At Rice Lake Elementary School, Principal Diane Bagley has been meeting with students to allow them to experience indigenous storytelling. Principal Bagley meets with a few classrooms of students every Friday, focusing on different stories each week.
In one of the storytellings, students heard about “How the Night Sky Became.” The students sat on the floor around Principal Bagley as she explained that winter is the storytelling time of the year, since the ground is covered in snow and it does not disturb the ancestors. Principal Bagley told the story using stuffed animals and a blanket to display what she was talking about.
Students had the opportunity to ask questions about the story, and they were encouraged to ask their families what their cultures believe about how the night sky came to be.
“It’s so important to know these stories because every culture has a story of how the night sky became,” Principal Bagley told the students.