The History of Winter Celebrations

Iroquois Winter Celebration
1.What is the stirring of the Ashes and what do ashes represent?

2.What did you find interesting about the Iroquios celebration?

Winter Celebrations around the World

3.While eating food cooked in oil, what game might you play during Hanukah?

4.What celebration sounds interesting to you? Why?

The History of Christmas in Canada
 5.Who is Santa Claus based from?
6.How did Christmas trees become a thing for English speaking countries?
 7.What type of pie is  traditionally eaten in Quebec on Christmas Eve?

The History of Christmas
8.Who popularized gift giving on Christmas?
9.What day used to be gift giving?
10.Which god did the Romans honour in the middle of Winter?

Diwali-Festival of Lights
11.This popular festival is held during the Autumn in India. What is the key ingredient to this Festival to mark the victory of good over evil?


12.Why would many cultures from the Northern Hemisphere have winter festivals that feature light, greenery, and food?


13. Christmas hasn't always been popular among Christians. It is now a very popular celebration, but what remains as the big religious day for Christians?

14.Santa Clause has been accused of being a shill popularized by Coca-Cola. What is a shill?

Ancient Sayings

Match the Greek and Roman sayings below with the appropriate letter. Blog your answers. 

~ Cicero (106 BCE–43 BCE), Roman author, orator, and politician

1 “Your very silence shows you agree.”

~ Euripides (484 BCE–406 BCE), Greek tragic dramatist

2“Young men’s minds are always changeable, but when an old man is concerned in a matter, he looks both before and after.”

~ Homer (800 BCE–700 BCE), Greek epic poet

3 “To be loved, be lovable.”

~ Ovid (43 BCE–17 CE), Roman poet

4“The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.”

~ Plato (427 BCE–347 BCE), Greek author and philosopher in Athens

5 “If women are expected to do the same work as men, we must teach them the same things.”

~ Plato

6 “Enjoy present pleasures in such a way as not to injure future ones.”

~ Seneca (5 BCE–65 CE), Roman dramatist, philosopher, & politician

7 “I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world.”

~ Socrates (469 BCE–399 BCE), Greek philosopher in Athens

8 “Money: There’s nothing in the world so demoralizing as money.”

~ Sophocles (496 BCE–406 BCE), Greek tragic dramatist

9 “Carpe Diem”
10 “Et tu, Brute?”
11 “Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.”
12 “Veni, vidi, vici.”
13 “Quid pro quo”


A To be liked, be likeable
B Working for the paycheque
C Speak up if you disagree, let your voice be heard
D Something for something
E You too Brutus?
F Age and wisdom is not choosing the shiny car, but 
making decisions looking at the past and future
G I came, I saw, I conquered
H Equality isn't just having the same access to apply for jobs, it is also having the same training.
I Seize the Day!!
J How sweet it is to die for your country
K Have fun, but don't be stupid

L The U.S. has a very low voter turnout, and Mr. Trump is now their President

M We are all citizens of the World

Philosophy-The meaning of life

“Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives - choice, not chance, determines your destiny.”Aristotle

"The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing." Socrates

"We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light." Plato



Above are the 3 heavy hitters among a huge team of great Greek philosophers. Their names would appear on any Western list of history's most important philosophers.



Take this quiz to find which philosopher aligns with your beliefs.

Share with the class what your result was. If you got the Greek philosopher Empiricus, he was famous for stating that one should never assume anything, true or false, until it is proven. If you got the Greek philosopher Plato, he was famous for stating that there are some eternal truths, like beauty and equality, and that knowledge comes from reflection, not observation.

Here is some information about Greek philosophy. 

1. Who are the big 3 in philosophy?

2. How did they know each other?

3. What is the Socrates Method? What do you feel about this method?

4. Who was put to death by the government (by drinking hemlock). Why would he do such a thing?

5. Who wrote The Republic, one of the most important works in philosophy and did much in shaping our sense of justice in the Western World.

Ancient Greek Gods

Ancient Greek Gods were immortal, but flawed. Their stories entertained people and gave lessons. Read some of the stories found here.

