Hutterite Immigration Learning Sequence

 

One of the units Manitoba students study in grade 2 Social Studies, is Canadian Communities.  It is here that students learn about the first Canadians and people who immigrated to Canada.  One of the outcomes from this unit states that “students will recognize that many people came to Canada from other parts of the world to establish communities.”  For me this is the ideal opportunity to give my students their first introduction to Hutterite immigration! 

 Following are activities I’ve used to teach this outcome:

Introduction

I have several picture books on immigration which I’ve listed at the end of this post.  My favourite one however, is When Jessie Came Across the Sea by Amy Hest.  I use this as a spin-off to discuss the concept of immigration and Hutterites coming to America.

Mapping

To trace back from where their local colony originated, I use the Hutterite Members App or a Hutterite phone book.  The Members App has a “Colony Tree” feature where we traced Elm River’s origin all the way back to Alvinz, Transylvania.  I created cards where I recorded each colony’s name, country, flag and years of existence.  Some of these communities are extinct, while others continue to thrive. 

On a world map mounted on a bulletin board, the students used string to connect the cards, which are stapled above the map, to the places on the map.  Next, they complete the BLM: Hutterite Immigration, recording the country names and drew and coloured the flags.

Suitcase Project

Discussion: What would Hutterites have brought along when they came to America.  What would they not be able to bring along?  Brainstorm what students would pack in their own suitcases if they had to move to a different country.  Send home a copy of the letter explaining the project to their parents.  At home, they make a display of their chosen items and email the photo to their teacher to print.  Create a suitcase out of construction paper.  Fill in BLM: Traveling to a New Land  by listing the items they would take along.  Draw the items or glue the photo inside the “suitcase.”  Attach a name tag with students’ full name and address. Students can decorate their suitcase with travel related stickers. 

Hutterite Soup Beans

One item that someone, perhaps a gardener, had the foresight of bringing to America are Hutterite Soup Beans.  These can be purchased / ordered from the Heirloom section of seed stores / catalogs.   To tie in science, (parts of plants, needs of plants, etc.) plant them with the students and have them take care of them. 
If possible, make bean soup.  An article about beans can be found at Manitoba Co-operator website: An Heirloom Harvest Spurs memories by Linda Maendel.  To read it click here.

Story Telling

Invite Dora Maendel from Fairholme to come (or on ITV) tell the Maendel Story and/or Sonn Ankela Story

Music Connection

A song is currently being composed by Butch Wipf and Dora Maendel about Hutterite immigration.  Once it’s completed, a recording of it will be added here.

 

Books

• A Light Kindled by Tracy M Leininger (a pilgrim story of home)
• Anna’s Goats by Janice Kulyk Keefer (a story of hope and memories)
• Spoken memories by Aliki (immigration memories)
• Thank You Canada by Andrea Lynn Beck (celebrating our country’s strengths)
• Hutterites in Canada by Frances Purslow (history of Hutterite communities in Canada)
• The Whispering Cloth by Pegi Deitz Shea (a refugee story)
• Gleam and Glow by Eve Bunting (finding hope)
• When Jessie came across the sea by Amy Hest (immigration memories)
  
  
  

 

 

 

Black Swallowtails

Black swallowtail chrysalis

Last Fall, during our carrot harvest, our ladies found a caterpillar amongst the carrot tops.  Someone brought it to our house.  Shortly after, my sister Shirley worked in her herb garden and found another one crawling on her dill plant.  We brought them to school where they soon created their crysalids for the winter.
Over the years we've raised countless monarch caterpillars, but this was our first for this type of caterpillar.  Upon doing a bit of research, I discovered that swallowtails lay their eggs on carrot, dill, parsley and fennel plants.
Now, what to do with swallowtail chrysalids during winter? I learned quite a bit from  Joyful Butterfly.  We placed ours chrsalids in a plastic jar and stored in in the fridge  until the apple trees and lilac bushes started blooming the following spring.

Newly hatched butterfly

I was surprised that it would take two weeks from the time they were placed in room temperature to turn from pupa to butterfly!

Wings dried and expanded

 Oh the excitement we had when we came to school that Monday morning to discover a special springtime surprise!!

Being passed from hand to hand

Feeding on lilac nectar before taking flight!

Aren't those hands-on life science projects just the best?!

Science and Songs, Stories and Snacks

Some students just seem to have a way of motivating their teachers!
I've always enjoyed teaching social studies more than science; however, after a recent comment made by one of my students, I might just find science sliding closer to social studies in my favourite subjects category.
Last Tuesday afternoon, one of our first graders excitedly burst into the school.  The first person she ran into was Karen, our high school teacher.  "Today is my best day ever!" the student exclaimed.  "In science class we grew marbles.  We're going to have music class with Mrs. Steppan.  Later Dora Basl (Fairholme) is coming to tell us stories, and ... my mom is making Jello for snack!"  Listing each special event off on her fingers.  "This is just too much!" she concluded happily.

Matter: Solids, Liquids & Gases

How can science remain a hum-drum subject after hearing the above exultation?  The "marbles" we grew, were actually gel crystals typically used in floral arrangements for weddings or other special events.  They start off about the size of BB pellets and grow to the size of marbles when soaked in water over night.


The morning after soaking them, the organizer in me hoped my students wouldn't remember our crystals experiments until science class that day, but no such luck!  As soon as they entered my classroom to leave their agenda books on my desk, one eager youngster spotted the rose bowl I'd tucked on the counter (hopefully out of their sight) at the back of my classroom.

"Look at these marbles!" he exclaimed.  All my first and second grade students as well as a few from the older class crowded around too ooh and ah over this phenomenal event. So it was that we started science class at 8:00 AM, rather than our usual 10:00 period.








 I have to concur that the best science classes aren't scheduled or planned, they're all about making discoveries no matter what time of day or class period.

Natural Resources and Animal Needs

Well, report cards are done; the Christmas concert has been performed and we're in the midst of Christmas holidays now, so here's my next blog post going back a month or two with the content...

Natural Resources

As part of my unit on Our Local Community we also did some work on our natural resources.  As an introduction to this topic, we watched the following video: Natural Resources.  My friend Kathy Stahl and I found a neat  idea  "Eric Carle" book idea for this specific project in this Landforms book.    A different colour of construction paper was selected for each of the natural resources: yellow - sun, light blue - air, grey - animals, green - plants, brown, minerals, black soil and dark blue - water.  We simply changed the topic to natural resources.  Since I have a younger group of students (mostly grade 1) I created  a cloze captions for each of the natural resources.  The students filled in however we use each natural resource and illustrated them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Needs of Living Things

 To connect our science unit of Growth and Changes in Animals to Our Local Community, the students each selected  either a wild of domestic animal from our area and created a flip book describing how it meets its needs. The idea came from this link on Basic Needs.  A song is used to introduce the topic.