THE TREASURES OF A GREENLANDIC FREEZER
YOUNGEST LEVEL
The Treasures of a Greenlandic Freezer is one out of nine podcasts produced by Katrine Nyland for The Ilulissat Icefjord Centre.
GUIDE TO THE BOOK CREATOR BOOK
The Book Creator book The Treasures of a Greenlandic Freezer is a student’s book associated with the podcast The Treasures of a Greenlandic Freezer.
The duration of the podcast is 3:37.
The activities have been designed to focus on the students’ investigative, experimental and creative approach to learning.
The process consists of three steps:
- Preparation before listening to the podcast.
- Listening to and working with the podcast.
- Further work with topics and insights from the podcast.
We recommend that you listen to the podcast before presenting it to the students.
Cross-curricular – biology, English and nature/culture.
- The students acquire knowledge about the rich wildlife and sealife in the Disko Bay that has filled the pantries of the Inuit with food from nature for thousands of years.
- The students acquire special knowledge about the plants that are gathered and animals that are hunted at different times of the year.
- The students practise their skills in communication and cooperation.
We recommend that the students work in pairs or singly. Depending on what suits each student best and the competences to be developed. Keep in mind that your best friend is not necessarily the one you collaborate best with. Working together is about working together and not just being together.
GUIDE TO THE BOOK CREATOR BOOK
The Book Creator book The Treasures of a Greenlandic Freezer is a student’s book associated with the podcast The Treasures of a Greenlandic Freezer.
The duration of the podcast is 3:37.
The activities have been designed to focus on the students’ investigative, experimental and creative approach to learning.
The process consists of three steps:
- Preparation before listening to the podcast.
- Listening to and working with the podcast.
- Further work with topics and insights from the podcast.
We recommend that you listen to the podcast before presenting it to the students.
Cross-curricular – biology, English and nature/culture.
- The students acquire knowledge about the rich wildlife and sealife in the Disko Bay that has filled the pantries of the Inuit with food from nature for thousands of years.
- The students acquire special knowledge about the plants that are gathered and animals that are hunted at different times of the year.
- The students practise their skills in communication and cooperation.
We recommend that the students work in pairs or singly. Depending on what suits each student best and the competences to be developed. Keep in mind that your best friend is not necessarily the one you collaborate best with. Working together is about working together and not just being together.
Hvad kummefryserne gemte
The treasures of a Greenlandic freezer
Qerititsivinni toqqortaatit
The students meet the Icefjord Centre in two pictures, showing summer and winter respectively.
In class you can talk about:
- What the Icefjord Centre is.
- What the surroundings around the Centre look like.
- The difference between summer and winter.
- How summer and winter differ where you live.
Have a look at the map and talk about where Ilulissat is situated. Talk about how many people live in Ilulissat. Also talk about how many people live in the town or settlement where you live.
The students see part of a world map.
The task now is to move the red marker down into the map in order to show where each student lives.
The marker is found in the white box and can be drawn into the map.
In class you can talk about:
- Differences and similarities between Ilulissat and your own town or settlement.
On page 12 there are three freezers with opened lids.
One freezer is for meat – another one is for fish – and yet another one (a smaller freezer) is for berries and herbs.
On page 13 there are pictures of a reindeer, a musk ox, a whale, a grouse, a codfish, a halibut, blueberries, crowberries, angelica and thyme.
The students place the pictures in the correct freezers. They do this by drawing the picture into the freezer they have chosen.
In class you can discuss:
- Why it is quite normal to have at least two freezers when living in Ilulissat.
- How you get hold of food in nature all by yourself.
- What kind of food is in the students’ own freezers at home.
- Have the students tried finding food in nature themselves?
Now it is time for the students to listen to the podcast The Treasures of a Greenlandic Freezer. They find the podcast by clicking on the picture on page 14.
Before the students listen to the podcast, you can give a short introduction to the contents of the podcast.
The contents of the podcast
”The rich wildlife and sealife of Ilulissat is the reason why all families have not just one, but many deep freezers”.
Malik’s, Elin’s og Vera’s narratives.
The thing most collect in Ilulissat are freezers. Two – three freezers per household is the standard. One for meat, one for fish and fowl and a small one for berries, mushrooms and herbs.
