Room 308 takes the underground railroad

I'm Today the students in room 308 took part in a simulation game to help them understand what life was like while escaping from slavery on the underground railroad.

Students rolled dice at each stop along the way to determine their fate and paths they were able to travel to make it to the northern border.

Me know when's our first escaped slave to make it safely to the north to Canada and freedom.

Oliver, Mina, Charlotte, Maya and Myla successfully reached the northern border and freedom. Unfortunately most of their friends are stuck in slavery for the for-seeable future.

Harriet Tubman Readers Theatre

The We have been celebrating Black History this February in Room 308.  Today everyone took on roles in a readers theatre run through of the story of Harriet Tubman.  Ask your child who Harriet was, and why she is such an important historical figure.

Terrific Tuesday

Yesterday got off to a great start with one of our last skate skates at Dulude for this year. While we were there the principal contacted us to ask if we would go back for a second skate because our writing buddy class didn't have anyone scheduled to skate with them. So after a quick trip on the bus back to school to get a snack, we headed back to the arena with Dana's class for another skate on the rink. We did lots of drills played a couple games of tag and tried to do a pinwheel on the ice, With some coaching from Stella, but that didn't work out so well for us. We book ended our trip with some work in math preparing ourselves for stock market activity that's coming up next week.

10 the day off just perfect many of the students in our class participated it in last nights coffeehouse.it was a fantastic night for the approximately 160 people who showed up, and retreated over a dozen performances by students in grades four five and six on guitar ukulele and drums.check out some of the pictures from last nights event below

http://youtu.be/Zw4-Iv9-Xj8

Room 308 Redemption Song

This is a video of us performing at today's sharing.  For those who missed seeing it in person, the words we presented prior to the song are below.  Those who didn't speak in this presentation, played other roles in the sharing.  Ask your child about how we showed a glimpse of life on a slave ship in the middle of the sharing circle.

Black History Month

Leo:  Good morning, and thank you for coming to our first sharing of 2016.

Oliver:  Today the students from Room 308  are going to sing a song to help celebrate Black History Month.

Josh:  Each February people in  the United States and Canada take time to remember important events and figures from black history.  

Leo:  Some people wonder, since Canada is so multi cultural, why don’t we have months to celebrate other cultures?  There are 25% more Ukranian-Canadians, and twice as many Asian-Canadians as there are Black Canadians.

Oliver:  We do this because in Canada people from different cultures are encouraged to remember and celebrate their heritage.

Josh:  Many communities, like Ottawa, have neighbourhoods with names like Little Italy and Chinatown, where many people from the same background live and work.

Mariko:  And many families speak languages at home that are not French or English.  Raise your hand if someone at home speaks a language that is not French or English.  

Marcus:  Wow, look at all those hands.  Many families also eat traditional foods from their cultural background, or celebrate traditional holidays.

Xue:  Most black Canadians can’t do this same thing, because they were robbed of their culture when they were brought to North America.

Mariko:  In parts of West Africa like Ghana, Togo, Liberia, Guinea, and Benin, for over 300 years Africans were kidnapped, and taken away from their homes and family without any warning.

Marcus:  These men, women, and children were tied together and forced to march to the coasts, where they were kept in large pits, or even sometimes in castle like prisons to wait for slave ships to arrive.

Xue:  When the Slave ships came, they would pay money to buy these Africans.

Grace:  They usually looked for young, healthy people who would could work hard, and survive difficult times.

Charlotte:  Once the Africans were brought aboard a slave ship they would be taken below deck so they couldn’t move around or jump overboard to get away.  

Heather:  The slaves were forced to sit or lie side by side, with ankles chained together, and often there were two or three platforms (like bunks) with people packed in side to side on each level.  

Grace:  Imagine people lined up like this.  Every bit of space in the ship would be filled, and each person was given about 40 cm of space to sit or lie in.  Sometimes the captives were not allowed to stand for days, and often they would not be able to go out for fresh air for the whole journey.

Charlotte:  A slave ship  would be about as long as a basketball court, and a bit wider than this sharing circle.  It could hold up to 450 slaves - which is over 100 more people than we have in our school.

Heather:  They would spend between one and three months at sea trying to cross the Atlantic ocean, and more than 1 in ten slaves would not survive the trip.

Ella:  On the ship sailors would separate Africans who spoke the same language, or who might be found singing songs together, because they couldn’t understand what they were saying, and they were scared they might be planning to take over the ship.

Myla:  Once they got to their destination, slaves were sold, and their new owners would insist that they only speak English.

Sadie:  If they sang African songs, practiced African religions, or were found celebrating African traditions then a slave would be punished.  

Thomas:  Almost a half of a million Africans were forced to come to North America.  Overall, more than 12 million Africans were taken on slave ships, with most of them going to Brazil or islands in the Caribbean.  

Ava:  Black Canadians never had the chance to bring their culture with them.  And for many years even their achievements in North America were not celebrated.  

