Communicating with only pictures

In your group, we will be creating a message without the use of letters and numbers. Use the paper provided, and only using one side, communicate one of the following two messages. Your Choice.

"Take your younger sister Suzy tomorrow morning to help farmer Brown harrow his field. If you are done early, catch some fish in the irrigation canal for your supper"

"Take your younger sister tomorrow morning to help rake Mrs Brown's leaves. If you are done early, you can use your allowance to buy a treat at the store"

Communication with Text

Writing with pictures has been done since the prehistoric times. We still do it with emoticons. What is an emoticon and why might we use it in a text message? Writing with symbols or text that represented a phonetic sound greatly facilitated the passing of information (such as how to grow crops), keeping records (such as taxes paid) and the writing down of rules and first appeared in Mesopotamia. 

Mesopotamia and the start of agriculture

The advent of agriculture changed how people lived. It is widely believed that this change started in Mesopotamia, the site of modern day Iraq, and is often called the Cradle of Civilization and the Fertile Crescent. Look at the map of the Fertile Crescent. Many parts of the world, such as where we live, is good farming land. The huge advantage that Mesopotamia had was access to crops and animals that can be easily farmed and domesticated.

Consider some of the crops and animals that they had access to and what this meant to changing their lifestyle from a hunter and gatherer to a farmer.   

Like where we live, ancient farmers in Mesopotamia had to deal with flooding and drought. They came up with an interesting solution. Click here and try your hand at being a Mesopotatmia farmer. 

If done early, and many of you are or will be

Something very exciting happens today. The Canadian Museum for Human Rights opens today here in Winnipeg. The content of the museum and the building itself has been the topic of much discussion.  Explore the official website. Of particular interest to me was the blog of personal stories and they have a section in the blog featuring Children Rights. In that section there is the story of Garabed Haroutounian who as a teenager survived the Armenian Genocide and found refuge in Manitoba. Do you know about the Armenian Genocide? Hitler is famously quoted as saying he wasn't worried what people would think about his Holocaust plans, because nobody remembers or seems to care about the Armenian Genocide. What caught your interest on the CMHR website?

"First they came for the Jews"

---

 

In Germany they first came for the Communists

  and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

Then they came for the Jews,

  and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for the trade unionists

  and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Catholics

  and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant.

Then they came for me

  and by that time no one was left to speak up.

 

--The Reverend Martin Niemöller, a pastor in the German Confessing Church who spent seven years in a concentration camp.

What year did?

This class find out when the following events happened, according to your classmate's timelines, what year did:
Jordan take his last shot
World War One start
Philippines tsunami happen
Declaration of Independence signed in the United States
First person step on the moon
The Red river flood (a few times!)
Somebody take their first bike ride
World War Two start
Dog Conan get a new home

Somebody stop breathing

A second cousin was born

Grandparent's 10th Anniversary 

Somebody start to walk

Somebody start crawling

Grace and William get married

Someone move into a new house

Bucky die:(

In your team, blog the year and the timeline below.

Mesopotamia

The Start of Agrarian Societies

The advent of agriculture changed how people lived. It is widely believed that this change started in Mesopotamia, the site of modern day Iraq, and is often called the Cradle of Civilization and the Fertile Crescent. Look at the map of the Fertile Crescent. Many parts of the world, such as where we live, is good farming land. The huge advantage that Mesopotamia had was access to crops and animals that can be easily farmed and domesticated.

Consider some of the crops and animals that they had access to and what this meant to changing their lifestyle from a hunter and gatherer to a farmer.   

Like where we live, ancient farmers in Mesopotamia had to deal with flooding and drought. They came up with an interesting solution. Click here and try your hand at being a Mesopotatmia farmer. 

Writing with pictures has been done since the prehistoric times. Writing with letters greatly facilitated the passing of information (such as how to grow crops), keeping records (such as taxes paid) and the writing down of rules and first appeared in Mesopotamia. 

Course Outline

The Provincial Curriculum is here. The course is about 200,000 years of history, so during the year we won't be going into great depth on any particular time period. What will be important is understanding the trends and patterns that exist throughout history. The four main outcomes for Social Studies in Manitoba and what we will be focusing on during the school year are:

1. Communication
2. Managing Ideas and Information
3. Critical and Creative Thinking
4. Democratic Citizenship

The first two outcomes are important skills to have as the student moves through school and life. The last two skills are vital to produce the kind of society we want to live in and avoid something like this

As we jump from one period of history to another, the class at times will be asked for their interests and class lectures will be tailored to those interests. During the year we will also be making use of project based learning so that the students can focus on periods of history that they find to be the most interesting. 

This iTunes U course is a supplement to the actual course, which is delivered in class and on this blog. Supplemental links can also be found here. Some points to consider as we start our course:

What is History? Who makes it? Who writes it? How has it affected our country, the province we live in, our city, you? 

What year is it?

Time Lines about YOU!!

Time Line

Using photoshop, or the other programs shown by the teacher, or doing it by hand, create a timeline. Be sure to include graphics and have the timeline easily readable.

-Have the year of your birth as your starting point. Remember, there are no 0 years on a timeline.

-Have at least 3 dates from before you were born

-Have at least 3 dates after you were born

-Have at least 10 dates

-Have at least 4 dates that have no personal connection to you
The dates must all be referenced by when you were born. The math for this would be (Year of event)-(year you were born)+1
Marked out of 15. 10 proper dates, some type of BCE-CE, graphics (links?), and ease of reading.