Important Reminders:

Hello to our Grade 7 students,

A few important reminders:

-Please remember to submit your agamographs (including your write-up) and your digital portfolio covers to Ms. Ramen through Teams. These assignments are now very overdue, and must be completed promptly.

-Course selection forms for Burnaby North are due on February 20th. Remember to fill in your elective, and your back-up!

-There is no school on Friday and Monday of this week. We will resume school on Tuesday!

-We will be continuing our Baking unit next week (Tuesday/Wednesday). Please bring a hair elastic, scrunchie, or claw clip if your hair is longer than shoulder length.

Best wishes,

Ms. Ward

 

 

Lunar New Year: Making Dumplings

Today, Ms. Lee came to talk to our class about Lunar New Year. We discussed how many cultures and countries celebrate the Lunar New Year, often with a special meal with family and friends. While not all people eat dumplings during this time of year, many families may choose to make dumplings as a symbol of wealth and fortune. Our classes created our own dumplings using pork, cabbage, green onions, eggs, chives, soy sauce, sesame oil, and dumpling wrappers.

Here are some photos of the process, below:

Stay tuned for the recipe, which will be posted later this week!

Best wishes,

-Ms. Ward

Formal Writing: Email Etiquette

Our Grade 7s have been discussing how being able to send a formal, professional email will benefit us in the future. We learned that whether we are connecting with a teacher, asking our professor a question, contacting a future employer, demanding action from politicians, or sending an invoice to a customer, using a formal tone in an email is helpful.

Students have been tasked with sending Ms. Ward a formal style email. Please see the PowerPoint (attached) for further information.

Formal Writing_ E-mails and Cover Letters

Reminders for This Week:

Hello Grade 7s!

Please remember:

-your digital portfolio cover is due to Ms. Ramen by January 31st

-there is no band on Wednesday… playing test is rescheduled for Thursday morning

-we have a special guest speaker coming in on Wednesday afternoon to talk about kindness and anti-bullying

-Young Actors Project will continue (session 2) next week

-we are beginning our ‘job interviews’ this week! Don’t forget to practice your handshake, introduction, and answers to your questions/prompts (“tell me a bit about yourself, why should we hire you for this position, describe a time when you have overcome a challenge, what is your biggest weakness, why do you want this job”)

Thanks everyone!

-Ms. Ward

Black Excellence Day: Celebrating Black Innovators, Past and Present

Today, our school is observing Black Excellence Day. This is the 3rd annual Black Excellence Day in British Columbia. Black Excellence Day is a way to learn about innovative artists, scientists, politicians, activists, authours, and athletes from Black communities around the world. Some influential people we have learned about as part of our exploration of Black Excellence are:

-Serena Williams, an amazing athlete notable for her accomplishments in tennis and her indominable confidence

-Muhammad Ali, as undefeatable in the boxing ring as he was when speaking out against war

-Stevie Wonder, a talented singer/songwriter who has a career spanning decades

-Harriet Tubman, a brave ‘conductor’ that travelled the Underground Railroad to free enslaved people

-Jesse Owens, an athlete that shook up racist beliefs about sports at the Berlin Olympics

-Katherine Johnson, one of NASA’s ‘computers’ who was essential to America getting to the moon

 

History of Games: Try Them Yourself

Hey Grade 7s! Please see the links below to try out 4 of the earliest video games that were available for public use. Be mindful that some of these websites have advertisements, so make sure to use your best digital citizenship strategies:

PONG:

https://www.coolmathgames.com/0-retro-ping-pong

https://ponggame.io/

SPACE INVADERS:

https://freeinvaders.org/

DONKEY KONG:

https://www.free80sarcade.com/donkeykong.php

PACMAN:

https://pacman.live/play.html

Game Design: Where Language, Art, and Science Collide

What does it take to design a video game?  Our Grade 7s are beginning to examine the skills and strategies that game designers use, including character creation, instructional writing/walkthroughs, mapping and level design, and more!

We began today by viewing this interview with one of the creators of the Mario series! We learned that video games have been around since the 1970s, and have continued to grow and change as technology, culture, and trends shift and change! Feel free to check out the video below:

Some questions to discuss at home:

  1. Have you ever played any video games (including PC, mobile, etc.)? What was your experience like?
  2. What skills do you think a game designer should have and/or develop? Why?
  3. Try playing the ‘original’ version(s) of Mario. What did you notice?

Super Mario Game:

https://supermario-game.com/

Information about the history of Mario:

https://mario.nintendo.com/history/