About 75% of what people eat, they gather and hunt themselves. This is why many Greenlanders have their own boat.
In one freezer they have for example:
- reindeer meat, meat from musk oxen, eider, grouse and dried reindeer meat.
In another freezer they may have:
- whale meat, seal meat, trout, codfish, halibut, dried capelan, dried whale, dried salmon, halibut, lumpfish roe, mussels, whale skin
In a smaller freezer they have:
- crowberries, blueberries, juniper, angelica, Greenlandic thyme, Rhododendron Groenlandicum and mushrooms
They prepare some of the catch before putting it in the freezer. Whale meat, halibut and trout are smoked, reindeer and capelan are dried and mussels boiled.
The herbs are used for tea, for baking and for cooking.
There is no food waste. When new food is put into the freezer, the oldest food is placed at the top of the freezer and is eaten first. If some of it has become too old, it is given to the dogs.
Because they have lived so close to nature for thousands of years, they also get to know the “taste of the landscape”. Elin and Vera can easily taste where in the Disko Bay an animal comes from. Elin says that the taste of reindeer and seal meat changes the further south you get.
At weekends many people sail out to fish and hunt. When the men go out hunting seals, the women are put ashore to gather herbs and berries.
Let the students spend a few minutes discussing what they have heard in the podcast.
On page 15 the students are to record small audio files where they tell about the podcast. The pictures on the page will help them remember what they have heard.
Sound recording see instruction 1 here.
The recording will now be represented by a small sound icon. This icon can be placed wherever you wish on the page. You can listen to the recording over and over again.
Review in class
We recommend that you have a joint discussion in class when the work with pages 14-15 is finished.
In class you could talk about:
- The picture(s) they have chosen for their audio story and the reason why they have chosen it/them.
- Concepts and keywords the students have heard about in the podcast.
In the text below you can find inspiration for the class discussion.
For some of the concepts there are pages with tasks in the Book Creator book.
If you wish, you can add more pages for other topics, concepts and keywords that you discuss.
Concepts and keywords
- The pantry of nature – For thousands of years the people of Greenland have lived off what they could gather, catch and hunt in nature. They still do this.
The tradition of getting most of your food from nature is deeply rooted in the Inuit. Even though you can buy food from all over the world in the Ilulissat super markets, the food from nature constitutes a big part of what Greenlanders eat.
What kind of food can you get hold of in nature by yourself at the Disko Bay?
What kind of food can you get hold of by yourself where you live?
- Musk ox – belongs to the land mammals and is herbivorous.
In Greenland the musk ox originally only lived in the northern and northeastern parts of the country and in Inglefield Land in the northwest. The musk ox first came to Western Greenland in 1962 and originates from animals that were moved there by man.
There are approximately 39.400 muskoxen in Greenland. This amounts to approximately 23% of the total muskoxen population in the whole world. The two largest stocks in Greenland live by Kangerlussuaq (appr. 20.000 animals) and Sisimiut (appr. 2.600 animals).
Has there always been muskoxen in Western Greenland?
Where in Greenland do the largest amount of muskoxen live?
- Reindeer – The original western Greenlandic reindeer has lived in Greenland for thousands of years. Until 100 years ago there were also reindeer in Eastern Greenland, but this subspecies has become extinct, probably because of catastrophically bad weather.
Today there are only reindeer along the western and northwestern coasts of Greenland. We distinguish between 11 wild reindeer stocks who most probably mingle very little with each other, due to the natural barriers in the landscape.
For how many years have the reindeer existed in Greenland?
Do reindeer live in other places in the world?
- Rock Grouse – breeds all over Greenland and you can see it in nearly all types of terrain. It is a popular edible bird and even though the population varies from one year to another, it is estimated that the ptarmigan exists in large numbers in Greenland. The ptarmigan changes plumage according to the season. The feathers are white in the winter and greyish in the summer.
Why does the ptarmigan change plumage according to the season?
- Food waste – is food that could have been eaten by man, but for some reason or other has been thrown away.
In Greenland there are very many dogs. Sled dogs in North Greenland and sheep dogs in South Greenland. If some food has become too old, the dogs get it. In this way you avoid food waste.
Why is it important to avoid food waste?
