the inukshuk - a symbol of Canada

Happy (almost) birthday Canada!

I was thinking about something specially Canadian to do with the kidlets to celebrate our country's birthday.

This year, I thought we would look to a Canadian symbol from the Arctic.  

The Inukshuk: a stone "pretend person" built on the tundra by the Inuit as hunting and navigational aids, markers and message centres.  

We looked at some inuksuit (plural of inukshuk) online, and then set to work to build our own.

Twenty four Shreddies, 3 pretzel sticks and a blob of chocolate icing make one inukshuk. The instructions can be found on the back of a Shreddies box, or here.   

Six Shreddies "glued" together with icing for each leg.

Five Shreddies for the stone tummy.

Adding two pretzels for the arms and balancing Shreddies on top is delicate work.  But manageable. 

This inukshuk builder collected all the leftovers and kept building. 

The Shreddies inukshuks inspired some other classroom inuksuit.

Happy Birthday Canada!