Wednesday, February 9, 2011

For Parents, Please Read:

Dear Parents,

The situation that is ongoing in Egypt right now is heartbreaking but very real. Our class will studying this issue through Drama and Tableaus meeting Ministry expectations of:
B2.1 express personal responses and make
connections to characters, themes, and issues
presented in their own and others’ drama
works (e.g., make a mural or map to explore the
setting of the drama; interview a partner in and
out of role to discover physical and personality
traits of a character; write a diary entry describing
the relationship between two fictitious characters)


Your input as parents of my students is very crucial. Students will be shown videos such as this one and we will be discussing the perspectives of all the members involved and speaking as though we are in their shoes. For an example of the lesson we will be doing, please click here.

If you have an issue with this topic or have specific requests that certain videos or topics not be shown or approached, please feel free to drop me a line via e-mail at miss.amendola@gmail.com or posting a message in the comments.

I feel this is a very important issue that cannot be ignored and should be brought to the classroom and questioned.

- Miss Amendola

For Parents, Medieval Times:

Dear Parents,

Shortly, students will be writing a unit test on the Medieval Times topic we have been working on for the past two weeks in Social Studies.
The unit test will cover the following curriculum strands:
- Describe the hierarchical structure of medieval society and the types of people in it
- Describe aspects of daily life for men, women, and children in medieval societies
- Describe characteristics of castles and aspects of castle life
- Outline the reasons for and some of the effects of medieval Europe’ s expanding contact with other parts of the world
- Describe some of the ways in which religions shaped medieval society


I have put together and posted a Jeopardy game that covers these precise strands and helps students study for many of the questions that will be on the final test (simply re-worded). The game is meant to be entertaining but also extremely educational. This game is posted in my Medieval Times blog post for the students located here.
Please help your child study for this quiz by encouraging them to play this game.
Feel free to comment with any suggestions you may have. If you desire an answer sheet, please e-mail me at miss.amendola@gmail.com and I would be pleased to send  one to you.

Thank you!
- Miss Amendola

Useful Links!

Boys and Girls,
I have some useful links for you to have some fun and learn at the same time!

Install this program into your Chrome browser and practice putting together a 3D building using the geometric shapes we have studied. Shortly, we will be doing this project in class using physical objects!

If you need to make detailed and creative mind maps for any projects or presentations, install Connected Mind in your Google Chrome browser and explore this program. I would like you to bring in a mind map you created about any topic we have been talking about in Science or Language by the end of the month.

Are you having difficulty deciding what phrases to use in your writing (who or whom, have or had, them or they, etc)? Phras.in is a fantastic tool to enrich your writing in Language. If you're ever having trouble while writing letters or stories for homework because you aren't sure what the proper term to use might be, install this application into your Chrome browser and use it to improve your writing!

Do you have any useful links that you can share with me and your fellow students? Please comment and share!

Medieval Times Practice Game

Boys and girls, our social studies unit of Medieval Times has a lot of information to digest! To help you study for the upcoming unit test (or just to play and practice with your friends) I have put together a Jeopardy game that covers all the topics that will be on your upcoming quiz.


Image copyrighted by Medieval Times Toronto


The game is located here.

Enjoy the game and comment with the score you ended up with!
Good luck studying!