Lesson Plan - Medicine Wheel

Prep:
Hoola Hoop with Yarn criss crossing the hoola hoop to symbolize compass axis
Paper with large NORTH, SOUTH, EAST, WEST

1. Team Builder - The Human Knot

- 2 teams - right hand first, left hand next make sure no one is holding anyones hand across from
them or besides them.
- Try and get the team to untangle themselves as best as possible - race against the other team.
- 10 minutes
2. Building a discussion
- put the group in a circle,
- Talking stick - Name: Where you from: What you want to do after high school: Name one thing
you thought was interesting so far in Mikmaq studies:
- Try and have a comment every few people
- 10 -15 minutes
3. Lesson
Pull up Prezi
-

Slide 1: some of them can be 4000 years old, there is no set way of determining exactly what
their ceremonial purpose was today. however what has been passed down through oral
traditions is the fact that it was used for learning.
Alberta and BC have the most with currently 47 known medicine wheels or 2/3rds.
this suggests that this area was of huge importance to the aboriginal peoples who lived there peoples of the plains
travel there.
Slide 2:
Get them to download the compass app on their phone or another compass app that they are
comfortable with.
ask them to find North and to point in the direction (probably teach them how to use a
compass. )
lay out bristol boards on the floor with the hoola hoop on top of it.
a lot of first nations across canada and the us use it - the way they interpret it changes a bit. 4
quadrants- lessons of the four directions as health and healing.

The reason it is called a medicine wheel

East spiritual health religion, meditation

North mental health - dementia, use intellect and cog. ability

South emotional health - relationships.
West Physical health
This is the basis of the medicine wheel- layers on top of that.
why is it applied? really really really smart people - they have to balance themselves in order to
make relationships.
Physical stuff - won't acknowledge spiritual stuff
sweat lodge - physically painful way of finding your spiritual side . - needs to be balanced
Seasons
Winter - North
Summer - South
Spring - East
Fall - West

societal level
East - spirit of a community becomes culture,
South social texture, politics, physical needs, economics.
West - clothes, shelter.
north - mental - policies government, schooling
Life Cycle
-Elder - North
-Infant - East
- youth - south
-adult - West

Paper Posters
make sure that north is in the due north direction, south, east, west
Get the students to travel from paper to paper writing things that represents them on each
sheet. a story about that season, anything to get them to relate to each quadrant