Pioneer Day and a Visit To Black Creek Pioneer Village

A fun way to celebrate our study of pioneers in Canada.

At the knitting centre, students learned the art of corking! We tried knitting one year, but it was quite difficult and we got to see little of our hard work. With corking, everyone was successful, and we had a lot to show for our efforts.

It's great when parents drop in to lend a hand, especially when they're your own:)

At this centre, students explored the chores that pioneers did in each season, and created a seasonal chore wheel.

The Butter Station. Here students made and ate butter. We used cream and a mason jar to churn our butter. A little bit of salt, and some bread made for a nice snack.

At the games station, students played early century games such as checkers, pick up sticks, and Nine Man's Morris.

A very cold visit to Black Creek Pioneer Village. In North York, there is a restored village with buildings and homes from the early 1800's. In the spring and summer months, students can complete some fantastic programs where they work in the workshop, they play outdoor games, do chores such as laundry and cooking, and card wool. They then get to spend the rest of the day exploring the village and meeting it's inhabitants such as the doctor, blacksmith, merchant, tinsmith, teacher, mill workers, the inn owner and so much more!

In the winter, there are limited activities. We got to spend half the day at the school house, and the other half of the day on a tour of 4 buildings with a tour guide. Still a lot of fun, despite the -32 degree weather!

Lining up at the school house.

Getting into our vests and aprons.

Experiencing some discipline.

Nose on the chalkboard...

Holding out books...

Sadly, the teacher's have had to "adapt" the program to appease parents who complained about the 'strict nature' of their performance. My students were expecting to see beans being tossed on the floor, a strap or ruler and a dunce cap, all of which have been removed so as to not "upset" parents. A little ridiculous.

A visit to the doctor's office made us very happy to have 21st century medicine! 

Learning to play crokinole at the Inn.

A visit to the General Store

An exciting, and exhausting day!

Using Haiku Deck To Teach Each Other About Pioneers

With a partner or a small group, students chose a topic about what life was like for pioneers making their way to Canada. Students used the research in the classroom to help look for important ideas. They recorded the main points as jot notes onto paper.

They then used an organizer to come up with two statements (a title and a subtitle), that could summarize each important idea. They could create as many of these as they felt necessary.

Students then, searched the internal web of Haiku Deck, using search words related to their topics in order to come up with relavant pictures to match their slides.  They assembled their slideshows on Haiku Deck with ease.

Haiku Deck is a free app, that allows students to summarize their thinking and make simple presentations using beautiful royalty free images. It's a great presentation tool, that is extremely easy to use, and introduces students to creating 'to-the-point' presentations.

Students then practised presenting their information, making sure to expand on the information in the slide, and to not just read what's on the screen (a pet peeve of mine during presentations).

After many rehearsals, students presented their polished Haiku Deck's to the class.

Matthew and Nirupam's 
Http://www.haikudeck.com/p/GZMx279RDu

Aalam and Ruhani
Http://www.haikudeck.com/p/iJGag28fJq

Aaron and Jessica
Http://Www.haikudeck.com/p/fs3jiW7YK4

Mahwish, Asmiga and Jujhar
Http://www.haikudeck.com/p/pQTL57RgbG

Harshit and victor
Http://www.haikudeck.com/p/M3hSendtq9

Fatiha and Josephine
Http://www.haikudeck.com/p/HyVOJI7qBV

Areeba and Harini
Http://www.haikudeck.com/p/ZPayqG1b2R

Muskaan, Arshdeep, and Harani
Http://www.haikudeck.com/p/gYTZoenktn

Aboriginal Dot Art

To enhance our studies of Early Settlers, we thought it would be fun to study the art of different groups of Aboriginals. For these dot paintings, students chose a symbolic animal -one with which they related or shared similar traits. We researched animal symbolism to help inspire us.

Students made a stencil, and coloured it in using black paint. They then created a design or pattern using only dots. These dots were made easier by the use of a Q-tips! The results were pretty amazing.

Exploring First Nations Settlements in Ontario

We have been learning about the First Nations people living in Canada in the late 1700's. We looked at maps of Canada and talked about how Canada has changed over the past 200 years. We looked at Ontario, and found Brampton on the map. We learned that the Wendat people were living in Southern Ontario at that time. Students explored the challenges facing people living off of the land and did some comparisons to life today. We compared our home to the longhouses of the Wendat people.

As we explored Ontario in the north, we learned about the Anishinabe who lived near Algonquin. We researched their way of living and added Wigwams to our homes posters.

 

By creating villages, we were able to see first hand the similarities and differences between the two First Nations communities and our own. 

Teaching and Learning with Shadow Puppet

We have been having way too much fun using Shadow Puppet in our classroom. We have used it to share and organize our research and create a presentation, and more recently to tell a fiction recount. Some students work best choosing pictures first and then brainstorming the story, while others work well with an organizer, planning what they want to say and choosing the pictures to go along with their words. Having some sort of a script made for a better told story!

Harini and Ruhani tell a fiction recount: The Day I saw A Ghost

Jessica and Josephine share what they learned about how the Wendat people preserve meat and fish

Harshit and Matthew discuss How the Wendat People Used Corn

Coming soon:

Josephine, Aaron and Nathan's fiction recount: The Day A Zombie Came To School http://get-puppet.com/s/6787F2FF-4100-4A2F-A57C-6949F1FF51FC

We're a little excited for Halloween. Can you tell?