Saanich Year /Thirteen Moons Assignment Assessment

Instructions : Your teacher will lead a discussion on expectations for this assignment. Together your class will discuss levels of accomplishment for the criteria chosen from the left hand column.

Activity# 5: The 13 Moons of the Saanich Year

The Saanich Year:  Teacher Instructions

Please Note… The links to the following are currently being redone as they are converted from an archive site..GF)

In recognition of the creators of this document, please read the acknowledgement

This activity was designed for students in grades 4-7. The hands-on interdisciplinary approach of the activity have been designed to provoke a healthy curiosity and appreciation for universal concepts, the similarities and differences between cultures, and the value of our environment. Teachers are encouraged to take, change and play with the ideas in order to meet the diverse needs of their students and teaching situations.

Organization of this activity

You can approach this activity in two ways.

1) You can either incorporate each moon into your monthly curriculum and use the brain-teasing questions at the end of each moon page as discussion items.

2) Study the moons as one unit and divide your class into groups of two.

In either case, the ultimate objective is to have students understand the relationship between each moon, the environment and First Nations activities, and relating it to their own lives.

Resources :The following are available for you to conduct this activity:

Background Information: Calendars and Lunar Cycles

Introduction to the 13 Moons

Coast Salish Background pdf

13 Moons :First Nations Work Sheet PDF

WSANEC Vocab Builder

Assessment Rubric for you to make a contract with your students

List of The 13 moons of WSANECThe 13 Moons of the WsNEC

Race Rocks First Nations Pages

Link to the Klallum Language:

The Beecher bay Burning Ceremony

Suggested Introductory Activities

After reviewing the 13 moons resources and history of the Coast Salish peoples with you, a sample interview of an Elder . In this video the Elder Earle Claxton talks about the use of organisms from the sea for food and medicines. As a class discuss why this information is important to the culture of the Coast Salish peoples. Also show your students a video first with the music muted, then with music. Have them compare and contrast the two videos and then discuss what music they think would enhance the Earle Claxton interview.

Shared Learnings, a document developed by the Ministry of Education is an excellent resource for incorporating First Nations activities throughout your curriculum. A copy of this document should be available in your school or you can order a copy.

These are some suggestions for introducing the Saanich Year – Thirteen Moons to your class.

Read and discuss the explanations of the moons.

A)  Have students brainstorm:

• What does the moon mean to you?
• What is a calendar?
• In what ways are calendars used?
• Discuss similarities in calendars of different cultures.
• Discuss similarities in calendars of different first nations groups. (This reference is for teachers only as there is a lot of advertising on it. However, it is included because it is a good reference for seeing how many First Nations groups have correlated moons and nature.)

B)  With reference to the Saanich Peoples, discuss:

• The explanations for each of the 13 moons of the WSANEC People.
• How the references to the natural occurrences in the description of the activity illustrates important beliefs in Saanich culture.
• How we can relate to these moons to natural occurrences in our own lives.

C)   Discuss what happens during the roughly corresponding months in your students’ lives.

• For instance, September would be ‘back to school’ month.

D)   Have students create their own calendar of moons, drawing the significant happenings reflected in their own lives.  Students can then compare and contrast the First Nations Culture with their own.

E)   Discuss with the students how their attitude/ learning/ thinking have changed as a result of this learning experience.

Extensions and Adaptations

Have students choose a culture other than first nations and compare and contrast events that happen during each of the moons. For instance, the winter solstice is during the SIS,ET Moon.  In other cultures, there are other activities during this month as well, including Christmas and Chanukah.

Social Studies

Have students create a fishbone graphic of important people in their lives and the roles in which they play.

Science

Research, report and illustrate each of the ecosystems within a cedar tree.

Language Arts

Share the concept of the ‘Storyteller’s bag’ of mnemonic artefacts mentioned on the bottom of page 7 of Keepers of the Earth.  Have students collect stories or write a series of stories and create a storytellers bag for their classroom community. Encourage the ‘oral tradition’ of sharing these stories with their classmates or buddies.

Have students create a sentence using the Klallum language

• a title page
• the above information and interview
• at least 4 scenes
• three types of transitions between scenes
• music that complements your moon story

There are several types of calendars in use today. This paper will discuss the Gregorian, the lunisolar and the lunar calendars. The calendar that we use in our western daily lives is the Gregorian calendar. Divided into twelve months, its length is based on the 365 1/4 days it takes for the earth to travel in a full circle around the sun. Because there is that extra 1/4 day in every year, an additional day is added every four years. When this happens, it is called a “leap year”. Traditionally, the western calendar is used to determine beginnings and ends of seasons as well as special days, like holidays. It has been in use since its creation in 1582 by Pope Gregory. However, before that time most westerners used the Julian Calendar, established by Julius Caesar in 46 BC.

The second type is the lunisolar calendar. It is based on a combination of the sun and the moon. In this calendar, a month is measured by the time it takes for the moon to be placed directly between the earth and the sun. This calendar has twelve months annually, except for seven times every 19 years, when a thirteenth month is added. This results in the holidays being moved every year, but staying within a season. An example of changing holidays would be the Jewish celebration of Chanukah which is always around the beginning of December, but not necessarily on the same day every year.

The third calendar is lunar and is based on the cycles and phases of the moon. The days in the month are determined by the time it takes for the full moon to wax and wane until a full moon arises again. This is the type of moon used by both the Saanich peoples.  What you will be studying in this activity is referred to as the –Saanich” Year rather than the –Saanich Calendar” because it shows the integration and flow of activities that occurred when the Saanich peoples lived a traditional life that was linked to nature. The moons in the Saanich year are markers, not calendar months. Their –year” was more than 365 days. If you compare the Saanich year to the western system you will see that some years there have been 13 moons and sometimes they have 12. As well, you will see that sometimes there are 29 days between moons and sometimes there are 30 days.  As the authors noted, this system may seem confusing at first but it is easier when one remembers that nature is very complex should not be reduced to a calendar or a clock.

Read over the Thirteen Moonss of the WSANEC (Saanich) Peoples.

• Click on each picture for an enlarged version of the artistês depiction of the moon.

• Click on the name of the moon below each picture for a description of WSANEC activities typically occurring during that moon.