A collection of moments from our Grade 7 learning community
Hello, writers! If you want to practice your writing at home, please feel free to watch this video and then set your timer for 10 minutes.
Hi, writers! Today, your Extreme Writing task is to watch the video above, set your timer for 10 minutes, and write as much as you can about the topic(s) below. Good luck!
This week, we began our discussion about water scarcity both in Canada and around the world. We learned that a very small percentage of the water on Earth is fresh, clean, and drinkable. Many people across the world do not have access to clean water, which effects their lives in many ways.
In The Water Princess, Gie Gie tells the story of her daily routine with her mother. They wake up before the sun rises, walk many miles to a water source, wait in line, gather the water, make the trek home, and then boil the water to try to remove some of the impurities as microorganisms. The cycle repeats the next day, and the day after.
We will continue to discuss water preservation, scarcity, and purification over the next few weeks.
Today, we watched the short film (and read the book upon which it was based) The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore. The story is about the importance of books, the cycle of life, and how important it is that everyone has a chance to tell their story. If you have 15 minutes to spare, check out the Academy Award Winning short film, linked above!
Today, we learned about the inventor of Crayola crayons. Edwin Binney was a fantastic, successful innovator because he worked hard, listened to others, and always wanted to solve problems. He heard many children complain that the old style of crayons weren’t bright enough, were too bulky, and too expensive. So, with his team, Edwin created a new kind of crayon… the Crayola crayon!
Over the next few weeks, we will be learning about innovators and inventors like Edwin Binney, Leonardo Da Vinci, and many more!
Check out the video below to see how Crayola crayons are made today!
This week, we started our new read aloud: Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus by Dusti Bowling. This realistic fiction/humour/mystery novel follows Aven, a 13-year-old girl who was born without arms. So far, we’ve learned that Aven has a very strange sense of humour (like telling people she lost her arms wrestling alligators) and has worked her whole life to be self-sufficient. But when she moves to a new school, her classmates either try to help her, avoid her, or stare at her because she is different.
Many people are born with disabilities (and different abilities), just like Aven. Feel free to watch the video below of Sophi, a girl who was also born without arms. She is an amazing, independent, and confident person!
Please remember: not every person who has a disability is the same, and not every disability is one that you can ‘see’. We should treat everyone with respect, understanding, and empathy.
Today, we read a story based on the life of Vincent Van Gogh. We learned that most people did not appreciate his artistic talents, and thought he was too strange, too foolish, and too unique to be a famous artist. He only ever sold 1 painting during his entire life, and suffered from mental illness. But now, he is considered by many people to be one of the greatest artists of all time. His paintings are worth over $100 million. Here is a video of the ‘immersive’ exhibit in France. Maybe, one day we can see it in person!
Our topic(s):
Our Extreme Writing Challenge continues! Our topic(s) were…
Our class is working on eliminating ‘writer’s block & brain freeze’ when writing! We will be doing an ‘Extreme Writing’ challenge each day before Language Arts. The goal is to increase our writing confidence and fluency by getting as many words down onto our page as possible in 5 minutes!
Here was our prompt for today:
Our goal for next time is to increase the number of words we can write in 5 minutes, and to find something we are proud of in every piece of writing!