases of things that happen during that month. You may want to begin with the summer months and then develop a web for each month as it occurs. By year end, the webs would show a history of experiences.
• Make a large colourful chart (circle or rectangle) showing the four seasons. Place an arrow held with a paper fastener in the centre. Have the arrow point to the current season. The chart could be a collage. Use the pictures as new vocabulary is introduced throughout the year.

Content:	Illnesses
Skill/activities:

• Introduce the names of common illnesses. Then have the students' practice question and answer sentences (e.g. "Does the bear have a cold?" "Yes, the bear is coughing.").
• Discuss the meanings of the names of illnesses.
• Coordinate this topic with plants, especially medicinal plants.
• Discuss how the disease or illness affects the body and what medicines may used. If appropriate, discuss the traditional healer's role in treating illness.
• Coordinate with Health lessons. Discuss and practice ways illnesses may be avoided through exercise, rest and diet.

Content:	Anatomy
Skill/activities:

• Display a large picture of a person on sturdy cardboard. It could be done by students'. Glue small bits of velcro around the picture. Make labels of body parts with velcro backing. Introduce words and have students' practice saying the words and putting labels in the correct places. Leave display up for students' to use in their spare time.
• Use new words with previously learned vocabulary (e.g., hands-mitts, 2 feet).
• Have students' make personal mobiles using outlines of their head, hands and feet on sturdy paper, along with string and large plastic drinking straws (type used for milkshakes). students' may print on the head what their heads like to do or are good at (eat pizza, read, watch movies, think of riddles), on their hands what they like to do or what they're good at (catch a ball, touch fur, draw), and on their feet what their feet like or are good at (run, dance, do toe tricks). Note: Teacher may want to arrange to have some older students' help with putting the mobiles together and hanging them in the room.

Content:	Local events
Skill/activities:

• Introduce and practice related words as the events occur during the year. Record events on the calendar and/or webs for that month.
• Have students' tell stories or have conversations about events. Record stories using tape or video recorders for students' to critique themselves.
• Create booklets of the events with pictures and short descriptions.

Content:	Weather
Skill/activities:

• If concepts related to weather will be taught during the year in Science, deal with this section at that time. As the students' learn the concepts in English, they will learn corresponding vocabulary in the second language.
• Have students' divide a sheet of paper into 4 sections. Illustrate each section showing a different type of weather. Practice telling about each using new vocabulary.
• Use the calendar to keep track of weather using various symbols and new vocabulary.

Content:	Shapes
Skill/activities:

• Introduce and practice using objects and cut-out shapes. It may be appropriate to coordinate this activity with some math lessons.
• Participate in a talking circle.
• In a gym class, divide students' into small groups and instruct them, using new vocabulary, to form circles, squares, etc. Play a game while maintaining the shape.
• Have students' identify objects that are similar in shape (e.g., circle - clock, bottle cap, sun). Use new vocabulary wherever possible.
• If appropriate, identify and discuss shapes used in beadwork.
• Note: Where there is no word for contemporary objects, consult an Elder or person fluent in the language.

Content:	Recreation
Skill/activities:

• If appropriate, coordinate this topic with Summer/Winter Games, Olympics, Powwow or other major event.
• Have students' bring a favourite toy or tell of a favourite sport.
• Have students' working in groups to make up short 'stories' for each student (e.g., David likes to skip.). Have the students' repeat the stories in a cumulative way, always starting with the first one and continuing to the last one.
• With the students', make large bar graphs of favourite sports, activities and/or toys.
• Read or tell stories of traditional recreation and Indian origins of some current sports or equipment.

Content:	Parts of a building
Skill/activities:

• Have large cards made up that can be used as labels. Introduce the new words, practice them, have students' place them in correct locations.
• Have students' working in small groups each with a set of cards. students' take turns placing them correctly or giving the corresponding English word.
• Make up phrases using previously learned vocabulary (4 walls, brown floor, high ceiling).
• Look at traditional homes, using new vocabulary to describe them.

