Bannock!

It's been a busy back-to-school time. Report cards are going to be due soon and I will have many different presentations happening. I wanted to write about my recent work with the primary division students on one of the Blue Spruce award-nominated books as part of my library program.

There are a lot of nuances in language in the library world recently and it's useful to be able to understand the differences. For instance, our school board is no longer advocating / prioritizing resources for the Forest of Reading program in the same way that was done in the past. It has to do with a policy on selecting resources and understanding community needs. This doesn't mean that we are prohibited from running the Forest of Reading program; it means that individual schools will be responsible for registering and purchasing the specific books. It can cause a lot of confusion when terms like "we are no longer supporting the Forest of Reading" are shared. "Library collection development activities" can also be a perplexing turn of phrase, but I digress.

I have switched up the way I run the Forest of Reading program for my older students. We don't have the budget to buy multiple copies of the same titles, so this year, instead of having it as an open activity that all students can dabble in, students had to apply to be in the reading club and we placed a cap on the number of students that could participate. Yes, it does mean that not everyone can be involved, but my hopes are to a) raise the percentage of students who are qualifying to vote (thereby increasing their "reading stamina"), and b) by its exclusivity, encourage students to want to join (FOMO?) instead of committing half-heartedly. Instead of using up all my lunch hours to conduct Forest of Reading chats, I have reserved Wednesdays at lunch for students to read and converse about the books. That way, I can run other clubs on separate days (such as K Pop Demon Hunter Club on Tuesdays at lunch. More on that in another post.)

My Blue Spruce program is mostly unchanged, although I will be using it more more thoroughly with the ESL students in addition to the K-3 classes.

Last week, a wonderful supply teacher was in for me and read Bannock in a Hammock to some of the classes. She emailed me afterwards to note that some of the students had requested that we make bannock in class.

When there is a request like that, how can you refuse?

The recipe that Masiana Kelly, the author, includes in her book uses lard. Even though that is the method that some Inuit people use to make their bannock, I chose a simpler recipe that substituted oil.

The students loved it! Here are some photos, followed by some tips if you choose to do this with a class. These photos are just the ones that don't show student faces. I took dozens more of the students in action.

1) Have another adult with you!

I was very lucky to have "Ms. Christine" present. Christine is the grandmother of one of our students and she has begun volunteering once a week in the library. At one point, with the kindergarteners, we had four adults in the room helping - and it was necessary! Christine monitored the oven and was the regular presence while I cycled different groups in and out of the staff room.

2) Bring more than you need!

I ran out of flour TWICE! The first time, I flew over to the neighbourhood store to buy more. The second time, thankfully other teachers had some in their rooms that I could use to powder the tables so it wouldn't stick as much.

3) Be realistic with your time.

I tried this with two classes on Monday, seeing them for 70 minutes each time. Then, I replicated the activity with three classes on Tuesday, seeing them for only 40 minutes. I would have loved to have done so much more with the teaching possibilities. Only once or twice was I able to:

• discuss why lard would be used in an Inuit recipe for bannock (think what's available in the local environment)
• have students examine equivalent fractions with the measuring cups
• have students do every step of the preparation themselves
• slowly read the recipe instructions (which Christine copied for me on chart paper) so students could consult the directions independently
• still have book exchange as part of their library period

4) Give students something to do while they wait their turn.

Little kids get restless. The best thing I did was spread flour on the table in front of them and ask them to touch it. The primary purpose was to avoid the dough sticking to their fingers but a secondary benefit was that they were preoccupied with playing with the flour.

5) Accept that it will be messy.

Christine and I cleaned the staff room on Monday but we still received feedback from the staff that it was insufficient. Flour, water, baking powder, salt and vegetable oil are incredibly hard to remove from surfaces. On Tuesday, I think we cleaned the table tops at least three times with a variety of different cleaning tools. 

The expense, and mess, and work was worth it. I know this because the next day, a Grade 2 student passed me a bannock cake she made at home with her older sister! She used melted butter instead of vegetable oil and it was tasty! We are also working on Indigenous education as part of our school improvement plan related to the Calls to Action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. It can be challenging to have students understand cultural practices and traditions that are not their own, but books such as Bannock in a Hammock as well as concrete activities such as cooking food convey information in a way that does not appropriate Indigenous culture, centering the voices of people from Indigenous communities through books they've authored.