Socials 7

Similar to the morning Language Arts class, students had the opportunity to work their "Mesopotamia" paragraphs into best draft copies.

Once these were handed in, students played ancient senet, an Egyptian board game.

Socials 7

Today we began by reading over pages 86-87 in the textbook to introduce some facts about Ancient Egypt.  We concluded that there were many similarities between Mesopotamia and Egypt, but that Egypt had many more artifacts to support assumptions about everyday life.

Students watched one and a half short clips on mummification.  They were not for the faint of heart, as there was a recreation of the mummification process.  Students were warned ahead of time and were told that if such scientific observation made them feel uneasy, they were free to look away.  The video can easily be found on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJHJHvZtHSI

Finally, we looked over our paragraphs written about Mesopotamia from last Wednesday and students  edited their own work, as well as worked as a peer editor for a partner.

Social Studies 7

Today students who chose slideshows as their media were asked to present their inquiry projects.  While students were preparing, the rest of the class began watching a documentary on mummification:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGxLAXP_ITc

Students were then given some time to barter their Mesopotamian goods.

Finally, we looked at p.88 in the textbook.  For homework, students were asked to look at the geography of Egypt in relation to Mesopotamia.  Students should consider 5 wonders about the similarities between the two cultures.

Socials 7

Today students practiced writing a power paragraph on Mesopotamia.

We first created an ideas web:

Students then created a paragraph with a strong topic sentence and good transitions that linked ideas:

Students were then asked to create their own web based on Mesopotamia and then write a paragraph.

Socials 7: January 13th

This morning students practiced bartering using goods from ancient Mesopotamia.  Students were asked to review for their upcoming test on Wednesday.

Students were then briefed on how to serve during the feast.

Socials 7

Today students played a game based on Mesopotamian terms.  They managed a time of 1 minute 23 seconds!!

Students then worked to complete their inquiry projects.  These are not mostly complete.

Socials 7

Students began by completing their homework assignment.

Students then used Kurzweil to complete the following review sheet:

We will continue on with this review next class.

Socials 7

Today we began by checking homework.  Only FIVE students had completed 10 facts about Iraq, which was rather disappointing.

Students then reviewed their terms in preparation for the quiz.  Students took the quiz as a practice test and will be properly quizzed on Friday.

Students then worked on their Inquiry projects until the end of class.

HOMEWORK:  What does cause and effect mean?  (p.71 in text might help)

Socials 7

Students began by completing their homework question.

Students then worked on their inquiry projects.  Some students have begun to finish these up.  They will be due January 17th 2014.  January 15th will be the last day of class time that students will have to work on these.

HOMEWORK: Make sure to be familiar with the vocabulary words and find out 10 interesting facts about Iraq.  Due January 6th, 2014.

Socials 7

Today students answered their homework question.

We then went over again how to extract information from a textbook, deciphering which are the most important pieces of information.

We spent a lot of time discussing Mesopotamian law and how it is different from Canadian Law.

The class began watching a documentary on Mesopotamia:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=on3cdN3iZqc

Some students wished to work on their inquiry projects while watching the documentary.

HOMEWORK: Read p.84 and focus on similarities and differences between Hammurabi's Law Code and Canadian Law.

Socials 7

Today students began by completing Homework Question #3.

Students then worked on their Mesopotamian inquiry projects.

HOMEWORK: Read p.81-83 - Focus on the six Mesopotamian Innovations.

Socials 7

Today students went on a field trip to the Iris Griffith's Centre.

HOMEWORK:  Read p.78-80 and take notes.  Focus on why maps and chronologies are useful.  What is the chronology of Mesopotamia?

Socials 7

Students began by answering their homework question.

We then read through pages 74-75 together and discussed the information in the text.

Students then worked on their Mesopotamian inquiry questions.

HOMEWORK: p.76-77 - Conflict and Warfare--Focus on how artifacts can be used as evidence to prove their was warfare in Mesopotamia.

Socials 7

Students had a bit of class time to finish their lunches since their exciting field trip took up most of their lunch time.

Students then got down to business.  They began by recording essential questions for their next social studies unit  on Mesopotamia.

Students then took some time to read through the many books on Mesopotamia, so that a topic list could be generated together.

Students then completed another KWL chart.

Students were assigned note taking for homework.  They are expected to take some notes of pages 72-73 on Mesopotamian economy and trade groups.  We were able to practice taking notes in class.

Finally, students were able to spend some time on their inquiry projects.

Socials 7

Students began class by reading through non-fiction books on ancient mesopotamia and modern day Iraq, Iran, and Afganistan.

Students then began watching the documentary "Fires of Kuwait".

Social Studies 7

Today we began the class with a video on Mesopotamia.

We then read through pages 66-68 in the textbook.  Students were split into small groups to generate definitions of the following terms:

• farming technology
• fertile crescent
• domesticate
• plain
• silt
• delta

These were written on sticky notes and posted on the door to Mesopotamia.

Students then discussed different means to represent their learning for their next inquiry project on Mesopotamia.  Students may show their work by choosing the following media:

• poster
• essay
• slide show
• booklet
• scrapbook
• newspaper
• play
• artwork
• song 
• video

We are still in the process of researching information.

Socials 7

Today Tami came in and we discussed ancient civilizations.  Students came up with a web of synonyms for the word "ancient."

Students then became palaeographers.  They worked through pictographs to retell stories.  Students then wrote their own stories using pictographs.

Some of these were shared and retold leading up to the end of class.

Socials 7

Today was the last call for inquiry projects.  Any incomplete projects must be done for homework.

Students who had finished their inquiry projects were asked to begin research on a new topic from ancient Mesopotamia.  We will continue on in our investigations of this ancient civilization over the next month.

Socials 7

Today students worked to complete their inquiry projects.

We began with a short lesson on preparing a concluding paragraph:

Students will only have one more class to complete their project before editing begins.

Socials 7

Students worked on their inquiry projects.

Students then refreshed themselves on world continents.