Content:	Furniture
Skill/activities:

• Carry on previous activity to identify classroom furniture.
• Introduce words for items not in the classroom with pictures, clearly labelled. Practice saying the new words.
• Using catalogues, flyers and magazines, have students' working in small groups to 'furnish a room' (blank page or box) by cutting and pasting or drawing appropriate furnishings. Identify or label furniture using new vocabulary. Each group may do a different room. Share and display.

Content:	Plants
Skill/activities:

• Take the students' for a walk outside. Introduce new words as you see different plants. Practice the new words in short sentences or phrases.
• Have the students' working with partners playing "I Spy". Partners take turns describing what they 'spy'. The other partner may point to the plant and say the new word.
• Identify parts of a tree or plant (leaves, bark, flower, roots, etc.).
• Discuss how the plants are used traditionally (e.g., medicine, food, utensils).

Note: Check with Elders in your community as to how and what material related to medicine and healing may be handled.

Content:	Transportation
Skill/activities:

• If the class is studying various forms of transportation in Social Studies, teach new vocabulary at that time using appropriate materials like books, pictures, models.
• Discuss and teach phrases that describe how the students' travel to school, how children in other parts of the world might travel to school.
• Teach terms for traditional modes of transportation. Invite a person from the community to describe how s/he travelled during childhood.
• With the students', make up a bulletin board display comparing traditional and current ("Then and Now") modes of transportation. Teach appropriate adjectives (e.g., fast, four wheels, new). Have the students' make up short comparison sentences or phrases.

Developing Phase

Content:	Self-awareness
Skill/activities:

• Review terms for immediate and extended family.
• Draw a generic family tree displaying terms for each relationship. Point out to students' that 'acting' relationships are just as valid as 'genetic' relationships. That is, a person who the student regards as grandmother may or may not be her parent's mother.
• A word of caution: Personal family trees may be possible, but today's families tend to be too complex and divorce or separation experiences too personal, to do family trees without frustrations. Instead, have each student make 'family webs' - self in centre, linked with 'significant others' in the web. If pictures are available, students' may do family albums with short captions telling something about each person.
• List birthdays of family members on class calendar. Practice saying these in partners or small groups.

Content:	Kinship Protocol
Skill/activities:

• Collect various hats or use puppets to represent different family members. (Stick puppets using heavy paper, yarn and Popsicle sticks are easy to make.) Role-play proper greetings and behaviours with various family members. You may wish to have some creative fun with both positive and negative behaviours. Take care to show respect, especially for Elders.
• Have the students' working in groups with hats, puppets, or other representations to practice new phrases.

Content:	Food
Skill/activities:

• Introduce new vocabulary with the use of pictures or real foods. Practice the words.
• If possible, arrange with the manager of a nearby grocery store for the class to visit at a time when the store is not busy. If your class is large, you may need assistants or take a small group at a time. If a visit is not possible, make up a 'store' in the class using cans, labels, fruit, vegetables and pictures. Have the students' take turns making up sentences or phrases about different foods as they 'purchase' items.
• Have a local hunter or Elder in to discuss traditional foods. Have students' listen for food related words and recall for oral sharing.
• Plan a class lunch or make nourishing snacks to share. Practice new vocabulary.
• Make up a poem or song to thank the plants and animals that provided the food.

Content:	Food Preparation and Preservation
Skill/activities:

• Coordinate this section with a time that it actually happens in your community.
• Have students' experience the processes or invite someone from the community to demonstrate in class. If possible, video tape the experience or presentation. Use the video to review and learn new vocabulary.
• Have students' role-play the activities.

