Elementary Education: Kindness to water is a kindness to ourselves and our communities
Kindness to water is a kindness to ourselves and our communities.
Our programs are rooted in Indigenous traditional knowledge sharing methodology. It is one which values community support and fosters care for mental, physical, emotional and spiritual well being.
On this day the focus was conversations about and with the water. There is a creek that runs behind the Elementary school. This allowed for us to begin our classes inside, where it was warm and we could use a projector, and then move to the creek with warm cups of tea in hand.
We started by writing all the things that the class knew about water on the board.
All of the many ways and places that water exists in their lives, inside of them and in the world around them. The boards were full and conversation flowed. They can not drink the tap water from the faucets of their school, so clean water vs polluted water came up. We talked about water accessibility and what they could do to help protect the water and the environment.
The students watched a video of an Indigenous Elder, Yvette Mendez, talking about water as a tool for self healing. They looked at images of water molecules by Dr.Emoto. Some of the molecules were beautiful and others looked very unhealthy.
The photographs let us see how water responds to kindness and negativity, like it responds to clean space or being polluted. With our bodies at over 70% water we must consider how we affect ourselves with our words and actions and how we affect others.
We went to the water and talked about kindness, listened to the babbling waters, and read / listened to a story, WE ARE WATER PROTECTORS. In this story a young girl, their age, shared about the teachings from her Indigenous perspective, from her community's understanding. This book is a wonderful story for opening conversations about Indigenous Peoples of North America, water and our responsibility as guardians of the natural world.
We made kindness offerings to the water that ran on the ground all around us and to the waters inside of our bodies with words of gratitude. They put into practice some of the teachings they had learned from the Elder in the video. The living, responsive, healing, fun and waters were a part of our entire class.
At the end of the day you could hear the kids remarking “Water is alive”, “we need to take care of the water”, “we have to protect the water” and “It’s good to say nice things to the water because it’s alive too”.
They were also correlating kindness to water and kindness to other people, since we are all made of so much water.
It is a joy to teach this class and share in the stories and shifts with the children and the water ~ An OJI:SDA’ Indigenous Water Protector Educator
OJI:SDA’ Sustainable Indigenous Futures
We began by writing all the things that the class knew about water and by the end of the day you could hear the kids remarking “Water is alive”.
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