Miss Brakke's Grade Six Humanities

Click this link to access the article from CBC Kids News. 

The past couple weeks in humanities, students have been working on a variety of tasks including: Completing our class novel study of The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis. Students completed their chapter summaries and wrote a quiz about the novel. We also watched the movie version of the novel and compared the similarities and differences between them.  Working on our visual notes about Local Government. Using visual note taking strategies taught in class, students created a visual note sheet that included: services, elections, law making, urban, rural, council, and school boards. We will continue to explore how local governments impact us and how we can get involved in our community.  We had a guest speaker, David Howard, visit the grade sixes and explain his role as the president of the ATCO Homes for Heroes project. Students will work towards writing news articles about the project through field trips to the site and our discussion with Mr. Howard. 

This past week in humanities we:  Continued our novel study of The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis. We have five chapters left of the novel, if students are behind in their chapter summaries, check out our class summaries here to catch up on work! There will be a quiz on the novel next Monday December 2nd :) Began our Local Government unit in Social Studies, looking at some vocabulary words including: council, mayor, local government, provincial government, services and councillors. Students are using visual note-taking techniques to create their own study sheet of important terms. We began to look at some of the answers to the question: Why do we have a local government?    Check out this video that explains what each level of government in Canada is responsible for! 

This week in humanities we:  continued our novel study of The Breadwinner  by Deborah Ellis. At the end of each chapter, students generate a short list of the main events that took place. To review the chapter summaries we have completed click here ! began our first week of RTI groupings for numeracy and literacy, this will continue for four more weeks.  learned about the history and culture of the Métis using the resources and information on the previous post. 

"Each year on November 16, people across Canada pay tribute to the Right Honourable Louis Riel by holding a commemorative ceremony on the day of his execution. In Alberta, the week surrounding November 16 is known as National Métis week." ( Source ) Complete the following assignment using an iPad or Chromebook.  Additional resource here . 

This week in humanities we: Read the first four chapters of The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis. The story is about an eleven year old girl named Parvana who lives in Kabul, Afghanistan with her father. In chapter two, Parvana's father is arrested by Taliban soldiers and the family is left with very little, as both Parvana's mother and older sister are not allowed outside without her Parvana's father. Students are creating graphic novels to summarize each chapter.  We reviewed the Pillars of Democracy (freedom, representation, equity, and justice) as well as the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom s. We will have a quiz on the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms on Thursday next week. Click this link to review the main points from the Charter!  Major (Retired) Bob Wade visited our school this week to speak to the students about his experience as a fighter pilot for the Royal Canadian Air Force! He shared many stories of his courage, determination, and passion for

This week in humanities we:  began our second class novel study of The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis. The story is about an eleven year old girl named Parvana living in Kabul, Afghanistan in 2000. We learned about some of the history of Afghanistan and the takeover of the country by the Taliban and the strict rules placed on women and girls during the time the novel takes place.  started our first cycle of our Literacy Stations with Ms. Stafford. Each group will complete all five stations: reading with the teacher, word work, writing expository texts, writing narrative texts, and making connections through listening (podcasts, videos, stories etc.). 

Use this link to read the article about the Federal Election. 

This week in humanities we:  Completed our second picture prompt. We were given a picture from the NY Times What's Going on in this picture? with no caption or context. Our job was to examine the picture and using clues from the five W's (who, what, when, where, and why) try and figure out what is happening in the picture.  Learned about the Federal Election which is taking place on October 21st. Each student had a chance to complete the Youth Vote Compass , which explained the different political parties and which group their beliefs and values align with most.  We have no school next week. Students will return to school on Monday October 21st. Enjoy your Fall Break!

Read the article about Greta Thunberg and then complete the Google Form with your answers. Greta Thunberg Article  Google Form

This week in humanities we: learned about the  Pillars of Democracy : Justice, Equity, Freedom, and Representation. Students created vocabulary booklets to help them with their understanding of each term.  practiced using a  plot diagram  with the short video called  Sweet Cocoon . Check out the vocabulary page to find out more!  learned about three types of government systems: dictatorship, oligarchy, and democracy. Each student chose a piece of paper with a coloured dot on it, representing a different government system. We then had to make a decision as a class using each type of government system.  Next week:  Field Trip to YouthLink on Wednesday - please bring back your field trip forms before then! Student Progress Conferences Thursday afternoon and Friday! 

This week in humanities students: learned about the rights  we have as Canadians as found on the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms . These include: fundamental rights, democratic rights, equality rights, mobility rights, legal rights, and minority language educational rights. Check out the vocabulary page to find the definition of each of these rights!  explored the history of colonization, assimilation, and cultural genocide of Indigenous people in Canada as a result of Residential Schools. Students created a timeline of events and government laws which began in 1763. Students then examined Unicef's  Convention on the Rights of the Child   document which includes 56 articles on the rights every child under 18 has. We discussed how the rights of Indigenous children were violated as a result of Residential Schools. With Ms. Harbour, we discussed the meaning of reconciliation and students wrote messages of hope for survivors and victims of Residential Schools. Monday Octo

This week in Grade Six Humanities we: Continued to read Sit by Deborah Ellis. We read two stories this week about Sue and Noosala. We have one story left to read before we complete the novel! Learned about how we can connect The Medicine Wheel to mindfulness . This week we focused on awareness and vision.  We practiced "Raisin Meditation" every morning when we came into class. Ask me what this means!  Learned about what a treaty is and the different treaties in Alberta. Additionally, we looked at one map of Alberta and one map of Canada.  For our weekly current event, we learned about the tiny homes that ATCO and Homes for Heroes are making for homeless veterans in Calgary. Today we went on a walking field trip to visit the building site!  

We have had a busy four weeks of school! Here are some of the projects and tasks we have been working on since August: We read the story Sometimes I Feel Like a Fox by author Danielle Daniels. The story is about totem animals and how we can connect our feelings, emotions, and characteristics with different animals. We had to choose an animal we feel connected with and explain why we chose that specific animal.  We learned what a Coat of Arms was and how it can be related to our collective and individual identity. We then created our own personal Coat of Arms which had to include our totem animal, a person who is important to us, a personal strength, and a future goal.  We began our first class novel study Sit   by author Deborah Ellis. The novel is made up of ten short stories about different kids from around the world and how they gain independence in their current situations.  Last week we had a guest speaker come to our school, Alvin Law! He shared his story of growing up with

Welcome to Grade 6 at Ernest Morrow School!  We had an awesome first (full) week back at school. Students have now attended all of their classes (math/science, humanities, physical eduction, and exploratory classes).  This blog is where you will find important school information, weekly humanities (social studies and language arts) class updates, curricular vocabulary and resources.  Please contact me at mabrakke@cbe.ab.ca or 403-777-7800 ext. 2030 if you have any questions or concerns!  I'm looking forward to a fantastic 2019-2020 school year!