Minecraft Challenge

Our class is participating in the Level Up City of Calgary Season 2 Minecraft Challenge! 

The city has asked students to consider how we can create a vibrant space at Fort Calgary that reflects its Indigenous history and celebrates the cultural heritage of our city. 

Students are working alone or in pairs to design the space in Minecraft. Each student will "pitch" their design to the class and then we'll vote on our favourite design to submit to the city. 

This project aligns perfectly with our Social Studies program where we are learning past stories of Alberta and finding ways to reconcile the relationship between European settlers and Indigenous People. Our class has already visited Fort Calgary once this year and learned a bit about the importance of the area (Mohkinstsis) to various Indigenous groups (click here for a recap of our earlier work in this area). This project is similar to our Memorial Artwork Project, which many students completed in Minecraft, so we may use inspiration and/or designs from that project for this challenge (click here to view our Memorial Artwork and here!). 

The project expectations have been posted in the Google Classroom. We will be working hard the first two weeks of April to create our designs in Minecraft. Although this work will be done at school, students are encouraged to brainstorm over Spring Break to come prepared with an idea of what they'd like to build.

Mark your calendars because we will also be doing a full-day Community Walk on Thursday, April 13 to Fort Calgary to complete the Indi-Trail Treaty 7 Trivia walking loop and discuss the Minecraft Challenge. Who better to design this space then Ramsay Students - one of the closest schools to this place!!! :) 

Puppet Wrap-Up

The Cranky

This week, we had our last two sessions with Monica in the Puppet Studio. We each made a "cranky." This is a a box that is a window viewer for our story strips. You can turn one handle and the story plays in front of the screen like a tv. 

Most students are working on two different stories right now: one that relates to their puppets, and another that they're writing in teams in class. 

Students have engaged in Story-Writing lessons in class that relate to story elements, such as writing a descriptive setting, interesting characters, and a related problem and solution. 

Once we finished our cranky stories today, we had time to work on making newspaper and masking tape puppets. Here are some examples!

Thanks, Monica, for teaching us new skills and inspiring us with your creativity. :)

HOMEWORK: Prepare for your 3-digit by 1-digit Multiplication Quiz

Students, this is a reminder that you have a short Multiplication Quiz on Thursday, March 23. You will need to be able to: 

- Solve a 2-digit by 1-digit Multiplication equation

- Solve a 3-digit by 1-digit Multiplication equation 

- Show your strategy clearly using a picture/array/distributive property/algorithm...you get to choose how you solve it, as long as you can show your steps

If you are looking for ways to practice, you can go onto Mathletics and do these assignments: 

-Multiply 2-digit by 1-digit

-Multiply 1-digit Number, Regroup

Personalized Land Acknowledgement

We are working on Personalized Land Acknowledgements in class. This relates to Language Arts (Writing), Social Studies (honouring the Indigenous history of Alberta), and Wellness (reflecting on our health). 

First, we brainstormed what a Land Acknowledgement is. Here are the descriptions the class came up with: 

Then, we discussed in groups the reasons why we do Land Acknowledgements. Here are the reasons the class came up with: 

Next, we met in groups of 3 to record what we remember about Medicine Wheels. Here are some things we shared: 

- The Medicine Wheel is a circle with no beginning and no end. All sides are equal 

- The number 4 is important to many Indigenous cultures because it represents many aspects of life

• 4 seasons: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter
• 4 directions: East, South, West, North
• 4 elements: Fire, Earth, Water, Wind
• 4 animals: Eagle, Buffalo, Wolf, Bear (these animals will change depending on the group and the important animals in that region)
• 4 plants: tobacco, sage, sweetgrass, cedar

We also know that there is a Medicine Wheel in Nose Hill Park and that you should enter in the East. 

We are using the Medicine Wheel as a Brainstorming Tool for our own personalized land acknowledgments. We are thinking of ways that being outside, on the land, helps us physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually, in accordance with the 4 sections of the wheel. 

Next week, we will use our Brainstorming Tool to help us write a paragraph that explains our own personal connection with the land. We are also having a presentation by a local Indigenous Artist to teach us a new art style. We'll then create artwork in April that accompanies our own land acknowledgements. Stay tuned for pictures of our progress!

Vehicle Building

Some of our creative designs!

The Hot Glue station was busy!

We had a week that was busy with vehicle building! Students created cars based off of their plans. They problem-solved challenges that arose, tested as they went, and made changes to their designs to make them better. Students met with their support groups to share challenges and offer each other suggestions. 

Today, they showed off what they had made! The emphasis was on the process, not the product, so even if students' vehicles were still a work in progress, they could tell us what they would do if they had more time or materials. 

Testing Wind-Powered Vehicles

Students have been evaluated o three areas: Science - Demonstrates knowledge and understanding of concepts, Science - Develops skills for problem-solving and communication, and Wellness - Demonstrates skills for effective group work. We have a few students left to share, then you can expect to see these evaluations come home next week. 

Dinosaur Buddy Art

We've enjoyed a couple of get-togethers with our Grade 1 buddies this month. For Valentine's Day we created heart butterflies together, experimenting with differently-sized hearts and a variety of art materials, such as beads, pipe cleaners, etc. 

Today, we started by reading a story together called, Theo Thesaurus. This is a great little story about a dinosaur who feels different when he joins a new school because he speaks in a different way. Many students were able to make connections with this story because of different home languages they speak, accents they have, or simply through the idea of being new. 

After the story, we did a buddy craft of a dinosaur using clothes-pegs. The lever system in the clothes-peg makes the dinosaur look like it's opening and closing its mouth. :)