On page 16 there is a picture of a reindeer and of a musk ox. Both species are herbivores.
You are not allowed to hunt these animals until after they have calved in May/June.
The students read the text or have it read out loud:
In autumn Malik hunts reindeer and musk ox.
Some of the meat is frozen, some of it is dried and some of it is smoked.
On page 20-21 there are six questions.
Which is the biggest? A reindeer or a musk ox?
At what time of the year do they calve?
How many calves do they get?
Why do you shoot reindeer and musk ox?
Can you use these animals for other things than food?
Has the musk ox always existed in Western Greenland?
The students present their answers as an audio file.
Recording of audio files: see instruction 1 here.
On pages 22-23 there is a picture of two eiders (a male and a female) and a picture of a ptarmigan.
The students read the text or have it read out loud:
In spring, Malik hunts grouse and eider.
He deep freezes them so that he has food supplies for the winter.
On pages 26-27 there are five questions:
Which bird is bigger?
Why is the ptarmigan white in the winter?
What is a “grouse year”?
What does the eider eat?
Why does Malik shoot grouse?
The students present their answers as an audio file.
Recording of audio files: see instruction 1 here.
On page 28 there are four links to some of the things that Elin and Vera gather in nature in the summer and make use of in their cooking.
- Angelica
- Thyme
- Rhododendron Groenlandicum
- Milk-cap
When you click on the link a text and a picture appear. The text is in Danish so make sure focus is on the pictures.
The students are to make a drawing of all four plants. Then they take a picture of their drawings and insert them on page 29.
Insertion of picture: see instruction 2 here.
On these pages the students make sentences or small stories using the keywords and concepts that you have been through. They can write them, record them as an audio file or make a drawing and insert the picture.
Sound recording and insertion of pictures: see instruction 1 and 2 here.
As a conclusion of their work with the podcast, the students now are to produce a story about a trip with their family as an audio file or as a visual story. They tell about a family trip that they have experienced in real life or a trip that they dream of experiencing.
Insertion of sound and pictures: see instruction 1 og 2 here.
The students show their products to the class.
Make sure that the framework for feedback is positive criticism. The students should be supported in assessing what is good – and what might be done better. Find more inspiration here.
Not specifically with a view to making new products, but foremost to let the students discover and work with this kind of constructive and positive criticism.
If you intend to work with some of the other podcasts from the Icefjord Centre, it might make sense to save the students’ Book Creator book, so the work they have done with it can be used again.
If you wish to let the students make use of the feedback they have received from the class, you could reserve time for them to continue their work with their products. So that they can use the feedback they have received from each other and change things in their product.
The podcast The Treasures of a Greenlandic Freezer has been created by the Icefjord Centre in Ilulissat.
The teaching material for the podcast The Treasures of a Greenlandic Freezer has been developed by Lotte Brinkmann and Daniella Maria Manuel, Anholt Læringsværksted with feedback from Leg med IT.
The student’s book in Book Creator has been developed by Rikke Falkenberg Kofoed from Leg med IT.
The teaching material The Treasures of a Greenlandic Freezer is published under a Creative Commons crediting licence CC:BY.
The texts, assignments and pictures can be shared, reproduced and adapted, with the proviso that “The Treasures of a Greenlandic Freezer by The Icefjord Centre Ilulissat” is credited as the source.
The students meet the Icefjord Centre in two pictures, showing summer and winter respectively.
In class you can talk about:
- What the Icefjord Centre is.
- What the surroundings around the Centre look like.
- The difference between summer and winter.
- How summer and winter differ where you live.
Have a look at the map and talk about where Ilulissat is situated. Talk about how many people live in Ilulissat. Also talk about how many people live in the town or settlement where you live.
The students see part of a world map.
The task now is to move the red marker down into the map in order to show where each student lives.
The marker is found in the white box and can be drawn into the map.
In class you can talk about:
- Differences and similarities between Ilulissat and your own town or settlement.
On page 12 there are three freezers with opened lids.
One freezer is for meat – another one is for fish – and yet another one (a smaller freezer) is for berries and herbs.
On page 13 there are pictures of a reindeer, a musk ox, a whale, a grouse, a codfish, a halibut, blueberries, crowberries, angelica and thyme.