The stories of Ancient Greece

The myths that were told in Ancient Greece were told for entertainment, to pass on lessons, and to explain how the world works. The visuals for these stories were the stars in the skies.

Read some of the myths provided here. Some of the names at this link have been changed to the Roman names. 

Some Major Dates

Below are some dates from Ancient Greece and some events we have already talked about. Put these dates down on your timeline and publish onto KidBlog. Again, be sure to include a link, text to describe the date and a graphic with each date.
-Date
-Description
-Link
-Graphic

Trojan War 1190 bce (?)
Classical Greek Period (Our primary area of study) ~500-323 bce
Democracy first starts to grow in Athens 507 bce
Battle of Marathon 490 bce
Battle of Thermopylae (300) 480 bce
Socrates 469-399 bce
Parthenon built 447-432 bce
Plato 424-347 bce
Aristotle 384-322 bce
Alexander the Great reigns and conquers 336-323 bce
Rome starts to take over Greece 168 bc
Rome effectively controls Greece with the sacking of Corinth 146 bce

Greek Gods

The Greek Gods were responsible for the weather and many other things that happened on Earth. They were also responsible for people.  Here are two versions of how people were created and what resulted- here and here. From each of the two sites, read how people were created.
1-Which version did you like better, why?
2-Remember the Titans? What were they?
3-Describe the first woman. Know a similar story?
4-What good does Pandora bring to the world?

This is Sparta

Explore this link about Sparta. Know the word Spartan and Austere. We are studying Sparta since the 5th century B.C.E. With that in mind,  what 3 qualities were boys raised to have? What qualities were women expected to have? Be able to describe in a few sentences what growing up in Sparta would.

After doing that, take this challenge to see if you have what it takes to be a spartan warrior

The shield

In your groups, demonstrate your own phalanx

 Don Cherry says that his teams almost always win in overtime. The advice he gives them, and basically the only advice, is to "Go out on your shield." Hopefully his players were paying attention in history class and hopefully you were too.

"Come back with your shield, or on it" and "Go out on your Shield" has the same basic meaning. Explain what is meant

Which Olympic God are you?

1. Find out which God you are with this link here. Share with the class by blogging below.

This site is provided by the Winnipeg Art Gallery, which had a real neat exhibit, details here

Open the links below in Internet Explorer
2. Build your own Greek Temple here. Show the result to the teacher

3. Solve the Great Plague of Athens here. Share your success with the teacher

4, (maybe) Navigate the year as a farmer in Ancient Egypt  (link might not work, but if it does, again, show your success to the teacher)

5. Information on two famous Greek battles and a chance to be a navy commander is here. Show the teacher how you won the battle.

6. The marbles of Parthenon belong where . . . ? Give an answer and be prepared to defend your answer.

Where is Ancient Greece?

Ancient Greece still influences us

What connection do The Simpsons have with Ancient Greece?

Life in Ancient Greece

Life in Ancient Greece and Life in Ancient Greece
Everyday life in Ancient Greece had differences than life here today on the Canadian prairies.
1. List some of the food in ancient Greece. Which ones are familiar to you? Olives, Cheese, Wine, wheat Which ones do we grow here?Wheat, grapes
2. List some activities that were done in Ancient Greece and are also done here. Sports
3. List some differences between everyday life in Ancient Greece and life today.
4. What games were first held in Ancient Greece and are now held every four years? Olympics What were the original sports? Wrestling and . . . 

Class Structure

Compare the class structure in Ancient Greece and Canada today. What differences and/or similarities strike you?
Read this article that has some more detail about life in Ancient Greece. Be sure to know what a polis is. Also be familiar with the term metic, and free people. What social class did women belong to?

