By Allison Wiedman, DEIB Coordinator
Our annual “Thank-Fall” leaves project, a communal effort across the Primary and Lower Elementary classrooms, is in full display in our lobby. Along with creating our leaves with messages of thankfulness, children have also been discussing themes surrounding Indigenous People’s Month here in America.
In the Kindergarten “World Around Us” class, children have been creating maps that highlight the original tribes and respective territories of what is now known as Pennsylvania with a specific focus on the Lenni Lenape people, the original stewards of the land we now call Philadelphia.
Classrooms were also offered different works that featured the Lenape language equivalent for different types of trees/leaves that you’ll see featured here in our display: sassafras called winakw, willow called nushèwakw, maple called ansikëmès, and cherry called mwimënshi. Children chose from one of these four shapes, wrote a thoughtful message of gratitude, and then decorated their respective leafe with white pencil and watercolor paint.
Select Highlights from the Helena A. Grady Diversity Library:
As we move into the Thanksgiving holiday, we are thinking of our families, our communities at large, of the peoples who came before us, how we can be good neighbors, how we can show our thankfulness in return, and how we can care for each other and our earth.