Students are loving Social Studies!

As a Geography Major myself, I'm thrilled to be teaching this Social Studies unit on Global Interactions. I'm even more excited about the enthusiasm towards this unit exhibited by what seems like the entire class.

After an introduction/brainstorming lesson or two to begin the unit, we looked at how places are described or located around the globe using latitude and longitude coordinates. Many of the students expressed that they had never seen or used an atlas before, and all of them were very focused when completing the activity of locating world cities and identifying their coordinate locations.

We discussed issues and topics about many of the cities from the activity - culture, economy, war, the environment, etc. - which is the focus of this unit.

We moved onto the topic of 'trade' and began with a mismatched puzzle activity. The follow-up discussion of what the students observed and experienced perfectly mirrored what takes place around the world in terms of trade: shortage and/or excess resources, groups unwilling or difficult to trade with, disputes, value placed on different resources, etc. The class really seemed to understand the concepts well.

Continue to discuss world events, news, and issues at home, as the Social Studies curriculum is based on inquiry and discovery. I really look forward to seeing where student interest and questions take this unit!

New page added to side bar

I've added an online typing program and have signed up the entire class. Check it out.

New / Current Areas of Focus

In case anyone is looking to get extra practice or work ahead in order to feel more successful in any or all subjects, here are some ideas that will be covered in class over the coming weeks:

Math

• Measurement is the strand
• metric conversions (e.g., m --> km, l --> ml, g --> kg, etc. and vice versa)
• keep in mind when converting: Will there be more of less of a unit after the conversion? If more, multiply. If less, divide. Think about by how much... 10, 100, 1000?
• review how to find area and perimeter of rectangles - using formulas
• discovering how to find area of triangles and parallelograms
• solving for surface area of rectangular and triangular prisms
• continue using DreamBox consistently

Social Studies

• Canada's Interactions with the Global Community
• Exploring topics that will help students understand how they and Canada are connected to the world
• Social Studies is really focused on allowing students to explore topics or questions of importance to them as individuals - at home, use some of the topics listed below to discuss areas of interest that may want to be explored further

• Trade & Trading Partners
• Canada's resources and products
• International Accords & Organizations (e.g., NATO, UN, WHO)
• NGOs
• Global issues - Political, Health, Environmental, Social
• War and Peacekeeping - Refugees

Language

• continue to utilize reading strategies when responding to reading (Make Connections, Visualize, Determine Important Ideas, Ask Questions, Infer, Synthesize)
• practice using these strategies even when reading for pleasure and READ EVERY DAY
• work through the Writing Process for all pieces that will be submitted - don't undervalue the importance of good brainstorming, and revise properly using many different people for support
• presenting ideas orally is a very important, life-long skill - practice improves confidence - try to vary the volume and pace of your voice, and make good eye contact with the audience and use appropriate body language and facial expressions

New carpet and muddy feet

Thanks to Mrs. Nimigan, our class has a big, beautiful, new carpet that we can use for whole class lessons and as a comfortable work space in general. In order to keep it a nice place to sit and work, I urge everyone to have a dedicated pair of indoor shoes at school and keep the mud and wetness out of the classroom.

Thanks for your cooperation :)

Field trip recap

The Warplane Museum was one of the best field trips I've been on! It was run so seamlessly and had the kids engaged throughout the day. A 'classroom' was constructed among the aircraft in the huge hanger, complete with SmartBoard. The extremely knowledgeable and professional guide, taught many concepts and lead students through hands-on experiments, consolidating all learning.

What made the trip even better was the impeccable behaviour of the students! I could not be more proud of how respectful they acted toward our guide and the museum, but also how they handled themselves on the bus rides.

I'm sure you all heard about the experiences... Now we can really look forward to our next out-of-classroom experience.










The Lancaster
"Reunion of Giants"

Happy New Year... Welcome back! (and field trip)

As much as being at home with the family was wonderful, it was great to see the class once again.

Everyone shared some of their experiences in the form of a slightly more formal 'weekend update,' brainstorming what they'd like to share, planning out their thoughts, and practicing what would be shared and how. Many ideas were shared in very unique ways, and as usual, lots of constructive criticism was shared to help everyone improve at least some aspect of their public speaking.

Warplane Museum field trip

• normal arrival to school and departure at the end of the day
• dress warmly as the museum is a large airplane hanger that may feel cold
• bring enough food 
• pictures may be taken, but no other electronic use is permitted
• no need to bring money