Students were tasked with some independent research over the weekend. While I don't often give homework, students will need to be prepared for potentially receiving more homework in Grade 7. We had another full week at school!
We were visited by MLA Rick Fraser, and learned about what an MLA does and the characteristics Mr. Fraser thought were important for a leader. We continued learning about Ancient Athens, the birthplace of democracy, and compared the gender roles in Ancient Athens to Modern Day Canada. Next week we will continue learning about how democratic decisions were made in Athens, and what they had instead of Parliament. Our morning routines have slighted changed. We are now alternating between vocabulary and multiplication/division games. Additionally, we will be looking at one PAT question everyday until June, as a launching point to review key concepts, practice different types of questions and make new connections to what we are currently learning. We continued with our colonization projects and started a lab mini-project to test different materials and their ability to block UV light. Planet presentations will be held on Friday. In Math we focused on some key fraction skills, as students worked through numerous problems to represent fractions numerically, visually and on number lines. We started analyzing the Iliad and the illustrations in a incredible adaptation by Gillian Cross. We are using this to talk both about narrative writing and also the culture and society of Ancient Athens. Students were tasked with some independent research over the weekend. While I don't often give homework, students will need to be prepared for potentially receiving more homework in Grade 7. Choose a Hero from ancient Greece from the list below to research in order to prepare for your upcoming children's book project. You will need to become an expert on your hero as this 'person' will be the basis for your main character in your book. Don't think of it as a direct re-telling, but more of an inspiration. What characteristics does this Hero have? What events have shaped their character? What connections do they have to 'the Gods' or some sort of magical wisdom? What journey or quest do they go on? What is the MORAL of the story? What conflict do they face? With nature? With a villain? Within? etc. How can you re-imagine these so that a child OR an adult could understand and enjoy? The story WILL NOT be set in ancient Greece. One of the main challenges of the assignment is to make the story more relatable to young children reading today. Choose a new setting, a new character format (an alien, an animal, a robot, a regular child... etc.) Choose figurative language that will be clear and accessible to your reader. Greek Heroes and Heroines Achilles The Amazons Atlanta Cassandra Cassiopeia Circe Cyrene Hercules Hector Hyppolyta Jason Odysseus Penthesilea Perseus Prometheus Aeneas Orpheus Theseus.......................To name but a few. Here are some links for many MANY more... Specifically female: https://www.paleothea.com/Humans.html The Amazon Women Gods and Goddesses https://greekgodsandgoddesses.net/heroes/ I hope everyone has a good weekend! I had a great professional development session on Friday learning about designing the best possible learning opportunities, and got to brag about how wonderful my class is ;) Flag Day Updates: Great job everyone so far and thank you to everyone who could stay on Friday. The assembly is on Wednesday, February 14th at 1:30 pm. Parents are welcome to join us!
Reminders: Next practices are Monday and Tuesday from 3-4 pm. Please try to come! We are still looking for costume pieces. Members of Parliament, a suit jacket or dress shirt and tie is all you need. If you have glasses, hats etc, please bring them! Everyone: we will be taking an arial photo to make the Canadian Flag. Our class has been requested to wear a white t-shirt (on Wednesday). We can change out of our costumes if necessary. The team that has been assigned to us for the Olympics is South Korea! We already have one gold medal! Should be an exciting few weeks! The Flag Day assembly has been an awesome opportunity to experience the different aspects of theatre. We have narrators, stage crew working the lights, actors and actresses, prop assistants, coaches, and assistant directors. We have still managed to get quite a bit of academic content in this week in too!
In the upcoming weeks, students will be working on multiplication and division facts in the first half hour of the morning. We will be moving towards automaticity, rather than speed. I will be sharing a variety of games with the students, and posting them on my blog so the students can try them at home. These activities are beneficial for students that understand the concept of multiplication and division, but need some practice at recalling their basic facts.
Hope everyone had a good weekend! Reminder I won't be there tomorrow, so please be welcoming to our Guest Teacher! |