Everyday Life in Athens
Click here for life in Athens
1. Who was subjected to the kleroterion?
2. Where is it more honourable for a woman to be?
3.What gambling game is played?
4.Name another use for gold coins other than a money use.
5.What or who is a paidagogos?
6.What time of day do the boys engage in physical activity?
7.Finish this sentence. Plato taught at the _______________________ (hint, it is a school, but it wasn't called that).
8.Bonus-Using the socratic method, tell us what the socratic method is (hint, think about the show Jeopardy)
Click on challenge and try your luck as one of the Scythian slaves in Ancient Greece who rounded up the Citizens to vote (Flash player)

Introduction to Ancient Greece

Ancientgreece from St. James-Assiniboia School Division

Philosophy and your Driving Future

Take this ethics test here and view the analysis of your decisions. Did anything surprise you?


In your groups, after viewing the video below, decide how self-driving cars should react and defend your position.

Ancient Greece

Project Presentation Term 1

You will do a 2 minute presentation.  Have 8 slides for your presentation, AND a title slide and a bibliography slide (10 in total) All words must be yours or in quotations.  Please check out the teacher supplied web sites above.  Include only the facts that are important or interesting. Blog below your topic. The following is only a partial list of what you may pick. 

Early People Section
Theory of Evolution
Ice Age
Nazca Lines
Cro-Magnons 
Neanderthals
Great Leap Forward
Stonehenge
Easter Island
Early Tools
Hunting and Gathering Lifestyle
Agrarian Lifestyle

The Fertile Crescent
Mesopotamia
Babylon
Sumaria
Babylon
Writing
Hannibal
The Wheel


Ancient Egypt
Gods 
A Specific God
Pyramids
Family Life
Great Pyramids of Giza 
The role of the Nile
The Sphinx

Rosetta Stone

Clothing
Art
Temples
Manitoba Legislative Building

The economy

Medicine

Pharaohs


Mummies


Valley of the Kings


Social Classes


Farming

Food and Drink


Transportation


Technology

Hieroglyphics

Military


Slavery

Everyday Life
Dwellings

Jewelry

Scribes
Priests

Timeline of what we have studied, till now.

Using TimeLine 3D on your computer, create a timeline based on the following events and post on Kidblog.

These dates should all be in your first note frame.
1. How old  are the earliest Homo Sapiens (us)  remains.
2. When did people take the Great Leap forward  (hint, if you don't get this, you too might have to go back 50,000 years hehehe).
3. This climate event ended, which made agriculture a possibility.
4. When  agrarian societies first appeared

This Date we talked about, check your class notes
5. When the first form of written language, cuneiform, appeared

The following dates are found here http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/time/explore/main.html
6.When Hieroglyphics started to be developed.
7.When the Rosetta Stone was carved.
8.When the Great Pyramids of Giza were built

Just how big is the school compared to the Great Pyramid of Giza

The blog posting before has your measurements of the school

Length of school (without Gym) is 95.4m
Width of School (avg. out) 49.6m

Area of School, W X L= 95.4X49.6=4731.84 M sq.

Great Pyramid of Giza is 440 Cubits, which is 230.35m
230.35X230.35=53061.12m sq.

53061.12/4731.84  11.2 Bruce schools to equal the base of the Great Pyramid of Giza

Volume = Area times Height

Bruce 4731.84X5=23659.2m cubed

Giza 53061.12X146.7/3=2594688.29m cubed

2594688.29m cubed/23659.2m cubed = 110 Bruce Schools fitting inside the space of the Pyramid

Egyptian Gods

You are stuck in a museum. To get out, you need to know something about Egyptian Gods. Go to this link to get the vital information about Egyptian Gods you will need for survival, then click on the challenge tab. Show the teacher that you have survived. 

The Great Pyramid of Giza

The Great Pyramid of Giza was built some 4,500 years ago, and for nearly 4,000 years was the tallest building in the World.  How big is our school compared to this fabled structure? See how many of the following ways to compare size you can complete.

The size of the Great Pyramid of Giza can be found from this Link.   Remember to show your work!

1.One way to compare is to measure the base area of Bruce and the Great Pyramid. Area is Width X Length

2.Another Way to measure is to compare the heights of the two structures. No climbing the school to find the height!!! Have someone stand beside the school estimate how many of them it would take to reach the top of the school.

3. Perhaps the most accurate way to measure the size is by comparing the volume.  Width X Length X Height/ gives us the volume of Bruce Middle School. The volume of a pyramid is  Width X Length X Height /3.


