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):
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)?
Today, we continued our discussion on evolution by learning about Darwin’s finches. Please view the video below and try your best to answer question 5 on your handout. We will continue our conversation about this on Thursday.
Hello, travelers! Over the next few weeks, we will be learning about different countries, continents, and cultures from through picture books written by a diverse group of authours (#ownvoices).
Today, we learned about the importance of educating people of all genders when we read The Library Bus by Bahram Rahman.
The authour grew up in Afghanistan, where the book is set, and was inspired by the resilience of teachers and students. He is using the story to raise awareness about girls education, and to celebrate the beauty and landscape of his home country.
As we learn more about the world around us, it is important for us to consider:
-What do we know about this country already? How do we know/what are our sources?
-Is it possible to learn everything there is to know about a country or culture in one day? What should we do if we want to learn more?
-Can we make any connections to the characters in the book? How are our lives similar?
Check out the song we will be using to learn more about the vast world around us below:
Who is an Elder in your life? It might be a parent, grandparent, coach, teacher, religious leader, family friend, etc. An Elder is someone who has lived longer than us, demonstrates natural leadership, and possesses lots of life experience and knowledge that we can learn from.
Over the next few weeks, we will be thinking of interview questions to ask an Elder in our lives. Whether over Zoom, Skype, a phone call, e-mail, texting, or in person, each student will ask their Elder 3-4 questions. We hope to be able to share what we learn with each other!
My (Ms. Ward) Elder was my grandmother, Lenore, who lived to be 96 years old! I interviewed her a few weeks before she passed away earlier this month.
Feel free to watch the video below, where 100-year-olds were interviewed about how to have a happy life!
Today, we learned that many countries, cities, and communities use flags to represent their unique identities. Canada has a flag that includes red and white, with a maple leaf in the center. The LGBT+ community uses a rainbow flag to represent their identities. We read about the creation of the rainbow flag and the life of Harvey Milk. Then, we created our own flags that will be used when we make our own ‘micronations’!
What symbols, colours, plants, animals, etc. would you use to represent your identity?
Have you ever heard of a ‘code talker’? Code talkers were a ‘secret weapon’, a group of Indigenous soldiers that translated American and Canadian messages into different Indigenous languages (ex: Cree), then sent the message to another code talker who would translate it back into English. This way, when the message was sent, if any soldiers on the opposing side were listening in they could not decode the message!
Though these brave Indigenous soldiers were very crucial to keeping important messages safe, they rarely receive any mention in history textbooks or acknowledgement during Remembrance Day ceremonies! Hopefully, but learning more about the important role Indigenous soldiers played in Canadian history we will be able to honour and respect their sacrifices.
This week, we are continuing to use our critical thinking skills as we examine primary sources, photographs, quotes, news articles, and opinion pieces to decide whether we think John A. Macdonald (Canada’s first Prime Minister) was a positive or negative historical figure.
With any person or event in history, it is important to learn as much as we can from different perspectives. This way, we can make up our own opinion based on the evidence!
Please feel free to read and review the article attached above to learn more about the controversy surrounding John A. Macdonald’s statue being destroyed in Montreal.
Hello to our parents, guardians, and families of Div. 5 students!
In Socials this month, we will be discussing topics that involve stereotypes, prejudice, and racism; we will also be learning about people who stood up against oppression and made positive changes in their communities! For example, we learned about Viola Desmond and her fight to end racial segregation in Canada. I know that we will have some challenging, meaningful, and interesting discussions around the topic of past and present injustices over the weeks to come!
It is important to recognize that many students have likely heard/learned about different examples of injustice through current events, social media, their own life experiences, etc. I am so proud of how honest, empathetic, and critically-minded our class has been in our lessons so far! Here is a resource that may be helpful if you want to continue these conversations at home.
Today, we learned about Viola Desmond and her fight against racial segregation in Canada. We watched the Heritage Minute dedicated to her and read a biography about her life, Viola Desmond Will Not Be Budged.
We will be continuing to explore historical (and contemporary) examples of people who stood up against injustice, racism, and prejudice. Who are some ‘changemakers’ that you think we should learn about?
