Humanities Week in Review


November 21

Language Arts: 

Classes are finishing off A.C.E. and are starting “The Giver” this week! We completed some pre-reading tasks about some of the themes that may come up in the novel as well as a discussion about genre. Classes began reading the first two chapters of the novel while learning how to complete their note-catchers while listening. Students will be completing comprehension questions throughout different sections of the novel and be expected to stay on top of their reading and notes to ensure their success in this unit. 


Social Studies: 

Classes are moving on from learning about Colonization, Imperialism, and Mercantilism to learn about the initial contact with the French in North America. Students are learning about important key figures such as Jacques Cartier, Pierre du Monts and Samuel de Champlain, and Radisson and Des Groseillier. Students will be using the information they’ve learned about these key figures to dive deeper into their research while watching a CBC documentary to prepare them for this unit’s final task. 


November 14

This week was a short one, but a busy one in Humanities! We started the week with a virtual field trip to the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg, where students explored what it means to be an upstanding citizen. The rest of the week was dedicated to reviewing and completing our first Social Studies test on Colonization, Imperialism, and Mercantilism. Students demonstrated their growing understanding of how these historical forces shaped our world today.

Next week, we’ll be starting our first novel study, The Giver, and beginning our next Social Studies unit on the French and how they helped shape the creation of Canada. We’re also excited to welcome three student teachers who will be joining our Humanities team for the next three weeks!


November 7

Language: 

  • Students were introduced to the ACE format of writing.
  • Students worked collaboratively to write an ACE paragraph about Kobe Bryant.
  • Students then completed their own summative writing task for the ACE Writing Unit.

Social Studies: 

  • Students began a new unit on Colonization, Imperialism, and Mercantilism (CIM).
  • Students completed a formative task by creating a comic strip to demonstrate their understanding of CIM concepts.
  • Next week, students will begin preparing for their final unit test.


October 3

Language Arts

  • We continued practicing summarizing skills, building on what students learned in Grade 6.
  • Our focus this week was on using conventions and transition words to make summaries more clear and organized.

Social Studies

  • We wrapped up our study of Indigenous societies in Canada.
  • Students shared their learning by presenting in the role of an Indigenous person, explaining aspects of their culture and daily life.


September 26

Language Arts

  • Students presented their part of speech presentations
  • Students completed some formative assessments about expanding sentences using adjectives, adverbs, phrases, and clauses
  • Students began learning about how to use their understanding of sentences to help them with summarizing


Social Studies

  • Students continued to work on their oral presentations
  • Some classes are beginning to present about their chosen Indigenous group by sharing an interesting fact, core values, role of women, decision making, and seasonal cycle. 


September 19

Language Arts

  • Students continued working in groups to create anchor charts for the parts of speech.
  • Students also began a mini-unit on sentence structure, focusing on types of sentences as well as subjects and predicates.

Social Studies

  • Students completed their Indigenous Societies research tasks and answered the included research questions. 
  • To wrap up the week, they worked in pairs to prepare an oral presentation, taking the perspective of one of the groups they studied: Mi’kmaq, Haudenosaunee, and Anishinaabe.


Some classes were also sent home with a Name Etymology worksheet to fill out with their grown ups at home around how they were named and where their name came from. If you could please follow up with your student and help them to complete this form and answer any questions they have for you.


September 12

Language Arts 

  • Students completed their letter to self task, where they set personal and academic goals for their Grade 7 school year. 
  • Students began working on their group/ partner task for reviewing Parts of Speech. This task involves students reviewing their knowledge on Parts of Speech (nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives etc.) and creating learning tools to teach their peers. 


Social Studies 

  • Students completed their Polaroid task, where they explored their personal connection to Canadian identity. 
  • Students were introduced to their first research assignment. Throughout this study, students will be learning about three distinct Indigenous Groups.  They will be exploring the research question: Who are the diverse Indigenous peoples who have contributed to the building of the country we now call Canada?


September 5

Language Arts

  • Students took part in a variety of get to know you activities to help build our classroom community.
  • We began writing a Letter to Myself, which students will open at the end of the school year. In this letter, they are setting personal and academic goals for Grade 7, as well as capturing who they are at the start of the year.

Social Studies

  • We explored landscapes and symbols of Canada, discussing how these connect to our sense of national and personal identity.
  • Students reflected on a Canadian symbol or landscape that they personally connect with and explained why it is meaningful to them.
  • This activity serves as an introduction to our focus in Grade 7 Social Studies: understanding how identity has played an important role in the history and development of Canada.