In school – whether at school or at home!
Main Term Theme: Robots
Sub Term Theme: Cosmetics
Bonus Term Theme Thrust Upon Us: COVID-19
Literacy – Robots in Literature
Learning Outcomes for Oaks in Literacy:
- Read articles, watched videos, and learned about different types of robots currently in existence.
- Presented in front of the class about a robot they had independently researched.
- Were introduced to classical science fiction literature in the form of The Iron Man by Ted Hughes (1968).
- Wrote a story about a picnic using literary techniques such as imagery or similes.
- Wrote a news article written in a factual style.
- Wrote a book review highlighting major themes of the book without revealing pertinent information.
- Created a song related to their book.
- Practised identifying and properly conjugating the three different conditional tenses.
- Practised direct speech and reported speech.
The conclusion of a book review:
The enormous space dragon as big as the Earth laughed because he was sure to be superior to the Iron Man, so he accepted the challenge against the Iron Man. In the end, the dragon lost the bet.
The book leaves us with a little moral: Winning is not about size!
Breaking news story:
Is the Iron Man the answer to destroying the dragon?
A week ago a giant dragon landed on Australia, threatening to destroy the Earth unless it’s demands are filled, and as human weapons are useless against the dragon, our last hope is the iron-eating Iron Man.
ICT – Computer Programming and Robots
Oaks programming on Scratch MBot
In ICT, pupils built programmable robots and learned basic programming (movement, speech) through the program Scratch.
History (in English and French)
Robotics – Communication Technology – Cosmetics – COVID-19
Living History – The pandemic of 2020 was a surprise addition to our history unit.
Pupils learned about the following topics in history class in either French or English:
- Different methods of communication (technological development and body language interpretation).
- Advances in artificial intelligence as seen in the triumph of an IBM computer Deep Blue against the Chess Grandmaster Garry Kasparov in 1997.
- The Coronavirus, how it works, its place in history and its vast impact on human society.
- The history of cosmetics and its meaning in Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome and today.
Pupils creating telephones through cups and string.
Why did ancient peoples wear makeup?
Pupil response: To look beautiful, show off their wealth, and to protect their skin from the sun, insects and infections.