FIRST NATION SCHOOLS
Engaging Children and Youth
Youth are most often the most enthusiastic, passionate, and propelled to take action when it comes to protecting Mother Earth. Schools provide the ideal environment for students to learn, understand, and practice how to reduce waste. One of these ways is by learning about the 7R’s of Sustainability: Respect, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Repair, Regift, and Rot (compost). As the prophesized Seventh Generation, they will lead the way at inspiring others into taking action within their communities to ensure our planet is here !
Youth can learn a variety of ways to spark change within their communities and educators can help them learn how to take action through activities such as – creating green clubs, having classroom discussions on waste reduction, learning how to live on the land, setting up composting and/or recycling at their school, and more.
Scroll down to learn about our experiences working with First Nation schools in Manitoba and how we continue to inspire children and youth into taking action on protecting Mother Aki!
check out our new youth activity book on waste reduction!
it’s filled with fun games, coloring pages, activities, and more.
while intended for elementary school children, it’s fun for the whole family.
test your knowledge and request your free copy today.
* Priority will be given to schools, educators, and students who are interested in promoting waste reduction within first nation communities in manitoba.
While the pandemic made it impossible to gather and learn together in person, we were able to learn together online through the creation of our rise webinar series.
the rise webinar series made it possible for teachers & students from across the province, as well as the general public, to participate and attend a webinar online, where they could learn about one of the variety of sustainable education projects, initiatives and activities, that are happening around the province.
we hope these webinars have inspired many to learn about indigenous sustainable education and hopefully apply these projects in their class, school, or out in their community to affect long-term environmental change and awareness.
We’re currently in the planning stages for the 2023 RISE Webinar Series and are looking for webinar ideas, themes, and speakers. Is there a topic that we haven’t covered yet? Is there a speaker you’d like to see present? Maybe there’s a topic of importance that needs to be highlighted and brought attention to regarding Indigenous Sustainability?
Leave us a message with your ideas and who knows maybe it'll be chosen and featured at our upcoming series! We thank you for your contributions and encourage you to follow us on social media to stay up-to-date about upcoming events such as RISE.
RISE Teachers’ Conference
The Recognizing Indigenous Sustainable Education (RISE) conference is about promoting sustainability through First Nation schools and communities in Manitoba with a focus on waste reduction.
Teachers from across the province attend to learn about sustainable environmental practices and waste reduction efforts. Educators return home able to apply this knowledge within their classrooms, schools and communities in the hopes of affecting long-term change through action-oriented projects or programs.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the RISE Teachers’ Conference has been replaced by a webinar series. For more information about the webinar series and to watch the recordings, refer to the previous section.
RISE School Grants
Ten First Nation schools that participated in the RISE 2019 Teachers’ Conference applied for and received a one-time grant of $1,000 to help implement an environmentally sustainable project at their school. Here are three examples:
Neil Dennis Kematch Memorial School in Sapotaweyak Cree Nation applied the funds toward refillable water bottle drinking fountains combined with personally named re-useable water bottles for each student. Their goal is to reduce single-use plastic water bottles at the school and encourage drinking water.
Waywayseecappo School used the funds to create a medicine wheel garden with the help from students to teach them to respect Mother Earth and learn how Mother Earth helps us.
Kistiganwacheeng Elementary School and Garden Hill High School used the grant to help teach students about Reduce Reuse Recycle, with a focus on reusing. Students turned disposable items such as milk jugs and pop cans into Halloween art and repurposed coffee cans to hold sugar and flour. Teachers also got into the spirit, using new blue boxes to collect paper for recycling and to reuse one-sided paper.
RESOURCES FOR TEACHERS AND EDUCATORS
RISE 2020 WEBINAR RESOURCES
- Composting – Classroom Compost Poster Lesson Plan (Greenway School)
- Composting – School Composting Guide
- Composting – How to Build a Multi-bin Composting System
- Food Sovereignty (Four Arrows RHA)
- Mind Map Diagram – Seventh Generation Waste Warriors (CIER)
- Mind mapping tool – MINDMUP
- Vermicomposting Guide
- Vermicomposting – How to Get Started on Vermicomposting
- Vermiconomposting – Nature’s Perfect Plant Food (red wriggler worms)
RISE 2019 TEACHERS’ CONFERENCE RESOURCES
- Additional Teacher Resources
- Barren Lands, Northland & Sayisi Dene
- Community Education & the 4 R’s
- Connected North
- HBOIERC Student Green Team (Norway House)
- HBOIERC Student Green Team video
- Meechim Project (Garden Hill)
- Meechim Project video
- Recycling Benefits Us All
- School Composting
- Teacher Resources & Activities
learning at home
Learning new skills doesn’t only happen in the classroom. Kids can keep learning and having fun with activities at home. Prairie Dog Projects will help the whole family learn and grow, while exploring sustainability practices.