Leo:  Marcus Garvey was a famous black political leader in Jamaica.  He once said that a A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.

Thomas:  So each February we take time to reflect on black achievements, and to rebuild an understanding of a people who were robbed of their culture.

Ava:  This song we are going to share is called Redemption Song, and it was written by Bob Marley, who was inspired by the words of Marcus Garvey, who spoke often about the need for African Redemption.  

Leo:  He once said that Africans must emancipate themselves from mental slavery because others might free their bodies from slavery, none but themselves can free their minds.

Giant Sized Problems

I'm The students in our class found some giant pencils and started to wonder exactly who had lost these pencils. In groups they considered exactly what the size of the person who would use this pencil might be. 

How much taller with this person be then they themselves. How wide with this person be compared to themselves. How many calories with this person need to consume an average day compared with themselves.  

Once they finish these calculations we then said about as a class to create this giant person the pictures below show what the results were.

Scientists in the school!🔬

Today the students of room 308 became scientists during our special Scientists in the School workshops.  Grade 6's got their hands on some specimens while investigating the diversity of living things.  Grade 5's really got energized while they experimented with forms of energy found in toys, household appliances, and loss of energy through insulation.  Be sure to ask your child about the experiences they had today.

Famous Canadian Oral Presentation

Famous Canadian Oral Presentation

Students will be given time in class to research a famous Canadian and then organize their information into an oral presentation.  Basically they need to share their research with the class in a speech that lasts between 2 and 4 minutes.

Like all good writing,their speech will need to have a clear beginning, middle, and an end.  Their opening needs to grab the audience’s attention and introduce their main talking points. It also needs to be interesting enough to keep them focused.  Finally, their closing statements need to summarize the main talking points (subtopics) and restate their overall opinion statement or thesis.

Part 1: Researching their topic

Use a variety of sources to collect information about the following;

Ø     When and where they were born

Ø     Personal background and family information, Childhood/upbringing, Education

Ø     Personality traits and words that describe the person

Ø     Significance – What is this person known for mainly?  (profession, awards, accomplishments)

Ø     Obstacles, challenges, opportunities they benefited from, mentors

Ø     Important quote

Lists of famous Canadians can be found at the following sites:

http://particle.physics.ucdavis.edu/Canadians/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Canadians

http://www.probability.ca/jeff/canadians.html

Famous Canadian Speeches

We are starting an in class project that will have students choosing a famous Canadian to research, and then present to the class in a 2-4 min speech.  Most of the research and writing will start off in class, but then the final work, refining their speech, and practicing it for an audience, will likely benefit from being done at home.  Below is a video we watched (pretty funny, but topical) to get some tips on presenting.  We will be looking at ideas in the coming days.
Students were asked to come to class tomorrow with an idea of the person they wish to research (famous for contributions to arts, humanities, medicine, sports, literature, exploration, etc).

Redemption Song

As part of our celebration of Black History Month, we have been practising the Bob Marley song "Redemption Song", which talks about the taking of slaves from Africa.  Today students were introduced to the story of 'slave ships' and some of the harsh realities associated with them.  We will continue to work on the song, on Ukes, in class in the coming days.

The song chords are below, so that students can practice at home, if they have a Uke, or guitar.  We hope to present this song at our sharing later this month.

INTRO

VERSE 1:

      G                       Em

Old pirates, yes, they rob I

C                C           Am

sold I to the merchant ships

G                           Em     

Minutes after they took I

C                C          Am

   from the bottomless pit.

           G             Em       C

But my hand was made strong

           C            Am

by the hand of the      Almighty.

     G                             Em     C              D  

We forward in this generation  triumphantly.

CHORUS:

                           G      

Won't you help to sing

C            D             G

 these songs of freedom?

           C       D          Em    

'Cause all I    ever have

C       D             G       C     D         

   redemption songs.

VERSE 2:

           G                                      Em

Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery

                   C                   Am

none but ourselves can free our minds.

              G                     Em

Have no fear for atomic energy

                         C                D

'cause none of them can stop the time.

       G                                  Em

How long shall they kill our prophets

               C               Am

While we stand aside and   look?

          G                  Em

Some say it's just a part of it

          C                     D  

we've got to fulfill the    book.

CHORUS 2:

                           G      

Won't you help to sing

C             D          G

 these songs of freedom?

           C         D          Em    

'Cause all I    ever have

C       D           G       C        D              G      C     D             G       C     D          

   Redemption songs.    Redemption songs.   Redemption songs.

INSTRUMENTAL:

/ Em - - - / C - D - / x4

REPEAT VERSE 2

CHORUS 3:

                           G      

Won't you help to sing

C            D          G

 these songs of freedom?

           C       D           Em    

'Cause all I    ever have

C      D              G       C     D           Em

   Redemption songs,    all I ever have

C     D            Em     C          D              G    

  Redemption songs, these songs of freedom

C     D         G

      songs of freedom

C  C  Am  G