This week in Social Studies we learned about services and culture in Peru, and celebrated our own Carnavale inspired by Peruvians celebrations! The students especially enjoyed learning about the yunza tree tradition, and we had fun spraying water and listening to Peruvian music. You can watch an example of a yunza tree celebration below (we engaged in a less dangerous version in our class)!
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We had a great time learning about Lunar New Year this week! We learned from books and some online research about this special holiday, and the students were especially interested to learn about their Chinese Zodiac sign and learn how to do some Chinese calligraphy. Our class learned about the history of the Lunar New Year celebrations, and we got to partake in the celebrations with our own Hongbao (red envelopes) and special New Year candy. Happy Year of the Ox! Gong hei fat choy! This month in Social Studies we’ll be learning about the country of Peru! Peru is the third largest country in South America, and the class will get to learn about the Amazon rain forest, Machu Picchu, llamas, the Inca, and lots more about the culture and land in Peru. 3B is gradually becoming a class of full-fledged global citizens! This week we learned about Asian elephants in India and how they are a part of the Indian landscape and culture, along with some problems with their survival. Today we made art inspired by elephants and how they were traditionally decorated in Indian culture. The students did some lovely work--you can see your child's elephant art piece on Seesaw, and watch the videos below to learn more about elephants (the second video isn't from India, but it's too amusing not to share). We’ve spent a lot of time this month researching and digging deeper into our learning about India! The students have really enjoyed learning about Indian culture and ways of life, and have been particularly intrigued by traditional games of India (we have many students who have ambitions to try bull surfing if they ever travel to India one day). The class put their knowledge to work as they planned their very own markets that incorporated Indian traditions, goods, services, and resources. Today we celebrated Ukrainian Christmas in 3B! We pretended to wait to eat lunch until we saw the first star outside (as some Ukrainians would do to remember the wise men following the star), and learned how to say Merry Christmas in Ukrainian (Veseloho Rizvda or Веселого Різдва). We decorated our classroom with a Didukh that symbolises the large wheat fields in Ukraine and means 'grandfather spirit' to signify people's ancestors being with them in their memories. The students went caroling like many Ukrainians do (singing “'Koliadky”), and we listened to the famous Ukrainian carol “Schedryk” (it has the same melody as “Carol of the Bells”). We set up our own class nativity scene like Ukrainian families would often do, and made our own spider web decorations like Ukrainian children sometimes make to decorate their houses at Christmas. We read the beautiful book The Christmas Spider’s Miracle to learn about why spiders are so important to some Ukrainian people at Christmas and why there are often spider decorations on their Christmas trees. Finally, we drank some apple juice to pretend we were having uzvar, which is a national Ukrainian beverage, cooked with dried fruits and berries. Веселого Різдва! In Social Studies this month, we began a new unit on the country of India! With 1.3 billion people, India has so much for us to learn about. We’ve been talking a lot about the geography, climate, wildlife and resources of India, and are looking forward to learning more about India’s languages, customs, traditions, and celebrations. You can click on this link to see some of the places we’ve explored in India, and watch the videos to learn more about this amazing country! We're learning about empathy this month at Millgrove, and some of the tangible ways we've put our empathy into practice included contributing to our school's giving tree to provide warm clothes to families in need, donating toys and gift cards to the Christmas hampers, and writing cards to seniors in our community. You can watch a couple of the videos below for more thoughts on empathy! This week in Social Studies we are working on researching international organizations and their role in the context of our global community. Global citizenship includes working to make our world a better place. There are many international organizations that work towards this goal in different ways. Some organizations focus on human rights, children, our environment, wildlife, and more. The students are working in groups to create a presentation about an international organization, and their work so far has been informative, thoughtful, and entertaining!
