MR. Brewer
HUMANITIES - SOCIAL STUDIES/LANGUAGE ARTS
Nose Creek will be hosting a SPIRIT week next week. The days are as follows:
This week 4A and 4B made Easter eggs on Friday. In humanities class, we consider how the art, narratives and literature of various ethnic groups have contributed to the vitality of the culture, language and identity of diverse Alberta communities over time. We were very lucky to welcome Jean to our class. She explained to students the significance of making Easter eggs for the Ukrainian community here in Alberta. Students were very intrigued by her explanations. They watched her demonstration of how to design eggs and were able to use beeswax, candles and tools to create their own designs on eggs. We very much appreciated the volunteers who came to our classroom to assist grade 4s in making their eggs. Jean will varnish the eggs we created over the weekend. When the eggs come back, students will be able to bring them home as a unique and beautiful souvenir of Jean's visit and of their knowledge of a unique and worthwhile cultural activity. Monday this week was the Family Day holiday so there were no classes. On Wednesday we had a spelling test. Students will receive back this test on Monday next week. On Friday students received back their dinosaur research piece and the accompanying rubric. Results will be posted on PowerSchool shortly. Through the week, students continued to work on their First Nations posters. They will be presenting these posters to students in the class next week. Each group has chosen the day when they will present. Time will be given in class next week to practice. To add interest to presentations, students are being encouraged to use props and videos they discovered while researching. To be effective oral and visual communicators students will adjust volume, tone of voice and gestures in order to explain about their research. The class are looking forward to hearing what their friends have discovered. Empathy is an important element in the Design Thinking process. An understanding of the people you are designing for is important so that you can meet their needs. This week, students in 4A and 4B were introduced to this idea during homeroom period. Both classes began work on a project about designing an inclusive playground. In class we viewed the following video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Jb6MeV0iew Students were quite inspired by the idea that playgrounds can be made accessible to all people. Mr. Brewer told students how he went to the soft-landings playground at North Glenmore Park in Calgary. There is soft surface ground cover underneath the equipment so that when children fall down they are far less likely to hurt themselves. On Thursday, students interviewed various adults in the school about what playground equipment they most enjoy and why. With this in mind, and the example shown in the video, students began to create prototypes for building models of playground equipment. Students were told that the materials they can use to make models are cardboard, plasticine, straws, pipe cleaners and so forth. Below are some examples students drew on Friday after making their Easter eggs:
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In social studies, the research process helps develop students who are independent, self-motivated problem solvers and co-creators of knowledge. In class, students have been learning about natural regions in Alberta and the First Nations that live in those regions. Information was gathered and identified by students from the textbook in class, books borrowed from the library and Internet sources. The information located is being showcased on posters. By Wednesday this week the majority of groups were completed their posters about one of several First Nations in Alberta. Students have become informed about the language, history, foods, clothing, religion, customs, and songs of First Nations people in Alberta. They learned that the Nakoda people lived in the Rocky Mountains and Foothills regions. The Nakoda were migratory people, who followed food sources in the changing seasons. The Nakoda knew where best to camp in the winter to take good advantage of the Chinook Winds. The Siksika, Kainai and Tsu T'ina were all groups that lived in the Grasslands region. The buffalo was the most important resource for these people. It was their primary food. Each group was distinct, had their own cultural practices and used teepees for shelter when they first came to Alberta. They often camped near rivers in the winter months for shelter and water. In Spring they would find out where the rains were and where it was getting warm. This would signify berries, roots and herbs were beginning to grow. These would be gathered by groups living on the prairies. The Plains Cree lived in the Parkland region. The Cree moved south onto the prairies and adapted to the plains lifestyle. They traded buffalo meat, pemmican, hides and robes with fur traders. Their way of life was closely tied to the buffalo. Many of the Plains Cree fled to the United States after the Riel Rebellion of 1886. Woodland Cree people lived in the Boreal Forest region. They were one of the first Aboriginal peoples to trade with European fur traders, starting as early as the 1600s. They were excellent hunters and trappers, lived in birch bark teepees and made canoes to move around with in this region. They hunted caribou, moose, bear and beaver. The Dene Tha lived in the Boreal Forest region. They fished the lakes, with both men and women together contributing. The Dene Tha had portable homes such as lean-tos and they traveled by snowshoes, toboggans, canoe and foot. The Dene Suline lived in the far northeast of Alberta in the Canadian Shield region where there were many fish and water birds to be found for food. Like the Dene Tha, they traveled by snowshoes, toboggans, canoe and by foot. Next week students will practice presenting the information they have discovered to other students in the classroom. Groups will be encouraged to use the tips gained from watching the presentation by Lars and Caleb on the Dragon's Den t.v. show as well as using their own prior knowledge about making presentations. As groups share their information an audience of peers, this audience will be active listeners who take notes. Below are some pictures of the work that was accomplished in 4A and 4B this week: Our word work in class this week was about words that make an 'ay' sound. In the weekly list their are two patterns of note: 'ei' and 'a _ e'. In both instances the sound of the words is the same: like the letter 'a' in the alphabet. There are also some words that relate to our story writing such as character, setting climax and so forth. Students are encouraged to write increasingly longer and more complex sentences using weekly spelling words. When students are at home, writing sentences using spelling words is an effective means of practicing. Students are encouraged to remember to:
