Time Capsule sharing

Today we shared the time capsule from 1996-1997 by hosting a community event where people could come and look at it. Ramsay classes also toured the exhibit. Some of us were wearing black to act like museum staff members with name tags. 

Two kids from Mrs Kruk's Ramsay's 1997 class came to the school this morning and saw the artifacts and heard our presentations! 

The Time Capsule box had paintings from what the kids thought the past, present, and future looked like. It was held in Ms Kruk's basement for 25 years and she brought it to Ramsay School last spring.

It was exciting that we were able to find some of the original students and the principal from the time. 

"I really liked that we get a gallery walk and that everyone got to be a part of it." ~ Aarav

"I liked the way the artist painted the paintings." ~ Avni

"I really liked seeing what was in the time capsule from the past." ~ Alice

"I really liked that we made it like a museum with nametags." ~ Sage

"I liked how it was open to the public because we did something helping the whole community." ~ Arsh

"I really liked how we got our communication out to four other people from Ramsay School at the time. We did not expect that." ~ Kashvi

Time Capsule Exhibit

Parents, we hope that you can visit the school to see our Time Capsule exhibit/gallery walk tomorrow between the hours of 10-11:30 and/or 1-2. Our class will be "hosting" between 10-10:30 so if you'd like to see your own child, that would be the time to come. 

I'll post pictures later this week in case you can't make it.

Erin

Personalized Land Acknowlegements and Artwork

Over the course of this year, students have been learning about the Indigenous history of this land we call Alberta. One of the learning tasks the students have taken part in is creating their own personalized statement to proceed the CBE's standard land acknowledgement. This exercise has been encouraged by many experts in the hopes of people internalizing the importance of the land acknowledgement and not just reciting it mindlessly. 

To read more about our personalized writing, click here to see a previous blog post. 

Now that students have finished their paragraphs, they are taking turns reading them out loud for the class as a way for us to start each school day. Many students have been excited about this; we are never short of volunteers to read!

To accompany the land acknowledgements, students created a multi-media form of art that we called "Extending the Frame." Students brought in a picture from home of themselves in nature, in a place in Alberta that is special to them (thanks, parents, for your support with this activity!). Students glued the photo on to a canvas then used light pencil sketching to extend the land around them. They made artistic decisions, such as where to put their photo on the canvas to best provide opportunities to extend the land, whether to arrange their canvas in portrait or landscape style, and whether to use watercolours or acrylic paints to best match the original photo. The outcome was outstanding! Just look at these beautiful creations!

These works of art will be on display for the next month both in our classroom and on the bulletin board outside the Gym. If you're in the school, you're encouraged to check them out. 

If you don't see your child's beautiful work below, it is because you have not signed the Consent to Publish work form so I am not allowed to share pictures of their faces or work. You can adjust this by going in to MySchool account and "forms" or contact Ms Tammy in the office for help. Or, it is because your child has not yet finished. :)

Tourism Project Sharing

"Touring" the Rocky Mountain Region

Over the last few months we have learned about each land region in Alberta. There are six: Rocky Mountains, Foothills, Parklands, Grasslands, Boreal Forest, and Canadian Shield. We learned about the land in each region, along with its climate, plants, animals, and natural resources. 

We discussed what Tourism is and ways that cities and regions advertise for people to come visit them. Here are some thoughts we had: 

Last week, we finished up our Tourism Projects on the regions of Alberta. Students had the choice of the region they worked on and the type of project they did (tv commercial (iMovie), radio commercial (podcast announcement), travel brochure, or poster). 

On Friday, we "travelled" around Alberta. Each station was a different region of Alberta and had the different projects for that region. Students completed "passports" for each region by writing down a fact they learned. 

Writing down a fact in
our "passport"

Students will be bringing home their evaluations today. Please take the time to look over my marks and comments. 

Note: Students also took home Science Tests and Division Tests on Friday so I hope you got the chance to look at those, too.

If you have any questions, please reach out.

~ Ms Elder

Ticket to Curlew Novel Study

This week, we started a class read aloud called Ticket to Curlew by Celia Barker Lottridge. It is a story about a boy named Sam who's eleven years old who comes to Curlew, Alberta with his family in 1915. This story describes the European settler experience of arriving on "empty" land and starting to build a homestead. 

This novel study relates to both Language Arts and Social Studies. Students each have their own copy of the book. We practice reading aloud for the class, one paragraph each, paraphrasing in our own words, adding expression to our voices, examining traits of fiction books such as quotation marks, "time passed" symbols, etc. We are also keeping track of Social Studies vocabulary words and their meanings, like "satchel," "compass," and "horizon." After each chapter, we discuss the story, ask questions, make predictions, summarize information, and answer a few short comprehension questions. We will also be discussing connections between the book and our previous learning of the land and history of Alberta.

You can support your child at home by asking them what's happening so far in the story. The ability to summarize and retell is an important quality of a good reader. Prompt them to see if they have any questions or predictions.

Minecraft Challenge Sharing

Collaborating in Minecraft

This week, we finished up our Minecraft projects for the City of Calgary Level Up Challenge! Students worked alone or with a partner to build something that honours the Indigenous history and importance of the land where Fort Calgary stands. To see more details about the purpose of this activity, click here. 

Shots of our planning sheets and explanations

Here are some pictures of us building in Minecraft:

Helping out our teammates

One partner building and one script-writing

Students presented their designs to the class and we voted on our favourite. The top four teams were submitted to the Minecraft Committee (Ms Elder, Mr Turner, Ms Lacour). The Committee chose the winner using the rubric the city provided. The winning team from our class was M and V! Congrats!!! Here is a picture of their design: 

We also visited Fort Calgary on Thursday on a Community Walk. We took part in the IndigiTrail, which is a series of trivia questions to show what we know about the Indigenous history of this area, and help us learn more. Students really enjoyed this interactive tool and touring the grounds in small groups. We had a debriefing after the trivia where we shared the answers we knew (like, Why is Fort Calgary located in this area? and What are the four Nations of the Blackfoot Confederacy? and How do you say 'hello' in the Treaty 7 languages? and What do the Blackfoot people call Calgary?). We also shared new learning. 

The Treaty 7 trivia trail is available through the IndigiTrail app. I'd highly recommend visiting the Fort and doing it as a family. For details, click here. 

While there, we saw a new installation next to the statue of MacLeod, which honours the Indigenous history of this place. Click here to read the article we read in class. We had a very powerful conversation about why these new signs are important. Try talking with your child about this. 

Visiting the Col MacLeod statue

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. :)

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!

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. :)