April 25

Ms. M’s social studies class had an unexpected visitor!

We had an unexpected teacher in our Social Studies classes this week… Mr Z! Mr. Z had recently vacationed to Costa Rica and took his learning outside of the classroom! We have been studying early civilizations in Social Studies and one area in particular stuck with Mr.Z… the creation and development of chocolate! Although, Costa Rica did not have a thriving indigenous culture such as the empires of the Mayan, Aztec or Inca people. The native people were culturally influenced by Mesoamerican peoples from Central America and cultures from northern South America which is why many will find Mayan, Aztec or Inca links when visiting that area.

Mr Z brought Cacao beans to show the class and explained the process of indigenous methods of making chocolate! Here he is in action:

Thanks Mr Z! We all look forward to what you will bring into class next time!! Keep exploring and keep being curious!

November 4

Ms M’s Prep for Social Studies quiz

Hello Grade 4 students and families!

This blog post is all about how you can prepare for your first social studies quiz. Depending on the type of learner you are, there are study skills that can be more effective for you. In class today, we talked about learning styles and we went over what the quiz would look like.

The focus of our quiz is the Canadian provinces and territories. The layout of the quiz will be a blank map and a blank compass rose. Students are able to access word bank of provinces and territories once they have added all the ones they can remember. If, a student wants to challenge themselves and not use that word bank that is also encourged. There will also be additional bonus questions which students can show what extra knowledge they have.

Click here to see an example quiz and questions (ours will be VERY similar!)

The Quiz date is Thursday, Novemeber 11th. Here are some resources in addition the homework set to help out:

Please feel free to reach out should you have any questions or concerns,

Thanks,

Ms M.

November 2

Ms M’s Social Studies

In my social studies classroom (a lot like my general studies!) I find that learning is better embedded when children are having fun with their learning. So upon recapping and practising cardinal and intermediate directions when learning about the political map (looking at the location of provinces and territories in Canada) I decided to plan a treasure hunt!

Students needed to draw a ‘birds-eye view’ map of the school and draw in key locations then write out a set of instructions to their ‘treasure’. Key geographical directions and their compass rose was all they had… ALL STUDENTS ACED THE HUNT!! Here are some pics from our afternoon of fun: