https://equity-edu.blogspot.com/2020/11/finding-inclusive-resources-for.html
This year, I've added an art component and reflection page for the discussions that happen during this lesson.
It's combined with Art because in colouring the poppies, I teach students about shading and blending coloured pencil, and we use Odourless Mineral Spirits or baby oil, to blend the colours. The students really enjoy the colouring process, and I get 2 marks out of one assignment.
See a sample in the photo below:
Some students samples:
Also, as a class we learned about the 9 Sikh-Canadian Soldiers who fought in WWI, even though the Canadian government made it nearly impossible to emigrate from India in this same period. The laws passed to stop immigrations from Asia was so effective, that the number of immigrants from India dropped from 2000 to 6 in one year. With the context of what was happening in Canada, my students thought it was even more important to highlight the soldiers as an important part of Remembrance Day, and Canadian history- Many people don't know of the long history of Sikh-Canadian settlers in Canada going back over 100 years.
So after a discussion, my grade 7s thought that an Orange poppy would be a good symbolic representation to honour these 9 soldier- they chose the color orange because it is the colour of the flag representing the Sikh religion that is found at Gurdwaras:
This activity created some great room for dialogue about war and memorials, and also about some of the students in my class that don't often hear about a Canadian history that reflects them- Sikh Canadian history. Students were willing to share about themselves and their culture/ faith- something their classmates had no idea about. I love it when students can feel connected to what they are learning!
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