10 Days In Africa

The kids had 10 DAYS IN AFRICA™ – touring by plane, car, and on foot. The first traveler to make correct connections for a ten-day journey wins the game.

After Levi declared the game would actually take ten days to complete he and Matt joined forces!  Bekah still managed to have the final victory though.

Lunch - African Style!

All of the chefs hard at work prepping the veggies, chicken and sauce ...

 

The stars of the show ....

Gold Coast Stew with rice .....

Yummy!

African Necklaces

After reading another chapter from

"Ryan and Jimmy And the Well in Africa That Brought Them Together"

we started work on our African necklaces.

BC Regimental Museum

To complement our unit on World War Two we had a tour of the BC Regimental Museum of BC on Beatty Street in Vancouver.  It is the oldest building in Vancouver still being used for its original purpose!

The museum was filled with artifacts of all sorts from many of the major wars during the last century.

The highlight, however, was definitely the tanks outside!

We finished off the day with a walk in the gorgeous sunshine at Granville Island.

Hands on History: WW II

We've just had the privilege of completing a four-week World War Two diorama workshop with Todd from Hands on History.  Our group was assigned the battle in 1943 at Casa Berardi (hamlet on the east coast of Italy) where Canadian Capt Paul Triquet led his company of the Royal 22nd Regiment ("Vandoos") in a desperate attack on the German stronghold.  Having lost all of his officers and 50% of his men in an earlier attack, Capt Triquet courageously formed his remaining men into a cohesive fighting unit that continued its advance against bitter resistance throughout the night of December 14 until reinforcements arrived the next morning.  The Germans were determined to hold onto Casa Berardi in order to prevent the advance of the Allies in their push toward Rome.  They sent their best troops against the Canadians but were thwarted by the determination of the Vandoos.  In present day Italy, the Berardi family (owners of Casa Berardi during the Battle of Ortona) maintains a memorial to Capt Triquet outside their cottage in recognition of his bravery and leadership.

 

On our first day, we were provided with our battle papers and a slew of materials to use in our diorama.  Our assignment was to depict the German side of this important battle.

Here Matt is cutting Styrofoam to create the Italian terrain on our plywood base.  Bekah is then covering everything with a drywall paste solution.

The kids created the Italian topography using a variety of twigs, dirt and grasses.  The buildings were painted, weathered and glued into place.

The final product!  The soldiers and tank were painstakingly painted, assembled and then camouflaged with an air gun (thanks, Matt!). Extra details were added like: rubble around the buildings, bare trees (winter), piles of old logs for soldiers to hide behind, ...

Here Todd and the group are looking at the final product (our partners did the Canadian part of the battle on the left of the table):

This was our first attempt at making a diorama and, while we are definitely amateurs, we have some great ideas for next year.

Sir John A. MacDonald: The Colourful Politician

Matthew's mini report on John A MacDonald ....

MacDonald stood up to speak to the House of Commons but seemed pale and started to choke.  He then threw up on his desk!  In response to the grumblings that he had been drinking too much, he retorted that his opponent was making him sick!  This is only one of the many incidents during Sir John A MacDonald’s life which made him one of Canada’s most colourful politicians.

Sir John A MacDonald had a quick-witted sense of humour and he wasn’t afraid to make fun of himself. For instance, George Brown’s newspaper accused him of having few lucid moments because he drank too much.  In his speech the next day Sir John made fun of himself and said “In one of my lucid moments, I am going to tell you that …..”

Sometimes, however, Sir John was a little bit too colourful! For instance, Hugh Allan wanted the job of building the railway so he was paying MacDonald huge amounts of money for the election.  In return for these payments he was given the job of building the Pacific Railway. After that MacDonald had to resign and disappeared for six months.  Even his wife didn’t know where he was. And then he returned and was re-elected!

From the beginning of his life right up to the very end, Sir John A MacDonald was a lively man. For instance, when he was seventy years old he and his wife rode on the very, very front of a train’s engine. What a man!

Sir John A MacDonald: The Persevering Politician

Bekah's report on Sir John A MacDonald...... 

 

Sir John bent over feeling nauseous, the effects of last night’s drinking starting to take their revenge on him. Everything started to whirl around him; he groaned; and then, threw up. Everyone stared! Sir John groaned for the second time. What was he, the Prime Minister, and the first (and probably only) man to throw up in the House of Commons, going to say to the reporters?

          Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada’s first prime minister, was a skilled lawyer and politician, but even more importantly, a persevering man. Unfortunately for him, however, he is also remembered for his drinking problem. Even though it was his many business, political and personal challenges that contributed to this problem.  Despite these significant obstacles, however, MacDonald persevered. He played a key role in bringing together Canada as a nation while serving as the country’s first prime minister.