Blog your answers below

More Pyramids

Don't forget to peruse the links provided above. There was much more to the pyramids than a huge mass of blocks.




Here is a great link about pyramids. Read the story, take the challenge. Now create a test.
1. Have a question on why the pyramids were built, this would be important.
2. Have at least 2 questions on how the pyramids were built.
3. Think of another question
4. Finally, have a question about the complex that surrounds the Khufu's Pyramid, which is something that archeologists have been finding more about in recent years.
Blog the questions and the answers below. We will be using this information in further classes.

Pyramids

The class overwhelming wanted to learn about pyramids, so here we go.

Step Pyramids, oldest

Pyramids from St. James-Assiniboia School Division

Ancient Egypt

View the picture and browse the multiple links above. Below post

1.What did you already know about Ancient Egypt before this class?

2.After browsing the links in the picture, what would you like to study about Ancient Egypt?

From the Fertile Crescent onto Ancient Egypt

Cocoa and the Mayans

Play the movie above, more information can be found here

1. How did the cocoa taste that the Mayans enjoyed? Can you blog another food item that is served in very different ways, and/or some very different food habits?

2. Besides being consumed, give another use for cocoa beans by the Aztecs and Mayans.

3. How did the Spaniards change the taste of how cocoa is consumed?

4.What security precaution(s) did the Spaniards use to keep their production secrets safe?

5. Who is credited with creating the edible chocolate bar?

Bonus
6. Find out why some people thought the world was going to end on  Dec 12, 2012

We Day

The school is taking applications for this awesome event



The school has said they are looking for people who wish to change the world. The WE Day organization has a similar message,  they are looking for people willing to make a difference in the World. Below is the criteria set out by the school. This year Ms McGowan is taking in the applications.

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. Margaret Mead

Communicating

Oral history is often not given the respect it deserves in our culture that values things being written down. Here is an example. Still, being able to communicate by writing can be a big advantage, especially if you can't meet in person.  Writing first happened in the Fertile Crescent, soon after farming became a lifestyle. A big push to start writing was that it was a good way to keep track of taxes. It was awhile before an actual alphabet was used. People drew pictures or symbols to convey their message. We still do today, such as with emoticons.



In your groups, and without using any alphabetical figures, communicate the following message on your sheet of paper.


Brenden is selling high quality grain, good for bread, for 10 chickens a gur.
Ashly is selling lower quality grain, good for animal feed, for 5 chickens a gur.

How Farming Changed Society

Civilization-usually refers to societies that obtain all their food needs from farms. Below are some definitions from the dictionary.  

 "the act or process of civilizing, as by bringing out of a savage, uneducated, or unrefined state, or of being civilized"

"the stage of human social development and organization that is considered most advanced"

1. How might the above common definitions for civilization be ethnocentric? 

2. What is the general difference in opinion in the 2 movie clips about how agriculture changed society?

Try your hand at Early Farming

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. 

It all started when . . .

Civilization is a word with loaded meanings. Often the word is used to describe societies that are agriculturally based. To get a sense of timelines and the passage of history, answer the following questions. This link might help you and this link has some good graphics, but the dates are a little earlier than most would agree with.  Blog the answers below:

1. As a review, see earlier blog posts if you need help, where are the earliest Homo Sapiens (us)  remains found and how old are those remains.

2. Review again, when did people take the Great Leap forward and what was that leap. (hint, if you don't get this, you too might have to go back 50,000 years hehehe)

3. What climatic event had to end for agriculture to begin?

4. What materials did people, Homo Sapiens, need to start agriculture?

5. About when did agriculture start?

6. Is agriculture the domestication of plants, the domestication of animals, or . . . ?

7. How did agriculture affect ones lifestyle?

8. How does agriculture lead to specialization?

9. What is specialization (asked the grade 8 Manitoba Social Studies teacher)?

10. What happened to equality in societies dependant on agriculture, like ours?

Early People

Use the following links and complete your handout note frame. Note frame to be competed is also posted below

Journey of Mankind (open in Chrome, neat site)