Content:	Traditional foods
Skill/activities:

• If possible, arrange to have some traditional foods in class or tell a story featuring traditional foods.
• Have the students' make up a bulletin board display showing foods and methods of getting and preparing foods of the past and present. Do it in two webs, one showing the past and one showing the present. Display pictures, drawings and artifacts in the web. Make it clear that some traditional foods and methods are still being used.
• Plan a meal using mainly foods that are grown, gathered or hunted locally (e.g., meat soup, tea, bannock with chokecherry jelly, saskatoons). If you plan a feast, be sure to include instruction concerning appropriate behaviour. Have students' watch Elders and learn from them. Emphasize the significance and value of behaviour. Consider having several feasts per year so that children will learn behaviour.

Note: Formal ceremonies should be authorized and/or conducted by Elders.

• Write a paragraph about the animals, birds and plants that provided the food for your meal. Tell how beautiful they were and why they were needed.

Content:	Setting nets/seasonal demonstration
Skill/activities:

• If possible, arrange to have all or a group of students' accompany adults for the actual experience. Have a student or adult video tape the process and use the tape to teach and review new vocabulary. If it is not done in your community, use stories and videos to recreate traditional practices.
• If a video camera is not available, have the students' draw a series of pictures in sequence as a record of the event. The teacher may add descriptive phrases or sentence strips under each picture for student review and practice.
• Compare current and traditional practices.
• Have students' tell stories of their experiences.

Content:	Fish
Skill/activities:

• Introduce new vocabulary in relation to the above experience or, if possible, take the students' fishing.
• Use photos or other pictures to identify various kinds of local fish and parts of a fish. Discuss and learn new vocabulary.
• Play a fishing game. Mount pictures of fish (or names of fish in English) on sturdy cardboard. Set a table on its side to represent a river bank. On one side is a student with a variety of fish. On the other side students' take turns approaching the 'river' with a fishing rod (metre stick, string & paper clip). The student on the river side puts a picture into the paper clip and gives the line a tug. The fishing student may keep the fish if s/he identifies it correctly. If incorrect, the fish must be tossed back. This could be done as a contest between two groups. The members of each group take turns fishing and should be allowed to help each other identify the fish.
• Collect interesting pieces of drift wood. Have the students', as a home project, carve them to resemble specific fish. Display them in class to support discussion.

Content:	Animals
Skill/activities:

• Consider dealing with this material in relation to Social Studies when dealing with traditional hunting and tanning experiences and the fur trade. Or deal with it when people in the community hunt, set traps, and treat the hides. Check with Elders in your community to find out what is appropriate to deal with and what teaching methods might be used with the students'.
• Introduce and learn new vocabulary in relation to the actual experience or with the use of pictures (e.g., from books, periodicals, CD Rom, charts), videos or films.
• Invite a person from the community to explain processes or have a few students' accompany adults in the activity. Video tape the experience or presentation. Using the video, without recorded sound, have the students' take turns providing a commentary using newly learned vocabulary.
• Have the students' make clay models of animals. Display them with a short description of each.

Content:	Birds
Skill/activities:

• Read or tell stories or legends about the birds you plan to introduce. Teach new vocabulary. Have students' retell parts of the story using new words.
• Divide the class into groups of 4 or 5 students'. Give each group a large sheet of paper which represents a field or forest. Each group will draw as many things (water, land, animals, plants, people) in their picture as they can name (orally or with labels). Encourage the students' to show active relationships between items they draw (e.g., bird eating a worm). Share pictures using new words. Save them to add more items when appropriate (e.g., landforms, plants) and to use them to review vocabulary.
• Have the students' collect smooth stones. Paint animal and bird heads and/or whole bodies on them. Prop them up by gluing small stones to the front and back of each painted stone.
• Invite an Elder to talk about the significance of certain birds such as eagles.

