Solomon's Tree
by Andrea Spalding & Janet Wilson
Description:
This picturebook with beautiful painted illustrations tells the story of a young boy and his relationship with a big old maple tree. The tree taught him all about the seasons and the creatures that relied on it and lived around it. After a large storm blows the tree down, the young boy carves a mask with his uncle from the trunk to recapture the spirit of the tree.
Author Andrea Spalding and illustrator Janet Wilson are not Indigenous. However, the story and it's designs were created in collaboration with Tsimpshian master-carver Victor Reece.
Resource format: Picturebook
Age recommendation: Pre-K - Grade 3
Keywords: painted illustrations, young boy, relationship to nature, seasons, spirit, Tsimpshian Wood Carving, Northwest Coastal Indigenous, Contemporary Indigenous
Year of publication: 2005
Publisher information: Orca Book Publishers
Teaching and Learning Ideas
Our team collaborated with new teachers, alumni of the Werklund School of Education’s Bachelor of Education program, to create teaching and learning plans for texts in this website. With audiences ranging from Pre-Kindergarten to Post-Secondary, lesson plans across this resource address a wide range of school subject areas, inclusive approaches, and Indigenous education topics, such as the revitalization of Indigenous languages. As this website was designed with Undergraduate Programs in Education instructors, as well as teachers in mind, connections to UPE courses have been flagged on each lesson plan. These lessons are intended as a starting place for educators, to help you envision ways in which you might bring Indigenous literatures, as well as ways of knowing, being, and doing, into your teaching contexts. Please adapt, use, and share these lessons in ways that are generative for your teaching practice. We offer our sincere thanks to the dozens of new teachers who gifted us with these creative ideas!
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