For Mrs. H's class

This is a special post for the kids of Mrs. H's Grade 2 class, in Thunder Bay, Ontario.  For those of you not currently in Grade 2, there will be another post for you soon, I promise.  

Hello, Grade 2 students!  It is now 4 months into our Iqaluit adventure.  We don't use real names on blogs, but I think some of you might recognize Captain Jack Sparrow and Coraline. 

We are currently living in Nunavut, Canada's newest territory.  It is very far in the north, just barely under the Arctic Circle, and has a polar climate, which means it's very cold most of the time.  Many  of the people here (about 60%) are Inuit and speak Inuktitut and English.  Captain Jack and Coraline are going to school here and learning about caribou, polar bears, and how to speak Inuktitut.

The Land

Iqaluit is on the "tundra".  This means the ground is very rocky, and almost always frozen.  There are no trees here at all.  No one has a "lawn" to mow, so there are no lawnmowers either! There are ravens living here, along with caribou, polar bears, and lemmings.  In fact, our dog Buffy loves to chase lemmings into their burrows!

Raven who lives on our back deck.

In the summer, the tundra grows very pretty little purple flowers, called saxifrage. You can also find blueberries if you look very hard close to the rocks. Most of the time though, the ground is covered in snow.

The plants on the tundra change color in fall.

Purple saxifrage flowers only bloom for a short time
near the end of August.

Here is Captain Jack picking blueberries.

Picking berries. Notice there are no trees!

It snows a lot.  In winter, it gets dark very early, after lunch.  It is already dark when Captain Jack and Coraline come home from school.  In the summer, it stays light outside almost all night. The sun barely sets at all, and there is still a glow even in the middle of the night.

In the winter the sun sets very early.

Captain Jack helped me put up blinds
to block out the night-time sun in the summer.

Food

Traditional Inuit food is called "country food".  Country food is from animals that are hunted here on the tundra. People eat "tuktu" which is caribou, very often.  They make caribou steak, and even caribou shepherd's pie!  When the hunters bring home meat, women put the meat on cardboard on the floor of their kitchen and cut it with sharp, curved knives called ulu's.  They also eat seal meat, drink seal blood, and eat whale blubber (this is called maktaaq).

Meat on cardboard about to be cut up.

Ulu

Arctic char is a kind of fish that Inuit people have been eating for many, many years.  It is fished from the rivers up here in the spring and summer.

Artic char.  We ate this one for dinner!

We even had dog treats for our dog, Buffy, that are made out of narwhal meat. Narwhals look like whales, but with a big unicorn horn (its not really a horn, but a strange over-grown tooth).

Buffy sniffing the narwhal treats.

There is a special kind of bread made here called bannock.  It is simple bread made from flour. The recipe first came to Canada from Scotland, but now bannock is enjoyed by many Inuit and First Nation people.

Eating bannock.

Clothing

Traditional clothing is made from caribou hide or sealskin. Caribou is very warm, much warmer than sealskin, but sealskin is also water-resistant.  Boots are often made from sealskin.  There is a special kind of Inuit boot called "kamik".  Kamiks are made from many layers of fabric or leather.  First you put on a "duffel", which is a kind of sock.  Then you pull on the boot part.  The sole of the boot is leather, so they feel very strange to walk in. Almost like wearing slippers on the snow!

Kamiks. The fur is sealskin.The duffel
sock has the flowers on it. The bottom of the
kamiks (black part) are made of leather.

Sealskin coat.

Caribou coat on the left, amauti and sealskin boots on the right.

An amauti is a special type of coat up here worn by mothers with babies.  The baby goes in the back pouch of the coat, like a backpack!  Then the hood of the coat can cover the mother and the baby.

Little girl with stuffed bear in her amauti pouch.

Mother with her baby in an amauti.
source

People like to wear other things made of fur too, like sealskin headbands and hair clips.  There are also sealskin ties and vests for boys.  They are very soft and a silver color.

Coraline with dyed red sealskin
headband.

Sealskin hair clip.

Traditions 

Many Inuit people like to play the drums.  Captain Jack learned to do this at music camp this summer.  They also do throat singing, and dancing.

At music camp.

Drum dancing.

Another Inuit tradition is building an inuksuk. Inuksuit direct your gaze toward something important, like a cache of hunting supplies or good fishing area.  They can also be used as trail markers.

Probably one of the most common traditions is hunting.  Inuit people hunt animals on the tundra for food, and for clothing.  They use animal bones for jewelry.

Captain Jack by a polar bear skin.

If anyone has any questions, please share them with us!  Captain Jack and Coraline would be happy to write you back. I hope you enjoy the rest of your unit on Traditions and Celebrations!