Humanities 7

Humanities 7

Humanities Week in Review

October 16

English Language Arts (ELA)

In preparation for our author visit with David A. Robertson today, students listened to a podcast to learn more about the author’s background and life experiences, noting questions they wanted to ask in the presentation.
Students continued to work on their summaries of the short Pixar film, Bao. They were expected to utilize an editing checklist to review their rough copy before typing their good copy and submitting the task through Google Classroom. This assignment is due today.

Social Studies

We continued to learn about pre-Confederation Canada by taking guided notes as a class about the following key terms: Colonization, imperialism, and mercantilism.
Students learned the differences between the three terms and began to develop an understanding of why European settlers came to North America in the first place, including the reasons why powerful European countries implemented these concepts.
Students were expected to follow along with their graphic organizer and use the slides to fill in the missing information.

Quiz Reminder: Students will have a quiz on what we have learned about the book the Barren Grounds on Wednesday October 21

October 9

English Language Arts (ELA)

We continued reading our class novel, The Barren Grounds, as we prepare for our exciting author visit on October 16.
Students are using note-catchers to track important details and ideas from the novel that connect to the CBE’s Holistic Framework for Indigenous Education and Holistic Lifelong Learning.
We also began our summarizing unit. Students are using Pixar short films to practise writing clear summaries using the Somebody, Somewhere, Wanted, But, So, Then strategy.

Social Studies

Students completed their Indigenous society research projects, which were due at the beginning of the week and should now be submitted to their Social Studies teacher.
We have now moved into Indigenous mapping, exploring the different Indigenous groups and regions across Canada.
This work will help students develop a better understanding of the diversity of Indigenous Peoples across Canada and the connections between geography, culture, and ways of life.

October 2

English Language Arts

We continued reading our class novel, The Barren Grounds, as we prepare for our exciting author visit on October 16.
Students are using note-catchers to track important details and ideas from the novel that connect to the CBE’s Holistic Framework for Indigenous Education and Holistic Lifelong Learning.
We also began our summarizing unit. Students are using Pixar short films to practise writing clear summaries using the Somebody, Somewhere, Wanted, But, So, Then strategy.

Social Studies

Students completed their Indigenous society research projects, which were due at the beginning of the week and should now be submitted to their Social Studies teacher.
We have now moved into Indigenous mapping, exploring the different Indigenous groups and regions across Canada.
This work will help students develop a better understanding of the diversity of Indigenous Peoples across Canada and the connections between geography, culture, and ways of life.

September 18

We began our mini novel study on The Barren Grounds by David A. Robertson. We set up our note catchers, learned about the author’s background, and discussed our personal concepts of home. Some classes began reading. This will be continued next week!
We completed our final diagnostic assessment, where students were asked to choose a topic they are passionate about and provide persuasive reasons why their topic is important or interesting. This will inform our decisions when creating groups for Chimera Time.
We discussed parts of speech, and students were put into groups of 3-4 and assigned one part of speech to learn about. Then, they began creating an anchor chart to display their understanding, which they will use to present the information to the rest of the class next week.

We began learning about Canada before Confederation by discussing three Indigenous groups who occupied North America - the Mi’kmaq, the Haudenosaunee, and the Anishinaabe. Classes took guided jot notes using the textbook to model how to put information into our own words.
Students began researching the three groups independently using the information provided from the textbook. This will be a graded research task that will continue into next week.

Tasks and Assignments:

September 11

Students completed their Letter to Myself task this week, and handed them in to get back on the last day of school. Completion of this task will be indicated in PowerSchool in the coming weeks.
Teachers completed a series of diagnostic assessments to gauge start-of-year reading and decoding skills with their students. These will help inform our upcoming “Chimera Time” groups, which will be mixed based on areas of strength and growth.
We are starting a mini novel study of The Barren Grounds, by David A. Robertson next week - and will get a chance to meet him on October 16th when he visits our school! Families are welcome to purchase personal copies of the book for their children to read along and keep up at home as needed.

Students completed their Polaroid Art Project, using different pencil crayon techniques and symbolism.
They each submitted a write-up explaining the scene their polaroid depicted as well - ask your child to show you the task and rubric on Google Classroom for reference.
Marks and feedback will be available on PowerSchool in the coming weeks.

Tasks and Assignments:

September 4

Students completed stations where they used inference skills to learn about their teacher while also sharing information about themselves.
We began writing a Letter to Myself, which students will receive back at the end of the school year to see how they have grown and changed.
This activity also gives teachers an opportunity to learn more about each student’s current writing skills as we begin Grade 7.

We began exploring Canadian identity, looking at landscapes and symbols that represent Canada and the connections we have to them.
Students practiced pencil crayon shading techniques in preparation for creating a Polaroid-style picture representing their own Canadian identity next week.
Come check out their finished creations at Meet the Teacher Night on September 17!

Last Modified: 2026-10-16 18:48:49.674046 +0000 UTC