The students place the pictures in the correct freezers. They do this by drawing the picture into the freezer they have chosen.
In class you can discuss:
- Why it is quite normal to have at least two freezers when living in Ilulissat.
- How you get hold of food in nature all by yourself.
- What kind of food is in the students’ own freezers at home.
- Have the students tried finding food in nature themselves?
Now it is time for the students to listen to the podcast The Treasures of a Greenlandic Freezer. They find the podcast by clicking on the picture on page 14.
Before the students listen to the podcast, you can give a short introduction to the contents of the podcast.
The contents of the podcast
”The rich wildlife and sealife of Ilulissat is the reason why all families have not just one, but many deep freezers”.
Malik’s, Elin’s og Vera’s narratives.
The thing most collect in Ilulissat are freezers. Two – three freezers per household is the standard. One for meat, one for fish and fowl and a small one for berries, mushrooms and herbs.
About 75% of what people eat, they gather and hunt themselves. This is why many Greenlanders have their own boat.
In one freezer they have for example:
- reindeer meat, meat from musk oxen, eider, grouse and dried reindeer meat.
In another freezer they may have:
- whale meat, seal meat, trout, codfish, halibut, dried capelan, dried whale, dried salmon, halibut, lumpfish roe, mussels, whale skin
In a smaller freezer they have:
- crowberries, blueberries, juniper, angelica, Greenlandic thyme, Rhododendron Groenlandicum and mushrooms
They prepare some of the catch before putting it in the freezer. Whale meat, halibut and trout are smoked, reindeer and capelan are dried and mussels boiled.
The herbs are used for tea, for baking and for cooking.
There is no food waste. When new food is put into the freezer, the oldest food is placed at the top of the freezer and is eaten first. If some of it has become too old, it is given to the dogs.
Because they have lived so close to nature for thousands of years, they also get to know the “taste of the landscape”. Elin and Vera can easily taste where in the Disko Bay an animal comes from. Elin says that the taste of reindeer and seal meat changes the further south you get.
At weekends many people sail out to fish and hunt. When the men go out hunting seals, the women are put ashore to gather herbs and berries.
Let the students spend a few minutes discussing what they have heard in the podcast.
On page 15 the students are to record small audio files where they tell about the podcast. The pictures on the page will help them remember what they have heard.
Sound recording see instruction 1 here.
The recording will now be represented by a small sound icon. This icon can be placed wherever you wish on the page. You can listen to the recording over and over again.
Review in class
We recommend that you have a joint discussion in class when the work with pages 14-15 is finished.
In class you could talk about:
- The picture(s) they have chosen for their audio story and the reason why they have chosen it/them.
- Concepts and keywords the students have heard about in the podcast.
In the text below you can find inspiration for the class discussion.
For some of the concepts there are pages with tasks in the Book Creator book.
If you wish, you can add more pages for other topics, concepts and keywords that you discuss.
Concepts and keywords
- The pantry of nature – For thousands of years the people of Greenland have lived off what they could gather, catch and hunt in nature. They still do this.
The tradition of getting most of your food from nature is deeply rooted in the Inuit. Even though you can buy food from all over the world in the Ilulissat super markets, the food from nature constitutes a big part of what Greenlanders eat.
What kind of food can you get hold of in nature by yourself at the Disko Bay?
What kind of food can you get hold of by yourself where you live?
- Musk ox – belongs to the land mammals and is herbivorous.
In Greenland the musk ox originally only lived in the northern and northeastern parts of the country and in Inglefield Land in the northwest. The musk ox first came to Western Greenland in 1962 and originates from animals that were moved there by man.
There are approximately 39.400 muskoxen in Greenland. This amounts to approximately 23% of the total muskoxen population in the whole world. The two largest stocks in Greenland live by Kangerlussuaq (appr. 20.000 animals) and Sisimiut (appr. 2.600 animals).
Has there always been muskoxen in Western Greenland?
Where in Greenland do the largest amount of muskoxen live?
- Reindeer – The original western Greenlandic reindeer has lived in Greenland for thousands of years. Until 100 years ago there were also reindeer in Eastern Greenland, but this subspecies has become extinct, probably because of catastrophically bad weather.
