What a full week we’ve had!
The second week of spelling went well, as we are settling into a slightly new routine and greater expectation for homework. Great job, Division 2!
In Math, we have been working on factoring, using various strategies like factor trees, using blocks to create arrays (rows and columns), and multiplication charts.
In Science, we started a Simple Machines unit. Did you know that a canoe paddle is actually a lever? When we paddle, our hand acts as the fulcrum, while the force is our push through the load of the water. We took turns practicing paddling with two paddles loaned to us from my friends, and tried to figure out what class of lever a paddle could be (no one really knows! Depending on where you consider the fulcrum to be, it could be a Class 2 or a Class 3 lever!). I’ve asked the class to look for “levers in the wild” as homework, and bring back a list of all the examples of levers they can find.
In Phys. Ed., we have continued with basketball skills, but spend Wednesday’s period attempting to simulate canoe paddling with sticks and rolling chairs… I learned that the right tools might have helped us be more successful, but we had a bit of fun!
In Lit Circles, students worked on their individual roles, created character sketches, and performed miniature plays of scenes from their novels. I am hoping that everyone is enjoying their books and is finding connections to the stories!
In Social Studies, we have been discussing a complex and difficult topic. We spend time talking about the Indian Act, and how colonialism has impacted the world. This is a huge subject to begin to comprehend, and I am grateful for the maturity and sincerity that many have been showing. We looked at a map of British colonization around the world, read about some of the impacts of this, resulting in laws like the Indian Act. We played a game called “Pass It On,” in which the rules kept changing when students didn’t expect, to represent how the Indian Act placed arbitrary and limiting rules on First Nations, unfairly. We talked about Culture Trees, and how laws like the Indian Act limited and punished Indigenous peoples for practicing their cultures. We talked briefly about the fact that Canada still has the Indian Act, but that it has changed over time. For the rest of this term, we will be learning about Residential Schools and other discriminatory government policies.
In French, we have been studying the vocabulary of emotions, to respond to the question “Comment ça va?” We took photos of ourselves showing different emotions (ie: happy/joyeux, sad/triste, angry/faché, shy/timide, confused/confus, etc..). 
In Art, we connected colours to emotions, using paints to express three different emotions each. We used our photos from French practice, removed the faces, and used our painted cards to represent the feelings we were 
demonstrating in each picture. The results are so much more fun and expressive than I even expected! We will be adding French to them next week.
Thanks for keeping updated here on the blog! Please do let me know (through email or in person) if you have any questions about our studies this term.
I hope you all have a great weekend. Stay warm!