Timeline of Human Evolution (going way, way back)

When Homo sapiens (People) first Appeared 

Nearly Wiped out

Great Leap Forward

Height of last Ice Age

Ice Age ended

Agriculture as a lifestyle (civilization)

Theory of Evolution

The Theory of Evolution, first put forth in a book by Darwin called On the Origin of Species, is all about species changing because of adaptations they make to adjust to the environment. The theory also states that besides changing, some species die off because they weren't able to make the adaptations necessary.  There are theories that this happened to the Neanderthals; that they couldn't adapt to the increasing coldness of the Ice Age and/or adapt to the encroachment of homo sapiens upon their territory. The process of making adaptations and surviving or failing to adapt and dying off is called Natural Selection.

This is a theory. Proof is used in Mathematics and Philosophy, but isn't a scientific term. Science is the process of gathering evidence, forming predictions, and then testing those predictions. The theory of Gravity is an example. From the understanding of this theory, scientist are able to send a space probe over 6 billion Kilometres into space and land, safely, on a comet reaching speeds higher than 130,000 km/h

Timeline based on you

Notes from last Class
A.D.-is latin and literally translates into "year lord" meaning year of the lord or in his domain. It denotes years since the birth of Jesus Christ
B.C.-is used to mean years before the birth of Jesus Christ
C.E.-means common era and is sometimes used instead of A.D.
B.C.E means Before Common Era and is sometimes used instead of B.C.
B.P. is sometimes used for things that happened long, long ago, like dinosaurs. It means Before Present.
No year Zero in history
1-100 is the 1st Century
101-200 is the 2nd Century
2017 is the 21 Century
1919 is in the 19 hundreds
476 is in the 4 hundreds

Talked about 1st class

History

Prejudices, Biases

Western History

You are ready to do the assignment below when you can explain to the teacher what makes him cringe about this song




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. HINT, HINT, Do a rough copy first!!!!

-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.

A review of the math-example for 9/11  year of birth 2003-2001+1= year 3
-example for the 2015 federal election 2015-year of birth 2003+1= year 13

Year of your birth is marked by two 1s

NB-Keep the timelines neat, keep the timeline proportional or use a squiggly line.

Course Outline

Grade 8 Language Arts and Social Studies

Materials needed-

-Writing utensils 

-Paper

-A binder divided into several sections

-A writing notebook, which could be a notebook, duotang, or scribbler. Not a binder.

-A library card. 

Course Outline for Language Arts

Communication skills are essential and ever changing in our society. With the understanding that all students can be successful learners, students in 6A will be exploring a wide range of how language works, making full use of a modern computer lab. Over the course of the year, we will incorporate the Grade Eight Social Studies curriculum in our Language Art activities. 

           

The provincial curriculum uses the activities of Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing, Viewing and Representing to develop the outcomes (skills) that students are expected to acquire. 

Grade 8 ELA Essential Learning Outcomes
Reading and Responding ·         understands key ideas and messages ·         interprets a variety of texts ·         responds critically to a variety of texts	Writing ·         generates, selects, and organizes ideas ·         chooses language to have an impact on reader ·         uses conventions and resources to edit and proofread
Communication ·         uses oral and visual strategies for effective communication ·         listening, speaking, viewing, representing	Managing Ideas and Information ·         Research skills (create and follow a plan, use graphic organizers to record information) ·         Organizing information (categorizing, comparing/contrasting, sorting/classifying)

 More details about the curriculum can be found here 

and here 

Course Outline for Social Studies

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 or to deal with this before it is too late.

As we jump from one period of history to another, the class will be asked for their interests and class lectures and activities 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 parts of history that they find to be the most interesting.

Much of the course can be described as the history of the Western World. Western thought, customs, religion, etc was predominant in the creation of Canada and remains a dominating influence and point of view in our country. What we have to remember is that other points of view exist and that before Europeans came to Canada, the people here had their own religion, own system of government, a process to educate their children, languages, etc. 

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? 

Here is the class Edmodo Code hw7vt6

Here is the kidblog  code pvw4vy3