Let’s hope the warmer temperatures this week are not a joke!
This week in Language Arts, we will be focusing on guided reading and reading comprehension in our 5 groups. We will be integrating literacy with Our story. As we learn about the rebellions of 1837, students will be writing up diaries, wanted posters and engaging in other fun projects that show their understanding and strengthen their writing skills.In Ourstory this week, we will also be teaching each other about the War of 1812 through a group exercise called Jigsaw. Ms Trivedi and I will also be starting to re-assess student reading levels to give them data for new goals into the spring and toward grade 8.
Gravel Burn! The Intermediate yard if full of gravel used throughout the winter to counter the ice. The gravel is very slippery especially when people are running around in running shoes. Please ask your children to continue to wear boots until the snow is gone.
Maple sugar festivals are everywhere in and around Ottawa. Check them out!
Have a very good week! Please make sure your children are reading every day! Below are two photos – one of the Rainbow Mountains in Peru Ms. Prokaska and I trekked last August and one of the beautiful rainbow cupcakes made for the Primary Cupcake Walk Sale the Leadership group held on Wednesday. We raised close to $600.00 for school initiatives in the developing world.
One picture makes it easy to define an equinox: it’s when the Earth is as different as night and day. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) captured the glory of that fleeting moment on Wednesday in a photo taken by one of its Geostationary and Polar-Orbiting Weather Satellites. The GOES-16, as it’s known, is positioned approximately 22,300 miles away from Earth and is lined up at 75.2 W longitude and the equator. The distance is far enough away to provide the breathtaking “full-disk” imagery of our planet.
Twice each year, during a vernal and autumnal equinox, the sun is directly above the Earth’s equator during its orbit, which means the amount of daylight and darkness is almost exactly equal at all latitudes. The photo taken by the GOES-16 on Wednesday, the first day of spring, illustrates this celestial phenomenon in dramatic fashion.
Language Arts: We are getting back into Writers’ Workshop on Monday when Ms Trivedi and I work with the children on various aspects of the writing traits and grammar. Please reinforce reading at home -it improves both reading and writing. We are also embarking on a concentrated guided reading segment where we will be looking at shorter pieces and then progressing to some very interesting novels. I have started a read-aloud of Alan Cumyn’s “The Secret Life of Owen Skye”. Lots of fun and so relaxing for the children. https://houseofanansi.com/products/the-secret-life-of-owen-skye-digital. Alan Cumyn is a highly talented and funny author and a friend of our family’s.
Ourstory and Geography: In the next two weeks, we will be on an intense, learning journey, learning about the War of 1812, attempts to create inclusive government and the little-known but very important rebellions of 1837 in Quebec and Ontario. Please ask your children for their Ourstory assessment rubrics that you need to sign. It has been two weeks and they are becoming historical documents! Geography will start right after with our first unit on Natural Disasters. I am including a short clip on climate change, strongly related to natural disasters, that I showed last week. It involves a very articulate and courageous young woman from Sweden. Please take a look.
As well, I thought you might like to read about my personal connection to the 1837 rebellions. I am the direct descendant of a Quebec rebel, a Patriote, whose family was firmly with the English government (despite Irish background). That rebel part is is why I love teaching Intermediate students! Family stories have it that Cornelius McNaughton, against his family’s wishes, sided with Les Patriotes to fight the British for more accountable government. After receiving some gunshot in an unfortunate spot (his buttocks), he fled Quebec with a bounty on his head, settling in Lousiana. He changed his last name to Duson (the son, roughly translated?). Although he was pardoned, he never spoke again with his family and never returned to British North America, later Canada. I have met his Louisiana descendants and they are lovely.
He was born Cornelius Duson McNaughton in Canada into an English loyalist family, but his sympathies lay with the French. So much so that he participated in attempts of the French to overthrow the Government and therefore became a fugitive from the English. He escaped from Canada at the age of 18 and dropped his last name and became Cornelius Duson, going first to Boston then later to Louisiana . His family searched for him in vain and he had been pardoned by the government. Cornelius knew of the search for him and the pardon. He had a friend who visited Quebec regularly, and who had secretly kept Cornelius informed about the family, but the friend never divulged Cornelius’s secret to them. With terrible determination Cornelius kept his vow to his people that if the French cause was lost they should never hear of him till “green grew the grass over his grave”
FUNDRAISING: The Student Council is selling Vesey Bulbs (flowers, vegetables) to raise money for the Grade 8 trip to Kingston in June. Order papers will go out on Monday. They are due on April 5th.
