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

Happy New Year!

Welcome back, and happy 2020!

I am so excited to see you all, and hope that you are ready to move into semester 2 of the school year!

We are going to start this week by discussing resolutions and SMART goals. We worked with SMART goals at the start of the school year, so this should be familiar to you. It is SUPER important to think about what we've done so far this year, and what we want to accomplish moving forward.

Here is a link to get you thinking about this: Growth Mindset Resources

More helpful links:
Video about growth mindset
New Years Celebrations around the world

Winter Break is Coming!

In this final week of school for 2019, we will be wrapping up our Renaissance unit as well as the Parts of Speech stations we have been running through.

Helpful links:
Marco Polo video

Report cards come out shortly after we return from break in January. Please check Powerschool to see your grades and ensure everything looks correct. If there are missed assignments, now would be a great time to get them in as they may change some of your overall grades.

I hope you all have a great break, and I can't wait to see you all in the New Year!

Venice is Sinking and more...

Renaissance projects are due ASAP, and should be handed in this week at the latest. Please talk to Shaskin if you need an extension or anything else to help you finish up!

On that note, one of our renaissance cities has begun to flood and may not be around much longer!! Click here to see some images of the flooding happening in Venice recently. We will also be reading an article about this this week.

Also, we will be working on some note-taking skills as we watch a video about Martin Luther and the Reformation

Helpful links:
Reformation video
Note-Taking Methods
Venice is Sinking Video

Renaissance Thinkers Project

Today, many students will begin the renaissance thinkers project where they are researching a specific person who made big changes to the Renaissance world and our world today.

Here is the link to the instructions for this project:

Renaissance Thinkers Project powerpoint

Click here for Project Ideas
Even more project ideas...


Steps for the project:
1. Complete 5 W's research (follow the powerpoint)
2. Look at the slides for 3's and 4's, and add any information you are missing.
3. Search for creative research project ideas on Google, or in the link above
3. Start organizing and creating your project!

DUE DATE: Friday, December 7

Humanism and the Renaissance

Today, we will begin the second half of our Renaissance study with looking at Chapter 3 in the textbook, which is about the development of Humanism. This will then lead us into a study of specific important people in the Renaissance who used Humanistic ideals to create a new way of thinking and developing in the Western World.

Helpful Links:
Humanism in a nutshell
Humanism video

Stay tuned for more information about our upcoming project to end the Renaissance!

Metis Week

Hi guys!! Sorry I can't be there today, but this cold will not go away!! Hope to see you tomorrow!

Please use the link below for today's activity to honour the Metis and their culture:

https://emsindigenoused.blogspot.com/p/metis-week.html

- open the first activity called: "Who are the Metis?" and follow the instructions to complete a written response that is due today (it's only one paragraph, you've got this!).

If you finish early, check out the 'Metis Art' link and ask the substitute for a colouring page.

Short Stories continued...again

This week we have been continuing to practice our short story reading and annotation skills. We have been searching for vocab, meaning, character traits, and foreshadowing.

In addition to the stories from last week, we read two more this week:

The Fun They Had
All Summer in a Day

We have also been working on comparing characters from different texts using Venn diagrams.

The Remembrance Day presentation and assembly are this week (Thursday and Friday).

Short Stories, continued

This week we will be working on our student choice tasks in response to "The Monkey's Paw", which will be due by the end of the week (see previous blog post for the assignment).

We will read another story this week as well, "Click Clack the Rattlebag", and analyze it more by looking at character qualities and motivations.

Helpful Links:
Neil Gaiman Reading "Click Clack"
"Click Clack" story
Annotation video - how to highlight, make notes, and analyze a text

Short Stories

We are moving into a short story unit this week, beginning with "The Monkey's Paw". We will be reading a script version of the story, and then creating some responses to it.

Student choice:
You may choose to write a short story about:
- someone who outsmarts the Monkey's Paw with their wishes and gets what they want without consequences
OR
- the person who had the Paw before Morris, whose last wish was for death

Here are some helpful links:

Short Story
Simpson's version
Tales from the Crypt version

Good Luck in the Boat Races!

to honour the AWESOME work you did to build and test your boats this week, check out this Ted Talk about Gondolas in Renaissance Venice! How did your boat compare to these traditional forms of travel?!

Welcome Back!

I hope you had a great Fall break and are ready to get back to work!

We are going to be finishing up your City-State Advertisements today, as well as beginning our work on Book Talks. Students will be reading for 15 minutes every day and preparing a short, verbal presentation about the book they chose. We will schedule these presentations in advance. You are welcome to bring a book from home as well, but we will check out the Learning Commons today.

Book Talks Task

On to the Renaissance!

We have thoroughly reviewed the Feudal System and are moving forward into the Renaissance now!
With that comes things like The Silk Road, Italian City-States and more! But most of all, IDEAS fuel the Renaissance.

Here are some helpful links we'll be using this week:

The Silk Road
A Silk Road Map, and more info
Italian City-States
- Genoa
- Florence
- Venice
Italian Renaissance Information 

City-State Comparison Worksheet
Powerpoint on Immigration Advertisements
Advertisement Task

We will be working to explore and compare the main city-states of Italy to start things off, and will use our textbook for some of that work as well.

Renaissance Introduction

Thinking about the Middle Ages, life was pretty tough for many people. This led to people trying to think about how they could improve the world around them.

Why are we fighting?
Why are we getting so sick?
How can we help prevent these things from happening in the future?

Check out these two videos about the Renaissance, which is the time period after the Middle Ages where all this thinking began.

Crash Course #1
Crash Course #2

- Which video does a BETTER job of explaining the Renaissance? Why and how do you know?
- Think of a time where you thought things in your life were not great, and you decided to change something about it. What did you do, and how did it change the situation?