By Meghan Delagran, Teacher at Riverside Public School
Grade two and three French Immersion students at Riverside Public School are very proud of a recent project and learning experience that they worked on over the past few months. The end result is three gorgeous quilts that will be hung in the halls at the school to remind everyone that Every Child Matters.
This fall at Riverside Public School, students participated in an assembly to learn about residential schools. At the end of the assembly, each class chose an orange ribbon, with the name of a child who attended an Ontario Residential School and never returned home. Each classroom decided on a unique way to honour the child they had chosen.
Teachers Elaine Christensen, Katelyn Field and Robyn Dawson and their students chose to honour Marg Shiknbao, Julia Boyer and Alfred Iserhoff by having each student create a picture of what every child has a right to, on a piece of fabric. Some examples of the pictures the children drew were family, clothing, clean water, food, shelter, love, school and friendship.
The next step was sewing. With the help of many parent and grandparent volunteers, the students were taught to hand sew, so they could attach their picture square onto a larger piece of fabric. This was a big part of the learning experience, since hand sewing is not a skill that many students have practiced.
Lastly, Mary Spring, Terri Howell and some volunteers stepped in to sew the squares into quilts. The District of Muskoka’s Pay it Forward Grant Program allowed the volunteers to complete the project with sewing machines purchased and maintained through the grant money.
The grade two and three French Immersion classes at Riverside feel so proud of their work. They are amazed that so many volunteers stepped forward to help bring their idea to life. To wrap up the project, the classes wrote thank-you letters to the volunteers who helped them create the quilt.
Riverside Public School is on an Indigenous education journey that is ongoing. These quilts will be hung in a central location in the school and will remind students, staff, and visitors that Every Child Matters.
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I have been involved in working with children for a long, long time but this project was one of the most meaningful experiences that I have worked on. It was heartwarming in so many ways.
I must give credit to the teachers at Riverside School who worked so hard to educate their students about this very difficult period of Canada’s history. They did that in a sensitive and meaning way. The pictures that the grade two and three students drew were beautiful and their messages were very clear.
The involvement of parents, grandparents and other community members helped the children to realize the importance of working together to achieve a goal. The hand sewing part of the project was very important ,as each child learned a new, lifelong skill.
The quilts will hang at the school for years to come and they will remind everyone that Every Child Matters.
Well done Riverside.
What a lovely tribute this wonderful project was.
Thank you so very much for honouring those beautiful innocent children.
It breaks my heart to imagine what horrors they went through.
I hope that our children and grand children realize how lucky they are,
Children are our future and deserve to be treated with respect and given as much love as possible,
martina schroer