Content:	Cooking terms
Skill/activities:

• Introduce in relation to edible plants, animals and fish dealt with previously.
• Plan to have a lunch sharing time. Contact parents ahead of time and plan with students' what they will bring. During the lunch they must 'buy' their food by asking for it correctly (e.g., "May I have a .....?"). During lunch discuss origins, tastes, differences in the various foods.
• Discuss the snacks students' tend to like. Create snacks that are low in fat, salt and calories and have good nutritional value (e.g., nuts, dried fruit, popcorn, pemmican). Create 'snack recipes' in a pamphlet or dictated on an audio tape.
• If you plan a feast, be sure to include instruction and practice of appropriate behaviour. Have students' watch Elders and learn from them. Emphasize the significance and value of behaviour. (Perhaps have several feasts per year so that children will learn behaviour.) Keep in mind that formal ceremonies should be authorized and/or conducted by Elders.

Content:	Snowshoes
Skill/activities:

• If your school division provides class sets of snowshoes on loan, coordinate this section with that experience.
• Compare structure and materials of current and traditional snowshoes. If someone in the community has some homemade snowshoes, invite her/him to demonstrate how they are constructed.
• If possible, go snowshoeing. Have each group make up a snowshoeing chant or rap song (some words may be English). You might want to use this outing as a treasure hunt or do a role-play, pretending to be on a search and rescue mission.

Content:	Numbers
Skill/activities:

• Review numbers learned previously.
• Teach counting skills within a context of math problems to be solved or things being counted (e.g., newsletters, real/play money, packages of pencils, skipping, sit-ups, taking a pulse, distance to various places using map scale).
• Use new vocabulary to count points or keep score in sports activities at recess or after school.
• Learn or make up counting rhymes. Perform and teach them to younger students'.

Content:	Clothes
Skill/activities:

• Introduce new terms using real clothing items or pictures.
• Discuss clothing that is needed and clothing of choice. Discuss material used in making clothes.
• Draw a large circle divided into 4 sections. Print the name of a season in each section. Divide the class into 4 groups. Each group will cut appropriate pictures from catalogues/magazines or draw them for the correct section. Label each item or be prepared to identify items orally.
• Show pictures or filmstrip illustrating traditional clothes. Compare function, cost, appearance, environmental impact, etc., with current clothes.
• Conduct activities in terms of 6 seasons where appropriate.

Content:	Astronomical terms
Skill/activities:

• Coordinate this with science, if possible.
• Read or tell stories or legends involving beliefs from the past. Discuss how perceptions and beliefs have changed during the past centuries and again since space travel. How about the future?
• If possible, arrange to view the sky some evening. Binoculars help to see the moon and planets more clearly. Use new vocabulary to identify satellites, shooting stars, planets, Big Dipper, etc.

Content:	Months
Skill/activities:

• Note: Be aware that calendar months may not translate on a one-to-one basis.
• Use a calendar, printed in the language being taught, during the whole year. Introduce the name of the month and its meaning at the beginning of each month. Read or tell related stories and review traditional events of that month.
• Create a new scroll for each month. On the scroll have students' draw pictures or write comments about special events of that month.

Content:	Illnesses
Skill/activities:

• If possible, coordinate with Health. Identify illnesses that students' are familiar with. Practice new vocabulary.
• Discuss causes of, cures for, and ways to avoid illnesses. Deal with both traditional and other medical practices and lifestyles.
• With older students', you may want to use a Medicine Wheel to discuss the emotional, physical, spiritual and intellectual aspects of the human being and how they all relate to wellness.
• Discuss with the students' their use of leisure time and their diet. If necessary, plan ways to be more physically active, improve diet, and develop healthier lifestyles and attitudes.

Content:	Disabilities
Skill/activities:

• If possible, coordinate with instruction in Health class.
• Discuss causes of disabilities and possible ways to avoid them. Emphasize whatever is relevant to the students' in your community.
• Read or tell stories of disabled people who, in spite of their disabilities, live normal, useful and happy lives.

