Would you be able to tell how much a bar of chocolate costs just by tasting it? Our class put our skills to the challenge yesterday but investigating the appearance, smell, texture, and taste of 6 different chocolates (of varying price points).
Many of us were able to try and make educated guesses about how much each chocolate cost. We learned that usually, chocolate with a smoother texture and more defined cocoa flavour could be more expensive due to ingredients and labour. We also learned that most fair-trade and rainforest-certified chocolate is more expensive.
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!
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.
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:
Have you ever played any video games (including PC, mobile, etc.)? What was your experience like?
What skills do you think a game designer should have and/or develop? Why?
Try playing the ‘original’ version(s) of Mario. What did you notice?
Image description: a hand holding a copy of the picture book Muhammad Ali: A Champion is Born by Gene Barretta
This week, we discussed the importance of considering what goals we might want to achieve in our lives. We read about how Muhammad Ali was inspired to begin his boxing career from an experience he had as a 12 year old child. Despite the mockery, prejudice, and injustice that he faced, Muhammad Ali trained and persevered and achieved so much in his lifetime! He was crowned the heavyweight champion of the world an astonishing 3 times, medaled in the Olympics, and, perhaps most importantly, was known as the “People’s Champion” because of his commitment to speaking out against injustice.
Take a look at the short memorial video, below, commemorating Muhammad Ali’s lifetime:
Have you ever heard of the mysterious disappearance of the Franklin Expedition? This History Mystery involves two ships, sailing from Britain to the Artic of Canada on a search for the Northwest Passage. Despite being well-equipped with food, water, and technology, the ships (and crew) disappeared, and even over 150 years later people still cannot agree on what happened to them!
Check out the trailer, above, for an introduction to this History Mystery, and click the link below for our evidence (so far):
Have you ever read a book and felt like a character was SO similar to you, it was like looking in a mirror? Have you ever felt like a book provided you with a window into someone else’s life and experiences? These are both examples of how representation in media (especially books) is important!
We have been exploring how books can be mirrors and windows, and examining what books in our class library are examples of one or the other (or even both)!
We learned that many people may not see themselves in books and movies. There may not be many characters that share aspects of their identities, such as: culture, ethnicity, life experiences, religion, background, family dynamic, etc. We surveyed our class library to look for ‘gaps’ in our books. We talked about how reading books about people who are different from us can build understanding and empathy.
Today, we read The Proudest Blue by Ibtihaj Muhammad:
In the story, a younger sister tells us all about her older sister’s first day wearing hijab. We talked about how many people from different cultures and religions may wear clothing, regalia, jewelry, or other items as testaments to their beliefs and backgrounds. To learn more about Ibtihaj Muhammad’s life, including her time as an Olympic-medalist in fencing, check out the video below:
Some questions to discuss at home:
Have you ever seen a character that is similar to you (culture, race, religion, personality, background, etc.) in a book, movie, or TV show?
What are some characters you feel connected to? Who are your favourite characters, and why do you like them?
Do you have any clothing, regalia, jewelry, that you wear that represents your culture/faith/identity? Are there certain items that you wear on special days?
Our class took on our most complicated recipe yet… a fruit crisp! We learned that fruit crisps can be made with a variety of types of fillings, including: strawberries, apples, peaches, mangos, cherries, and more! They are also a very economical and delicious way to use up extra fruit, or even frozen fruit!
The topping of our crisps used rolled oats, flour, sugar, and cinnamon along with melted butter. We measured our ingredients carefully and worked collaboratively to make individual sized desserts.
Most of us were very excited with how our fruit crisps turned out. Please feel free to click the recipe above to try making it at home.
Our Grade 7s have been hard at work learning about early humans with Ms. Ramen in Socials class! We invited a artist in residence to come in and teach us how to sculpt a human skull out of clay. After sculpting, they were fired in the kiln. Then, we glazed the skulls and they will be fired a final time. We can’t wait to see the final product soon!
Some questions we suggest parents/guardians can discuss at home:
What features did you include in your skull model? What species of hominin did you choose to create?
How does your model skull look similar or different from our own (real) skulls?
How old do you imagine your skull is? What conditions was it in (ex: desert, water)?
Our class has been working on using self-editing strategies in order to make our writing more powerful, formal, and clear! Ms. Lee helped us learn about the difference between formal and informal writing. We might use formal writing when submitting an essay, sending an e-mail to an employer, or writing a letter to a government official. Informal writing is what we use when we text a friend, when we write in a journal, or if we are writing a quick write.
Based on these conversations, we created a checklist that will help us with our editing! Find our checklist below:
Self-Editing Checklist:
Using the checklist below, read through your paper fully. You can make any corrections using a pen. Check off the list as you go.
Formatting:
Is there a title? Is it bolded? Centered?
Is your name underneath (By: Your Name)?
Is your paragraph indented using the TAB?
Is the font easy to read (ex: Arial, Times New Roman)?
Did you use size 12-14 font?
Is your work double-spaced?
Content:
Did you use a catchy or interesting opening sentence?
Did you clearly introduce your topic/thesis?
Did you use at least 3 reasons or pieces of evidence?
Did you use a conclusion sentence and have a strong ending?
Were you persuasive?
Grammar and Formality:
Is the beginning of each sentence capitalized?
Are names of people and places capitalized (ex: Wirt, Pottsfield)?
Is there a period, question mark, or exclamation mark at the end of each sentence?
Did you check for slang (ex: cool, yeah) and remove it?
Did you remove contractions (ex: don’t, won’t)?
Did you remove short forms (ex, ur, irl)?
Did you rephrase your sentences to remove “I” and “we”?