The Leadership Group is hosting the Primary Cupcake Walk on Wednesday with all proceeds going to education projects under the WE Foundation. About 5 of our students and I are making cupcakes.
I hope you and your families had the opportunity to spend some time together and have fun. To those of Irish heritage, Happy St. Patrick’s Day.
Welcome Kim and Cong, our two new recruits to R7A who have come all the way from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam to VM.. We are looking forward to learning about Vietnam and acquiring some Vietnamese. Below are photos of Kim and Cong and classmates creating their “Inside Out” promotional posters.
I saw an article on CBC News online that I will be sharing with the R7A students. It tells the story of how Nova Scotia has committed to spend $2.7 million over two years to help residents obtain legal title to land in the communities of North Preston, East Preston and Cherry Brook in the Halifax Regional Municipality, and in Lincolnville and Sunnyville in Guysborough County. Many of the students have done research on Black Loyalists and escaped slaves, and how they struggled to adapt to, and be accepted in, Britsih North America, particularly in Nova Scotia where many settled. Here is an excerpt from the article:
No deeds to black settlers: The problem can be traced back two centuries, when the government gave plots of land to Black Loyalists for their support during the American Revolutionary War and to Black Refugees, former slaves who sought refuge after the War of 1812. The government, however, did not give deeds, which meant those who settled never officially owned the land they lived on.
Two incidents last week, while your children were home, have rocked the world: the plane crash of a Boeing 737 outside of Addis Adaba that killed 157, and more recently, the horrendous lone-gunman terrorist attack on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand that took 50 lives and injured many. As I understand, (I was out of the country and away from the internet), there has been a great deal of live footage and detailed descriptions of what happened. This is very hard for any of us to deal with, let alone children, and those who attend mosques. My heart goes out to the families affected and to all people who find peace and spirituality in their religious communities, and who may now feel violated and afraid. These are times when we all stand together. Please let me know if your child needs any special attention or quiet time.
Hope you all had a good weekend and had a chance to get out in today’s beautiful weather. A polar vortex is returning this week so please make sure the Intermediates in your house are dressed warmly. Ice still prevails. No running shoes, please!
This week in Language Arts, we will be analyzing the film, “Inside Out” and creating movie posters that show our knowledge of the film and of the teenage brain. In Ourstory, all presentations have been made to the class, and many of the students did an excellent job. Assessments will be coming home on Monday or Tuesday for your review and signature. Here are a few pictures of our presenters.
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This week we will find out more about Canadian females in Ourstory as March is Women’s History Month. Here is a Canadian Heritage Minute featuring Nellie McClung, one of the champions of women getting the vote – well past their male counterparts.
We had a really wonderful day on the Intermediate Ski Trip at Edelweiss on Wednesday. It was cold but so many R7A students played and played and played. Here are just a few photos. Thanks again to Arian’s mom for coming along.
Use of Social Media: In a discussion with the class this past week, we talked about how Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook require users to be 13 years or older. There is a group chat for R7A and some of the comments being traded back and forth for all to see were not kind. I asked all students to speak to their families and let them know which social media they are using. I also asked them to consider withdrawing from the chat group. Here is what three of the more popular social media require in terms of age of users. Please also be aware that gamers, kids playing video games, often get subjected to some pretty offensive and negative comments from other gamers.
Instagram requires everyone to be at least 13 years old before they can create an account (in some jurisdictions, this age limit may be higher). If your child is younger than 13 and created an account on Instagram, you can show them how to delete their account.
Snapchat: The minimum age is 13, in compliance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). But, when you download it, Snapchat asks for your date of birth, and—if your birth year tells it you’re under 13—you’re redirected to the kid version, called “SnapKidz.”
Facebook requires everyone to be at least 13 years old before they can create an account (in some jurisdictions, this age limit may be higher). Creating an account with false info is a violation of our terms. This includes accounts registered on the behalf of someone under 13.
Next week is March Break (March 11-18) and there will be no school. Please encourage your children to continue to read and to get outside.
I will be traveling to Havana, Cuba to learn more about that city, its people, music and art. And, I will bring some books!