Content:	Weather
Skill/activities:

• Use appropriate symbols and vocabulary to keep track of weather during the year. Hang a thermometer outside the classroom window. Note temperatures at specific times (9:00 a.m., noon, etc.) on each day for a month. Record on a large classroom calendar.
• Use weather reports from the newspaper. Discuss how and why weather is reported and forecast. Have students' converse in simple sentences: "Today is ...., tomorrow will be ....."
• Have students' research how people in the community forecast weather and how successful their forecasts are. Compare with success of official forecasts.
• Divide the class into groups. Assign each group a different kind of weather and have them make webs using words, phrases or sentences. Share.
• Discuss how weather affected traditional lifestyles and how people adapted to the climate of their region.

Content:	Building Parts
Skill/activities:

• Use a 3 dimensional jigsaw puzzle or have some students' create a model of a building using Lego or cardboard to introduce and practice new vocabulary.
• Have students' draw a building in response to specific instructions by the teacher (e.g., Show two walls, one 5 x 8 cm, the other ..., the bigger wall has 3 windows, etc.). Incorporate previously learned vocabulary.
• Compare current buildings with traditional structures. Discuss materials used, cost effectiveness, environmental

Content:	Classroom articles
Skill/activities:

• Identify and label classroom articles.
• Working in pairs, have the students' play "I Spy", using as little English as possible.
• Divide the class into teams. Have them sit in circles with each student in the team holding a different article (or picture of one), but one that s/he can name. After the students' in the circle have named their articles, play some music while students' pass them clockwise. When the music stops, the passing stops, and students' name the new articles they are holding.

Content:	Seasons
Skill/activities:

• Conduct activities in terms of 6 seasons where appropriate.
• Coordinate with weather activities described previously and/or activities in Science or Social Studies.
• Use a circle divided into sections showing the seasons. List, draw appropriate pictures, or orally identify relevant seasonal weather or activities. Display and add to it as the seasons occur.
• Divide the class into groups, assign each a season. Have each group make up a short skit, song or dance depicting their season. Present it to the class.
• Primary level books may be used to practice vocabulary (e.g., Jack Keats' The Snowy Day). students' may choose books and make up their own stories about the seasons.

Content:	Occupations
Skill/activities:

• Introduce vocabulary with pictures of people in various occupations. (Your library or primary teacher will have books about community workers.) Be sure to include some pictures of women in both traditional and non-traditional jobs.
• Have students' interview family members or other people in the community who have different kinds of jobs. Plan to ask questions regarding training needed, kind of skills required, safety measures used, kind of work done, how they like it, etc. If possible, students' may tape record interviews and play them to the class or small group. Use new vocabulary wherever possible. students' may wish to create a display or book as a class project.
• Have students' sitting in circles in small groups with a student in the centre tossing a bean bag and asking, "What will you do when you grow up?" The student who catches the bean bag will answer, "I will work as a ......" students' will answer in as many ways as they can. The last person to answer will move to the centre and begin again.
• Borrow picture cards from the French language teacher.

Content:	Plants
Skill/activities:

• If possible, take the students' outdoors for a walk to introduce and practice new vocabulary. You may want to do this periodically to observe seasonal changes to the plants identified and to practice new vocabulary and positive conservation habits.
• Have students' make bark and leaf rubbings. Display them with the appropriate labels.
• Discuss the value of the plants in the food chain and as part of a habitat for animals, birds and people.
• Compare use and conservation practices of the past and present.
• If appropriate, invite an Elder to talk about the medicinal use and value of certain plants.

Content:	Landforms
Skill/activities:

• Coordinate with Science and Social Studies programs, teaching the new vocabulary as the concepts are being taught.
• If possible, have the students' create miniature landforms using a nearby vacant field or creek, or using clay and water in a fish tank or basin. students' will describe their creations using as few English words as possible.
• Have students' create their own 'fantasy islands' labelling lakes, grasslands, rivers, mountains, etc. Limit elements to vocabulary students' have agreed they wish to know.

