MR. Brewer
HUMANITIES - SOCIAL STUDIES/LANGUAGE ARTS
There will be a spelling test on April 1. Please study during the March Break. Here are the spelling words: Words in the list have a long 'a' sound. During word work students also noted that many words have the -ful suffix: e.g. mouthful, truthful, and careful. All words with the -ful suffix mean 'full of'. So 'careful' means full of care. There are also several compound words in the list. Compound words are those made up of two independent words: play+ground = playground face+less = faceless. A good way to study for the forthcoming test is to write sentences that contain these words. Marks 1 ~ 4 in spelling are based on the following: The test marks are regularly inputted into PowerSchool. On Wednesday of this week students were encouraged to bring home their Language Arts duo tangs to do some work over the Spring Break on the legendary story and on their book talk. All students have chosen a particular day on which they will share the book they have read. A list of dates was given and students wrote down their date in their agenda. They also wrote down the date in the Book Talk planner:
Regularly reading books, thinking of good ideas for your book talk and writing your legendary story or adding details to it if it is already written are good means of maintaining academic focus during the March Break. Above all, I would encourage my students to get a well earned rest and to have fun over the March Break. Enjoy the fresh air and the company of friends and family. If you are traveling somewhere please have a safe trip. See you back in April!
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Homework Assignment - due Monday March 18.
This week in Humanities students had a spelling quiz on Monday. They received these quizzes back on Tuesday and rewrote sentences (if required). The spelling list encompassed a number of vocabulary terms that are related to our current learning in social studies classes. On Monday, Mr. Brewer did a Book Talk with students in 4A and 4B about one of my favourite books - The Secret of the Unicorn - by Belgian author Hergé. In the book talk I spoke about why I enjoy the book so much, explained about the plot of the story, and read a selection from the book in a dramatic way. I showed a trailer for the Tintin movie directed by Steven Spielberg which is in part based in part on the book. A book talk is an opportunity for students to present information and ideas to peers on a topic of interest in a well-organized form. All students in class will talk about a book they have read and tell why they would recommend it to others. Students are encouraged to enhance their presentation by adjusting volume and tone of voice as they speak, using gestures and bringing in props like pictures or artifacts. An example would be if a child's favourite book was about dinosaurs and that student brought a plastic model of a dinosaur described in the book or showed a short video about dinosaurs. Telling the class about the author, illustrator, storyteller or filmmaker associated with a book is a good way to generate enthusiasm and encourage others to read it. After my book talk on Monday, I noticed some students were reading books from the Tintin series. On Monday next week, I will show students the rubric associated with this assignment, we'll talk about a checklist which students will review before they present and I will begin to make a schedule for presentations. When choosing the book for the book talk, a student is encouraged to skim the cover, illustrations, content of the book, then read some random passages to determine if the book is of interest and/or is at an appropriate reading level. Over the weekend, students should make a final choice of the book they would like to talk about to the class. During class we continued to talk about the voyageurs and their unique contribution to Alberta's history. We watched this short video about the fur trade: www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGoVlgcT6tM By the time the fur trade reached Alberta it was controlled by two large companies - The Hudson Bay Company and the North West Company. Here are the flags of the two companies that competed with each other during the fur trade: Trading posts developed along rivers like the Athabasca and North Saskatchewan. First Nations trappers brought furs to the trading posts and exchanged them for the types of items that were in high demand among them such as pots, pans, blankets and so forth. Many trading posts were called forts and many of them had thick walls for protection. The class looked at a map of where the forts were located and answered questions about the map and the video shown in class. Interpreting historical maps assists in broadening understanding of topics being studied. Viewing videos in social studies enables students to extend their thinking and knowledge leading to increased understanding of topics studied. In Humanities the topics of Alberta's French history and the fur trade were introduced this week. The entry of Europeans and Canadiens from Quebec and elsewhere in the eastern part of Canada into our province represents a new chapter is the story of Alberta's history. By the 17th century, people were beginning to come to the area now known as Alberta in increasing numbers seeking furs. 4A and 4B viewed the following movie by the NFB: www.nfb.ca/film/voyageurs/ While this film was made in 1964, it does give a reasonable impression of what daily life was like for voyageurs. Students watched this film and wrote reflections on their learning. Both classes practiced the song Alouette in French class with Mr. Brewer. It was one of many songs that the voyageurs sang to keep pace as they paddled across Canada. The voyageurs had great importance in Canada's (and by extension Alberta's) history. They paddled in canoes filled with items to trade for furs. Between waterways, voyageurs carried weights of almost 150 kgs. While we tend to think of Alberta as a predominantly English speaking province, many of the earliest settlers, traders and missionaries who came here were Francophone or Métis. Communities like Grande Prairie, Lac La Biche, Morinville and Lacombe show how Francophones very early on established their roots in urban and rural Alberta. This week's spelling words reflect our new study this week. Many of the words relate to our study of the fur trade. Canadiens were Francophones (French speaking people) who were born in Canada. Portage is a French word that comes from the verb porter (to carry). It is used to describe the process of carrying canoe and supplies over land. Francophones are people whose first and main language is French. In class we talked about good strategies for learning spelling words. Looking for patterns is important. This week there is a pattern of i + consonant + e: divide, decide, desire, & alive. Good spellers know letter patterns and use them to help recall spellings or guess the spelling of new or unknown words. Knowing common letter patterns is a fantastic strategy to help improve your spelling. Making a letter pattern dictionary at home would be a good step towards improvement. Breaking words into smaller chunks is a great way to help spell longer, more complex words: Franc/o/phone un/com/fort/able, com/mun/it/ies. Friday was the culminating task in our design process. Students were introduced to the problem by Mr. Brewer through viewing videos and a powerpoint presentation. They interviewed key stakeholders to discover and empathize about the issue of creating an inclusive playground. They thought about all kinds of creative ideas, drew designs for different types of playground equipment and finally built models in class. Many of these are working models. 4B were creative and experienced a strong collaborative learning opportunity. Building involved problem solving and testing to see what could work and what would not. All students were highly engaged in their authentic and meaningful work. Below are some pictures of playground structures made by 4B students in today's class:
This week in Humanities class students worked on editing spelling sentences, doing their First Nations presentations in front of the class and continuing the planning and writing of their legendary stories.
Students presented information about First Nations based on their research. Students who were watching and listening to the presentations gave constructive feedback, asked relevant questions, and expressed opinions in response to these oral and visual presentations. Via graphic organizers, students continued working on establishing characters, setting, story problem, and pinpointing the climax of action in their legendary stories. A big highlight of the week was our visit to Saddledome to watch the Calgary Hitmen play. At the game students learned about the importance of acceptance and bullying prevention from guest speakers. Results from the dinosaur research paper were posted on PowerSchool along with the marks from the Feb. 20 spelling test. |
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