Children’s Cultural Stories Presentation

Mayor Gerry Thiessen, Diversity Coordinator Reg Mueller and Charlyne Smilinski from CNC make a presentation to Mme Atwood’s last year’s Grade 1 students. These students were involved in the making of Cultural Stories for Children, a DVD featuring local storytellers reading a book or telling a story.

For more about this project,
click on Cultural Stories for Children (under Categories, on the right side of this page.)

Ruth Johnny

Ruth Johnny, with the help of her puppets, tells the story of Henry the Hunter as part of Children’s Story Time, a Spirit of Vanderhoof Diversity project.

Drawings

Drawings by Madame Atwood’s Grade One class.
Part of the Spirit of Diversity project Childrens Story Time.

storytellers cd covers

Mme Atwood’s Grade One students made artwork for the Storytellers cd cover.

The students made these atworks after listening to Elizabeth  Aigbomian read the book “Who” by Richard Thompson:
click on the thumbnails to enlarge…
  

The students made art after listening to Lil McIntosh read “Mary of Mile 18″:
  

Art made by the students after listening to Shana Labatch and Sarah John telling the Legend of “How the People Got Fire”, in both Carrier and English:
  

After the students listened to “Henry the Hunter” told by Ruth Johnny:
  

After listening to “Grandpa’s Clock” read by Lan Gill:
 

Lan Gill reads Grandpa’s Clock

Lan Gill, who was born in Vietnam, reads the book Grandpa’s Clock to students as part of the Diversity Project.

Ruth Johnny tells a story with puppets

Ruth Johnny told the story of Henry the Hunter, a true story, with the help of her puppets.

Students got a chance to use the puppets.

All of these storytelling sessions have been videotaped and will be made into a DVD for Grade 1 students.

How the People Got Fire

  
  
Sarah and Shana told the Legend of How the People Got Fire, a Dakelh legend. They told the story in Dakelh and translated it to English.

Sarah John is a youth from Saik’uz. She is from the Frog clan and a granddaughter of Mary John Sr. a respected elder. She is also a student, learning the Dakelh language, and studying narrative as part of art education.
Shana Labatch is also from Saik’uz. She is from the Grouse clan and also a granddaughter of Mary John Sr. She has a Dakelh language certificate. She is an artist and often uses elements from her culture in her art.

Mrs McIntosh reads to students

Mrs Lil McIntosh, a former school librarian, reads Mary of Mile 18 by Ann Blades to grade one students and relates the story to her childhood. Videos of these readings will be made into dvds for the families of grade one students.

Children’s storytime

One of the projects of the Spirit of Vanderhoof Diversity Initiative
Stories from different cultural perspectives

Storyteller Elizabeth and students

Storytellers
Five local storytellers will be filmed reading a book to grade one students.

Audience
The audience will be a small group of grade one students.
Filming will take place in the Vanderhoof Public Library by Anna Pye  

Books
Jane Gray from the library has selected the books from the best Canadian literature showing Canada’s multicultural society

• First Nations traditional folklore
• stories from the rich diversity of immigrants to Canada

DVD
The films will be made into a DVD and distributed to grade one students