This week in Humanities class, students studied word work/spelling. There was a spelling quiz on Monday. The majority of students received back their tests on Wednesday. Most students had to do some edits on their spelling sentences. Through this process, 4A and 4B students use feedback given by Mr. Brewer to re-write their sentences correctly. They correct their spelling, and use of punctuation and capitalization. By repeating this process, students build their capacity to identify and learn how to spell problem words in their own writing. They develop a sense of when the spelling of a word looks correct. The marks for the test will be posted on PowerSchool; a mark for the quiz is given (i.e. recall of the spelling patterns) and a mark for sentences Students continued to worked on their First Nations research posters this week too. Most of the actual research has been completed. Students are now working together collaboratively. As they do this they learn social skills as a result of their cooperative interaction. Within the groups, students are encouraged to recognize that each individual is accountable for their work and that by cooperating they can get tasks done more quickly and efficiently. Students have also been encouraged to find their individual roles within groups. All students can contribute positively to this effort. The posters are really coming along. Here are two examples of posters: We studied about story writing and telling throughout the week. Students are writing a legendary story. Each student now has a provisional story title. We talked in class about story elements. We agreed that good stories have characters, settings, a definite story problem, climax of action and conclusion. We talked about a technique called the magic of three (i.e. three events in a story that lead up to a climax in action or a character's revelation). Students are being encouraged to start their stories with a sound effect, thought, action or dialogue. Also, we talked this week about word referents. A word referent is way to talk about a character in a story without immediately naming the character or object. Using word referents makes the reader wonder exactly what kind of character will be revealed. An example of a character we talked about in class was a witch. Rather than saying 'witch' repeatedly in the story we could say: scary woman, green-faced hag, cackling broom rider or black-clad character: This week on Monday, students received back their spelling quizzes. Students edited their spelling sentences and received a new spelling list. Our word work this week focuses on suffixes. In grade four, one of our goals is to identify and know the meaning of some of the more frequently used prefixes and suffixes. Building up an inventory of knowledge of suffixes helps students to understand unfamiliar words in context. When reading an unfamiliar word students can look for something familiar within the word, such as a root word or compound word, or they can divide the word into syllables to figure them out. This week's list has the following suffixes: -ful, -able, and -ment. In class we found out what the meaning of the suffixes are. We also alphabetized our spelling words as a means of recalling their spelling and to practice alphabetical order in order to be more proficient in looking up words in dictionaries, indexes and glossaries. 4B did some additional work on suffixes during homeroom time. We identified words and thought of what suffix would work with those words: We continued to work on our research project about First Nations too! To learn about presentation skills, students watched a presentation done for the T.V. show Dragon's Den during humanities class. Here is the link: vimeo.com/52300102 The presentation was made by two brothers who are around the same age as the students in 4A and 4B. These children made a product pitch to a panel of adult entrepreneurs. 4A and 4B students were surprised that children so young could do such a competent job. They commented on how confident the two boys were and how well they understood their topic (hot chocolate). Students were asked to have in mind the following question as they watched the product pitch: "What did they do well?" Afterwards, we discussed the product pitch and students came up with a list of the ingredients for a good presentation. 4A and 4B said that the presenter should:
In groups, students began to collaboratively make a poster to display their knowledge about a First Nation in Alberta. They looked at examples of posters. Just as they did with the video presentation, they came up with ideas for what would make a good poster. They will orally present their information to the class using some of the techniques they learned by watching the Dragon's Den pitch. Here are the important points that need to be shown on the poster: This weekend, students are encouraged to study their spelling words containing suffixes, read for 20 minutes per night and do some further research on their First Nation if possible. The Google doc. shared with all the members of their research group is still available to be added to. Note that in addition to answering research questions, to get some additional credit students can add unique or interesting details that are not covered by the research questions. Often there are interesting details about First Nations groups that are not necessarily common knowledge, such as that their language is related to other languages in far away parts of North America nowhere near Alberta, or that they have ceremonies that are secretive and little known to outsiders.
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