Date: March 11th, 2020

Name of Centre

Medicine Wheel

Rationale for Centre of Learning

-Students will learn about the differences between First Nations, Metis, and Inuit
people, and practice Metis dancing.

5.2 talk about events and retell, dramatize, or represent stories or experiences
that reflect their own heritage and cultural background and the heritage and
cultural backgrounds of others

26.2 understand that different groups/communities may have different ways of

being and working together

31.1 explore different elements of drama (e.g., character, setting, dramatic

structure) and dance (e.g., rhythm, space, shape)
Centre Description

 Have the students sit in a circle.

o Place the medicine wheel in the center of the circle.
 What is medicine in a First People context?
o Medicine isn’t the kind of medicine your mom gives you when you have a
cold.
o It is a medicine for the spirit.
 Your spirit or your soul is the thing inside you that makes you you.
o Medicine is a kind of energy that exists all around us even though we can’t
see it.
 The medicine wheel is a symbol of how energy exists in a circle.
o Each colour is supposed to remind us of different things.
 Yellow is the colour of the East.
o It is the colour of new spring.
o It is the colour of the morning sun.
o It is the colour of babies and eagles.
o Yellow is the colour of our soul.
 Red is the colour of the South.
o It is the colour of summer.
o It is the colour of the warm afternoon.
o It is the colour of childhood and coyotes.
o Red is the colour of our feelings.
 Black is the colour of the West.
 o It is the colour of fall.
o It is the colour of the evening just before it’s night time.
o It is the colour of adults and of round black bears.
o Black is the colour of our body.
 White is the colour of the North.
o It is the colour of the cold white winter.
o It is the colour of night, of the full moon in the sky.
o It is the colour of our elders and of the deer.
o White is the colour of our thoughts.
 Show students 2 steps (walking step and fancy step) without music
o Have students perform the 2 steps
o Place painters’ tape on the floor to give students a path to follow.
o Have music slower and transitions prompted verbally.
Accounting for Learner Diversity

Instruction is done in a verbal, visual, and kinesthetic manner.

Connections to religion and prior learning.

Dancing can be modified to different levels of ability.

Materials Questions
Needed/Provocations

 Smartboard What is medicine?

 Tape
What do the colours of the medicine wheel
 Red River Jig audio
symbolize?
o Slowed down Red
River Jig audio Why is the medicine wheel a circle?
 Medicine wheel

Expectations

Students will be able to recognize the meaning of the colours of the medicine wheel
and practice a traditional dance of the Metis people.