In Social Studies, we have been continuing to talk about four countries from unique regions of the world:
We celebrated Diwali in our class today, which is one of the most celebrated festivals in India! It is a Hindu holiday that is usually observed for five days, and we learned about some of the traditions and activities that make Diwali special. We made our own paper versions of rangoli and cleaned our classroom because many Indians believe that the Goddess Lakshmi only steps inside if your home is clean. We played cards, enjoyed some sweets, and enjoyed lunch with some special lights (because Diwali is the festival of lights). You can watch the videos below to learn more about Diwali! As part of our learning on Global Citizenship this month, our class created a Diversity Quilt to celebrate the many unique cultures, traditions, languages, and heritages represented in our class. The quilt squares included images as diverse as Ghanaian traditions, family Christmas rituals, and students’ French linguistic backgrounds. You can see the quilt above, and watch the video below for Mom Fox’s book Whoever You Are about the many things that are unique, and also many that are unifying to each global citizen. As we continue our learning about maps and practice creating our own masks, we learned about pirate maps this week and made our own maps along with directions to retrieve buried treasure. We’re learning about how to create and use a simple map, use cardinal and intermediate directions, and apply the terms hemisphere, poles, and equator. You can watch the video below for more ideas on how to draw a pirate map! Today was Millgrove’s infamous Tacky Tourist Day for grade three classes, and the students did not disappoint! To celebrate the year ahead of learning about countries around the world, students dressed up in their cheesiest traveling gear, and we enjoyed talking about our imaginary travels, listening to Hawaiian music, and taking lots of pretend touristy photos. Our year of global learning is off to a great (and hilarious) start!
We went on our first adventure to the Participark today, and the students braved the heat to practice some mapping and rock-hunting skills. We brought unlabeled maps of the Participark, and students labeled them with different notable landmarks and features, using our knowledge of cardinal directions and bird’s eye view maps. We also explored the park for rocks, and each student found a rock to bring back to the school and examine as part of our Rocks & Minerals unit this term. All in all, it was a hot but successful first trip to the Participark!
Our focus in Social Studies continues to be on life in three communities within Canada: an Inuit, an Acadian, and a Prairie community. We are about to start a unit that focuses specifically on the economic characteristics of these communities. Children will learn about:
Children will be better able to understand the concepts in this unit if they can make connections with familiar content through you. Here are some ways you can be involved:
Also, you can:
Today was the inaugural I Read Canadian Day across the country, and we celebrated it in 2B! We read "Red is Best" by Kathy Stinson, "Purple, Green and Yellow" by Robert Munsch, "The Flying Canoe" by Roch Carrier, and "My Heart Fills with Happiness" by Monique Gray Smith. We love Canada, and Canadian literature!
In Social Studies this past week, we were lucky to have some Inuit artifacts from the Royal Alberta Museum in our classroom. We learned about many interesting aspects of Inuit culture, and were able to use a variety of items including an ulu (multipurpose knife), traditional pulling game, kimiik, art, and a soapstone carving. We’re lucky to learn about such an interesting group of people in grade two! Each student became the expert on an artifact, and our friends in 2A, 2S, and 2W came to visit our mini-museum and learn about the artifacts form our class. You can watch the video above to hear from some 2B experts sharing about these fascinating artifacts, and watch the video below to hear Inuit throat singing. We had a great time learning about Chinese New Year this week! We learned from books and some online research about this special holiday, and the students were especially interested to learn about their Chinese Zodiac sign and learn how to do some Chinese calligraphy. Our class learned about the history of the Lunar New Year celebrations, and we got to partake in the celebrations with our own Hongbao (red envelopes) and special New Year candy. Happy Year of the Rat! Gong hei fat choy! In our first unit in Social Studies, we learned about the land in the communities of Iqaluit in Nunavut, Meteghan in Nova Scotia, and Saskatoon in Saskatchewan. We will now revisit the communities and focus on people and culture in those communities—the Inuit, the Acadians, and the Ukrainians. Through stories, activities and research, we will:
Your child will be better able to make connections with material presented in class if he or she has experiences and knowledge to draw on. Here is how you can help:
We invite you to share your cultural background with us. Would you be willing to come to class and share some information? Do you have any materials you could lend us? Here are some specifics of what we are looking for: Traditions—Are there any traditions, celebrations, special foods or recipes, special games or objects you could show or talk about? Language—Is there another language spoken in your home? Perhaps you and your child could share some simple words or books in that language with the class. Music or Art—Do you have any music or art that reflects your culture? Can you show us any traditional clothing? You can watch the video above to see a glimpse of the lovely people in Iqaluit! |
Mrs. BarkerMrs. Barker is a grade three and literacy teacher at Millgrove School. She loves science and reading, and lives in a little brick house with Mr. Barker and her kids Jack and Ellie. Archive
May 2024
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