Once we had agreed that we are all treaty people, we wanted to learn more about the treaty that we are bound by in our area (Treaty 4).  Since Grade 3 level resources are scarce, we decided to discuss what the 1870s might have looked like (Treaty 4 was signed in 1874).  In particular we discussed who might have been living near Fort Qu’Appelle (where the treaty was signed) at this time.

These were the groups of people we came up with:

1. First Nations families, particularly from the Cree, Saulteaux and Assiniboine nations.

2.  Some settler families.

3.  Men that worked at the Hudson Bay Company post.

4.  Soldiers that had come with Alexander Morris to negotiate the treaty.

Once we had this basic knowledge, students were asked to create a puppet show using the PuppetPals app on the iPads.  The idea was to create a character that could have been around during the signing of Treaty 4 and introduce him or her in a puppet show.

Here is one of the projects:

Puppet pals project overview:

Step 1: Video      →      Step 2: Puppet Show     →      Step 3: Podcast      Step 4: Idle No More    →    Step 5: Stop Motion    →   Step 6: Final Project