Content:	Directions
Skill/activities:

• Introduce and practice new vocabulary using compasses (real or diagrams).
• Plan and conduct an orienteering exercise.
• Design a grid with a letter printed in each section. Give students' a starting point and instructions (written or oral) involving direction and number. Have them find your secret messages.
• Have students' design their own messages using their grid, number and direction. Work with partners to discover messages.
• Have students' share their 'fantasy islands' in pairs, discussing elements in terms of direction.

Content:	Time
Skill/activities:

• Discuss how people kept track of time before clocks or watches were invented. Practice guessing the time using various physical clues.
• Learn words for parts of the day (e.g., morning, evening, dawn, midnight).
• Identify events that occur in cycles (e.g., seasons, day & night, timetable, sporting events). Illustrate them in a circle. Make sentences or phrases using new vocabulary.

Content:	Transportation
Skill/activities:

• Introduce new vocabulary using pictures, videos or filmstrips.
• Read or tell stories illustrating traditional methods of water transportation.
• Have groups of students' plan a trip that requires 5 (or more) types of transportation (traditional and/or current). Each group will prepare a booklet with each page showing one type of transportation they'll use, or a large map showing where they are travelling and the modes of transportation. students' may write captions or be prepared to tell about their trip (e.g., way of travel, where they are, what they will do) using new vocabulary.
• The student-made 'fantasy islands' may provide ideas or opportunities to design trips.

Content:	Money
Skill/activities:

• Use real or play money to introduce and practice new vocabulary. Try to coordinate with a school or class fund raising activity, flea market, or book sale.
• Set up a 'pretend' market in class where students' can buy and sell, using play money or a barter system and classroom items. Or, set up a real market where students' may sell or exchange things like comic books. Issue 'fines' for neglecting to use new vocabulary and 'rewards' for using it.

Content:	Hunting terms
Skill/activities:

• Introduce terms during a time that hunting occurs in the community.
• Check with Elders in your community to find out what is appropriate to deal with and what teaching methods may be used with the students'.
• Invite a hunter to visit the class or have students' interview hunters in the community. In either case, have students' prepare ahead of time the questions they want to ask. Discuss the questions with the students' beforehand and screen them on the basis of relevance and appropriateness. Questions should be open-ended and address issues such as traditional procedures, safety measures, animal behaviour, and attitudes hunters should have. The interviews or class presentation may be videotaped for future viewing and discussion.
• Compare current and past hunting practices. Create two webs with 'past' and 'present' words or phrases.

Content:	Distance
Skill/activities:

• Coordinate with map study skills in Social Studies.
• Practice using rulers and meter sticks to measure items in the classroom (desk, door, Math book).
• Make up sentences about personal experiences (e.g., distance to school, between friends places, distance you can walk in a day).
• Practice using different map scales on local maps, maps of Saskatchewan, and atlases to measure distances between various places.

Content:	Composition
Skill/activities:

• Have students' working in groups to prepare a short talk or story. Props or pictures may be used. Have each group share by telling their story. Record, using audio or video recorders. students' may listen to recordings to self-critique their presentations.
• Have students' keep a special personal journal in which they practice new vocabulary on a regular basis. Topics to write about may be assigned or left up to the students'. Writing may be in words, phrases or sentences and may accompany drawings or diagrams. The teacher will read the journal entries privately and write or draw positive responses.
• Other writing assignments may be in the form of paragraphs or visual organizers such as concept maps, webs, charts or matrices. These may also be shared in class or with small groups.
• Prepare cartoon type illustrations or sequences with blank conversation bubbles. Have students' fill in the bubbles.
• If language skills are sufficiently advanced, have students' prepare a class newsletter for parents or a school newspaper featuring school news, interviews, puzzles, poems and stories. The newsletter or newspaper could be written in two or more languages.
• If appropriate, the 'newsletter' could be a multi-media production including material recorded on videotapes or computer disks, or produced with a desktop publishing program.
• If you have access to a computer crossword puzzle program, have students' make up some puzzles for other students' to solve.