Today there are only reindeer along the western and northwestern coasts of Greenland. We distinguish between 11 wild reindeer stocks who most probably mingle very little with each other, due to the natural barriers in the landscape.
For how many years have the reindeer existed in Greenland?
Do reindeer live in other places in the world?
- Rock Grouse – breeds all over Greenland and you can see it in nearly all types of terrain. It is a popular edible bird and even though the population varies from one year to another, it is estimated that the ptarmigan exists in large numbers in Greenland. The ptarmigan changes plumage according to the season. The feathers are white in the winter and greyish in the summer.
Why does the ptarmigan change plumage according to the season?
- Food waste – is food that could have been eaten by man, but for some reason or other has been thrown away.
In Greenland there are very many dogs. Sled dogs in North Greenland and sheep dogs in South Greenland. If some food has become too old, the dogs get it. In this way you avoid food waste.
Why is it important to avoid food waste?
On page 16 there is a picture of a reindeer and of a musk ox. Both species are herbivores.
You are not allowed to hunt these animals until after they have calved in May/June.
The students read the text or have it read out loud:
In autumn Malik hunts reindeer and musk ox.
Some of the meat is frozen, some of it is dried and some of it is smoked.
On page 20-21 there are six questions.
Which is the biggest? A reindeer or a musk ox?
At what time of the year do they calve?
How many calves do they get?
Why do you shoot reindeer and musk ox?
Can you use these animals for other things than food?
Has the musk ox always existed in Western Greenland?
The students present their answers as an audio file.
Recording of audio files: see instruction 1 here.
On pages 22-23 there is a picture of two eiders (a male and a female) and a picture of a ptarmigan.
The students read the text or have it read out loud:
In spring, Malik hunts grouse and eider.
He deep freezes them so that he has food supplies for the winter.
On pages 26-27 there are five questions:
Which bird is bigger?
Why is the ptarmigan white in the winter?
What is a “grouse year”?
What does the eider eat?
Why does Malik shoot grouse?
The students present their answers as an audio file.
Recording of audio files: see instruction 1 here.
On page 28 there are four links to some of the things that Elin and Vera gather in nature in the summer and make use of in their cooking.
- Angelica
- Thyme
- Rhododendron Groenlandicum
- Milk-cap
When you click on the link a text and a picture appear. The text is in Danish so make sure focus is on the pictures.
The students are to make a drawing of all four plants. Then they take a picture of their drawings and insert them on page 29.
Insertion of picture: see instruction 2 here.
On these pages the students make sentences or small stories using the keywords and concepts that you have been through. They can write them, record them as an audio file or make a drawing and insert the picture.
Sound recording and insertion of pictures: see instruction 1 and 2 here.
As a conclusion of their work with the podcast, the students now are to produce a story about a trip with their family as an audio file or as a visual story. They tell about a family trip that they have experienced in real life or a trip that they dream of experiencing.
Insertion of sound and pictures: see instruction 1 og 2 here.
The students show their products to the class.
Make sure that the framework for feedback is positive criticism. The students should be supported in assessing what is good – and what might be done better. Find more inspiration here.
Not specifically with a view to making new products, but foremost to let the students discover and work with this kind of constructive and positive criticism.
If you intend to work with some of the other podcasts from the Icefjord Centre, it might make sense to save the students’ Book Creator book, so the work they have done with it can be used again.
If you wish to let the students make use of the feedback they have received from the class, you could reserve time for them to continue their work with their products. So that they can use the feedback they have received from each other and change things in their product.
The podcast The Treasures of a Greenlandic Freezer has been created by the Icefjord Centre in Ilulissat.
The teaching material for the podcast The Treasures of a Greenlandic Freezer has been developed by Lotte Brinkmann and Daniella Maria Manuel, Anholt Læringsværksted with feedback from Leg med IT.
The student’s book in Book Creator has been developed by Rikke Falkenberg Kofoed from Leg med IT.
The teaching material The Treasures of a Greenlandic Freezer is published under a Creative Commons crediting licence CC:BY.
The texts, assignments and pictures can be shared, reproduced and adapted, with the proviso that “The Treasures of a Greenlandic Freezer by The Icefjord Centre Ilulissat” is credited as the source.