Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Chapel Knapping

I had a great day working with Mr. Peters' grade 8 class at St. Bonaventure's College today.  We set up in the school chapel, which was a first for me.  The juxtaposition of the stone tools and the church wasn't as odd as I thought it might be.  It reminded me a lot of visiting Palaeolithic sites in France where it seemed like every site we visited there was found by a school teacher or a member of the clergy.

In the morning I demonstrated flintknapping and we talked about stone tools and archaeology in the Province.  The demo lasted for half the morning and then the kids broke up into groups to journal about what they'd learned and to sketch some of the artifact reproductions on hand.  In the afternoon they all made their own ground slate ulu or men's knife.  It was good to work with slightly older kids.  They didn't let the little setbacks get them down and everyone stayed focused throughout the day.  I'm making a note for myself here, I intended to leave the point that I made in the morning with Mr. Peters but I forgot in rush to restore the chapel and get all the kids home at the end of the day.  Hopefully I'll remember to drop it off in the next few days.



When I got home, the front of the house was ready for the new clapboard.   Including the vinyl siding that was on when we bought it, they found three layers of siding on the house, dating back to the original clapboard from the 1930s.  The new clapboard has arrived and it should start going up on Friday.

Photo Credits: Tim Rast

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