Extending Phase

Content:	Numbers
Skill/activities:

• Review numbers learned previously.
• Teach counting skills within a context of problems to be solved or things being counted (e.g., newsletters, money - real or play, packages of things like pencils, sit-ups, taking a pulse, distance to various places using map scale).
• During a gym period, have pairs of students' practice volleying the ball over the net. Then have a volleyball game. Keep track of the number of volleys as well as the score using new vocabulary.
• Encourage other teachers to include in their subjects a component of the language being learned.

Content:	Plants
Skill/activities:

• Take the students' outdoors for a walk to introduce and practice new vocabulary. You may want to do this periodically to observe seasonal changes to the plants identified and to practice positive conservation habits. Coordinate with science activities.
• Discuss the value of the plants in the food chain and as part of a habitat for animals, birds, and people.
• Identify and compare medicinal plants of the past and present. If someone is available in the community to speak to the students' about making and using traditional medicines, invite her/him to class. Have the class prepare and screen (on the basis of relevancy and appropriateness) questions they might like to ask ahead of time.

Note: Check with Elders in your community as to how material related to healing and medicine may be dealt with in class.

• Have the students' prepare 'First Aid Kits' (real things or lists) using traditional or other medical practices. Items may be labelled using new vocabulary.

Content:	Time
Skill/activities:

• Introduce and practice using clocks and watches. You may decide to use face or digital clocks.
• Have students' working in pairs to ask and answer questions regarding the time various events of the day (e.g., S.S. period, lunch) occur.
• Prepare a three way matching exercise with cards of three different colours showing various times on clocks (yellow cards), the time written in words (green cards) using new vocabulary, and events (blue cards) scheduled to occur at that time. Place sets of cards in envelopes which may be circulated among small groups.

Content:	Grammar
Skill/activities:

• Study sentence and phrase patterns primarily in the context of stories, poems, and essays as well as the students' own oral and written sentences, rather than in a series of unrelated sentences. It may or may not be appropriate to compare these patterns with English sentence patterns.
• Draw students' attention to idiomatic expressions. Have students' illustrate some in cartoon style drawings.

Specialized Phase

Content:	Syllabics
Skill/activities:

• Introduce the concept of syllabics by showing a variety of symbols and logos the students' can identify (e.g., poison, traffic signs, no smoking, UNICEF, Olympics). Explore their meanings.
• Emphasize that syllabics are symbols and their use is an art form. Integrate teaching them with Arts Ed. Use words written in syllabics to enhance art work.
• Relate syllabics to rock paintings. Discuss meanings of the symbols.
• Design various greeting cards with the messages in syllabics.
• Learn and practice the interpretation and writing of syllabics in the context of stories, poems and students' oral or written compositions.

Content:	Transcribing
Skill/activities:

• Have students' transcribe material that is both interesting and relevant to them.
• Coordinate an interviewing activity with a community project in science or social studies. (e.g., Conduct an opinion poll or interview people regarding a current issue.) Use audio or video tapes to record interviews or conversations. Transcribe.
• Have students' tell stories in the oral tradition. Tape record them and have students' transcribe their own or another student's story.

Content:	Translating
Skill/activities:

• Have students' translate material that is both interesting and relevant to them. Use writing that has been done in class. Have students', working in small groups, critique each other's translations.
• If possible, set up situations so that the translations will be used beyond the class assignment. For example:
  • Prepare a newsletter or a school newspaper (including school news, puzzles, stories, poems) written in both languages.
  • Have the students' translate children's books in the library and provide the translation as an insert in the book.
  • Write a letter in two languages to pen pals learning the same language.
  • Design greeting cards with messages written in two languages.
  • Have students' illustrate and write story books for young children. The stories may be written in two languages. (The teacher may need to bring a collection of primary books to class for the students' to get ideas for style and theme.) Arrange for the students' to visit a primary classroom to read the stories to the children.
• If possible, use school computers to write, translate and/or desktop publish the materials.
• Seek out another class of students' learning the same language and "network" with them to exchange work electronically.