By Lila Mehlhaff
 
ABERDEEN, South Dakota—Bobbi Piasecki, 37, founder of the Catch Your Dream Native Youth Reading Circle, has been known to bring interesting teaching tools into her classroom.  Such as the time she brought a turtle in to illustrate the Lakota calendar by allowing her students to count the scales on his back.

"The kids loved it and had a blast!  And they always talk about it."

And of course, the turtle represents the concept of good health and long life and this created an opportunity for her to share these ways with her kids.

Piasecki has worked with an Urban Indian Health nutritionist to provide healthy snacks, often as part of the curriculum, to the children for the after school program, which meets every Thursday at the Native American Cultural Center and Museum in Aberdeen.

(Read more in the Winter 2009 issue…)