Vision

Our vision was to improve the front garden area that was filled with weeds and looking abandoned. We wanted to learn more about companion gardening, attract pollinators, teach our little buddies about gardening, and incorporate Indigenous ways of knowing and being visibly into our community.

Action

Our project consisted of reclaiming a piece of garden that is along the front fence of the school, weeding it, adding mushroom compost, and planting the Three Sisters. We learned about companion gardening and spoke at length about Indigenous ways of Knowing and Being and how the colonizers did not understand what the Indigenous population was doing. This led to a deep conversation about residential schools and their effects on the Indigenous population.

We taught 2 kindergarten classes about the Three Sisters and planted the seeds with them as well, so we have about 60 little mounds with beans, corn and pumpkins planted in the front garden. Students have been going out several days a week to water, weed and monitor the growth. We also planted marigolds as pollinating plants to attract more bees and butterflies.

Our front fence also had old wooden salmon in great need of repair, so we removed them, sanded, sealed and painted them. Salmon is one of the four Food Chiefs of the Syilx people, and students now want to add Bear, Bitter Root and Saskatoon so that all four Chiefs are present in front of the school.

While we were working on this project, we had an indoor day due to air quality as we were blanketed in smoke from the Alberta, Northern BC and Washington fires. It was an ideal day to revisit the concept of global climate change and the effects of the change. We also looked at a variety of ways we can work against climate change. Students mentioned the garden and eating locally. We then talked about our garden and the produce we hope to harvest in the fall, and one student suggested that we share our harvest with the food bank. The others agreed.

Throughout the project, students were responsible for calculating how much had been spent and how much was left to spend. We covered financial literacy, long division, multiplication, tax, and calculations using decimal numbers.

Our final action was to buy some local popcorn (Queen B, a Kelowna company) to have a PJ and movie day on Friday. We will watch Wall-E and celebrate all the work we have done.

Reflection & Celebration

Students learned a lot about companion gardening, how the settlers dealt with the Indigenous people, and how growing a garden and eating local can help battle climate change.
We are celebrating all our hard work on Friday with a movie party with some locally popped popcorn from Queen B.

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