Anyone who are stepping on the land of Canada, we must realize the unceded land of Canada. The history of the land, people, and the culture. Using a fun game, children can start to learn about the indigenous communities in Canada!
Cruncher: Fun Facts Game about Indigenous People in Canada
Developmental Goal/Activity Objective:
Learning about land history through a fun game.
Materials Needed:
- Cruncher cut out sheet. Download the template from here.
- Colouring markers and pencil crayons
- Scissors
Procedures/Strategies: (how to present activity and what children will do)
- Color the Cruncher sheet
- Cut your printed Cruncher
- With the illustrations facing down, bring all the corners of the paper to the center of the square.
- Flip your paper over. The coloured side should be facing up.
- Again, bring all the corners to the center of the square. All the corners should meet in the center. Crease the edges.
- Fold the paper in half vertically and unfold it.
- Fold the paper horizontally and unfold it.
- Using both hands, slide your thumb and index fingers underneath the flaps to open your paper and start crunching!
- Count out the number of letters in your name at the same time as you open and close your cruncher.
- Choose a number from one of the Indigenous illustrations on the inside triangles.
- Count out the number you’ve chosen on the inside triangles at the same time as you open and close your cruncher.
- Again, choose a number from one of the Indigenous illustrations on the inside triangles, but this time peek under the flap and read the question at the top.
- The sentence under the question will tell you where to go to find the answer. Go there and see if you answered right! If not, you will have learned something new.
- Go cruncher crazy and repeat the steps as many times as you want!
Guidance and Safety Considerations
Be careful with the scissors.
Source: https://bitaa.com/activity/MzkxMzQ3MnI1OW45dDczOHgyOTE5MDc=
Bitaa Collaboration with Parkland Players
Download the Bitaa PDF here.
What is Bitaa?
Bitaa is an app designed to assist child care providers, early childhood educators, and parents with program and activity planning. The app is created based on the idea that children grow best when they can direct their own learning, and therefore most of the activities in this resource are simple and open-ended. Bitaa makes it so that educators, parents, and most importantly, children, can take the ideas or activities and put their own spin on it. Bitaa is also a compilation for educational ideas as it pulls ideas, and activities from a variety of sources, making it a hub for the exchange of educational information.
Why the Bitaa initiative?
In 2016 Parkland Players endeavoured to fill a gap in Early Childhood Education program planning. Teachers at our centre have always worked extremely hard to plan daily activities, following children’s interest and educational goals. However, in order to support our educators in their lesson planning, the administration at the centre decided to create a resource that educators could refer to throughout the school year for those moments when they were uncertain of what themes to explore next, or how to expand on concepts, or even where to start in a new unit. And so, Parkland Players began compiling activities from a variety of sources and organizing them into themes. This new compilation of information, activities, and resources would later become Bitaa!
How does this origin story make Bitaa special?
Although Bitaa is a separate entity, the collaboration between Bitaa and the educators at Parkland Players is ongoing. The educators and administration at Parkland Players continue to contribute, ideas and feedback to Bitaa, as well as implement the activities in their daily educational method. This gives Bitaa a number of advantages in terms of the validity of the resource. First of all, it helps Bitaa to keep a fresh perspective. Bitaa is continually changing and being updated to better fit the needs of children and their development based on the work of teachers at Parkland Players. In this way, Bitaa is frequently being tested and improved through its proximity to a thriving childcare centre. Secondly, implicitly embedded in the resource are decades of experience from Early Childhood Educators who give their thoughts, approaches, and personalities to the resource. Lastly, collaboration with Parkland Players, a Reggio Emilia inspired centre, means that this resource is also focused on the fundamentals of the Reggio Emilia Approach. Activities are inquiry-based, flexible, and open-ended so that children across a variety of age groups can get the most out of each learning opportunity regardless of their individual developmental location. Essentially, Bitaa continues to support the educators at Parkland Players to be the best they can, and reciprocally, the educators at Parkland Players challenge Bitaa to continue to grow and improve its ability to contribute in meaningful ways to Early Childhood Education.