Learning Update

Suggestions for Learning from Home Grades 6-9

Children are naturally curious learners and there are opportunities at home to engage their learning. We have created a webpage that offers a variety of educational ideas to support literacy, numeracy and wellness at home for this week. The resources are meant as suggestions only. You may choose to use the links and activities as needed over the next few days as more long-term educational programming is considered.

Grades 6-9 Learning Resources Link

Please know that we care about all of you and cannot wait to see you again, whenever that might happen. We will continue to update you as well as your families whenever we can. Be well, be kind, and be healthy!

Mental Health Resources:
Helping children cope with COVID
Coping with stress resulting from COVID

UPDATE: Classes are Cancelled

***Please be aware that as of March 15, 2020 all classes have been cancelled for the foreseeable future. We will update you all with more information about what that means for the rest of your grade 9 year as soon as we know. Please take care of yourselves and reach out if you need anything; I will do whatever I can to support you. Email me at jagarrow@cbe.ab.ca***

Update from the CBE: The purpose of teacher blogs is to inform students and their families of day-to-day learning and activities throughout the school year.  We will continue to communicate learning opportunities and will provide links to online learning resources through these blogs. 

Important information related to all school decisions will continue to be emailed to parents/guardians and can also be found on the CBE website (www.cbe.ab.ca).

*If you or your family need support for mental health and wellness during this time, please access resources online such as Access Mental Health.

Aztec Codex Project

This week we will be finishing up chapters 10 and 11 notes from the textbook, and moving on to our final project for the Aztec unit; The Aztec Codex!!

Aztec Codex Information
Codex Planning Page

Watch this video for more information: Aztec Codices
For more information on different topics: Growing Up Aztec

Resources:
Aztec Glyphs
Aztec Writing and Technology
Aztec System of Writing
Design Thinking Process

Lost in Translation Task

There are many languages all over the world, and often they have words that do not translate to English and we have no words that are even remotely similar. For example, there are over 100 words in the world that mean 'snow'. WHY IS THAT?! Many famous books like The BFG by Roald Dahl as well as Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll feature words that were created by the authors in order to show the flexibility of language and our imaginations.

Review the slideshow in the link below to see some examples and then complete one of the two tasks on the final slide:

Lost in Translation Slideshow

Helpful links:

BBC wordlist
30 More Words...
Weird English Words

Aztecs Continued...

*FYI: Report cards go home this week and we are having Student Progress Conferences on Thursday from 1-8 and Friday, 10-2. Parents can book online through PowerSchool or let the specific teacher(s) know and we can book a spot for you.

We have been digging deep into who the Aztecs were and how their worldview was developed.
This week, we will start to move towards the end of the Expire, and with that, the coming of the Spanish.

Prior to that, we are going to create some representations of daily life in the Aztec world using the information we have gathered. We will do this in the form of a newspaper. Students should be able to use their notes and the textbook for much of this work, but if you are working from home or outside of class, there are some links below that could help.

Helpful links:
History Crunch - Aztecs

On to the Aztecs!

Now we begin our second unit all about the Aztecs!

To start with, we need to learn a bit about who the Aztecs were, where were they located, what did they do, when were they around, and why did they do things the way they did?

To help with this, we will be watching some videos in class as well as exploring some research sites this week. We'll be looking at the empire overall in Engineering an Empire. Then, we will look more closely at Tenochtitlan, the major city of the Aztecs and the history behind how it was built.

This week will be full of exploring the world of the Aztecs BEFORE the Spanish come over from Europe.

Helpful Links:

Misunderstandings About the Aztecs
Aztecs History - use this link for research
The Hero Twins story (origins of the Ball Game)
The Story of the Prickly Pear Cactus
Tenochtitlan compared to  Renaissance cities

Age of Exploration

We have finished up our first section of Social Studies, the Renaissance! Below are links to the notes and map that we did to complete this piece.

Helpful links for this week:

Age of Exploration slideshow
Mapping Spain and Portugals Conquests