Macdonald was a well-regarded politician, however, his political life had complications. In 1873, six years after becoming Canada’s first prime minister, he had to resign because of the Pacific Scandal.  He had accepted money for his electoral campaign from the company he awarded the much sought-after Pacific Railway contract. He was very upset and disappeared for six months. Not even his wife knew where he was. Upon his return, Macdonald’s party insisted that he stay their leader and he won the next election.  So, despite significant challenges, Macdonald’s stubbornness helped him succeed.

Macdonald also had business problems. Growing up, his family had always had money troubles but, as a successful lawyer and politician, he had managed to turn that around. Unfortunately however, while he was out of the country with his sick wife, his law partner, A.J. McDonnell, was not making sound business decisions.  When McDonnell died, he left Macdonald with over one million dollars in today’s money of business debts. However in his typical tireless fashion, Sir John rose to the occasion, assuming full responsibility for all of the debt.

As if his business and political trials were not enough, MacDonald also had a heartrending and difficult personal life.  His wife, Isabella Clarke, struggled with a psychosomatic disorder and alcohol addiction. In fact, she was so sick that they had to move to Georgia, USA.  Happily, Isabella started to improve there but after a few months John had to return to Canada to work, leaving her alone to recover. Sir John was extremely lonely without her and visited her whenever he could get away from his law practice and Parliament. During this same time, their first son also died in infancy.  This blow weakened Isabella even more and she died shortly after at the age of 48. John was grief stricken and sadly turned to drinking away his troubles. Throughout all of these hardships, however, Macdonald persisted and continued to advance his political career. 

Sir John Alexander Macdonald is now remembered for his great triumphs as Canada’s first prime minister. While leading Canada he was also overcoming all of his family issues, political messes, and business challenges. Now THIS was a persevering politician! 

Bibliography

Brown, Jacqueline. Sir John A. MacDonald: The Rascal Who Built Canada. Toronto: JackFruit Press, 2005.

Waite, P.B. The Canadians: John A. MacDonald. Markham: Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2000.

 .... Please note that we know there should be hanging indentation here but blogger was having some technical issues and wouldn't allow us to format correctly.....

 

 

Natural Resources of BC Posters

Inspired by our printmaking workshop with the City of Surrey (http://doinithomeschool.blogspot.ca/2013/05/print-making.html), we created posters depicting the five major natural resources in BC today (agriculture, mining, fisheries, forestry and hydro). The kids began by creating a simple symbol for each of the resources and then traced each symbol onto a styrofoam plate.

They then inked their plates with printmaking ink and a brayer to transfer

the images to coloured paper.

That produced a lot of images!

Bekah's final poster:

Matt's final poster:

Sarah's final poster:

Natural Resources of BC Maps

In addition to exploring the importance of natural resources for BC's development, we also spent some time mapping out the major natural resources for BC today.

Centennial Museum (Fort Langley)

As part of our unit on BC's natural resources we took a field trip to Fort Langley's Centennial Museum.  During the two-hour program we had a guided tour of the museum where we learnt about the importance of resource industries (i.e. fur, forestry, fisheries, water) in the development of early British Columbia.

 

From there, we had the opportunity to design our own pieces of art (Salmon labels) using historical BC marketing symbols. Salmon (catching and processing) was a huge industry historically for BC and, due to the significant numbers of competing companies, the labelling of the cans became very important for business. 

Using original images and fonts, the kids designed their own salmon labels (transferred the images to their label, outlined with Sharpie markers and then used watercolour pencil crayons for colour).

Here are the kids' final salmon labels

(Bekah's is on top, Sarah's is in the middle, and Matthew's is on the bottom):

Britannia Mine Museum

This week we made our much anticipated trek to the Britannia Mine Museum.  In its seventy-year life (1904-1974), the Britannia Mine had a fascinating history. With over 60,000 people living and working here, it was the site of the making of many exciting stories! There was pioneering work on ore extraction technologies and the peak production rates made it the then biggest copper mine in the British Commonwealth.

Heading underground via train into the first tunnel of a network of over 270 km of tunnels.

Inside we hung onto our hardhats and had a brief taste of what a miner would experience.  A miner would make $3/day (excellent pay for the time) but, in exchange, he spent his workday in darkness surrounded by horrendous noise and dirt (the "gun" in the bottom left corner, used to drill into the walls of the tunnels was nicknamed "the widow-maker" due to the excessive pollutants and noise it produced).

Dubbed the "honey cart" this contraption was pushed around by the "new guy" in order to familiarize him with navigating the extensive tunnel system in the dark.  Unfortunately everyone knew when he was coming because he was pushing the portable bathroom! This was one time that the darkness came in handy - it afforded privacy to the user.

Our guide blasted the bell once after we exited the tunnel signalling the end of our shift (3 blasts still indicate an emergency).

We then took a quick look in the building that housed all of the core samples - racks and racks of them.

The next building was an amazing one - complete with a staircase consisting of over 300 stairs.  This was were the minerals were separated from the muck.

We ended our visit by panning for gold and other gemstones. 
What a fun day!

We Voted!

Canadian Government

To kick off our study on the Canadian Government (Federal) we had a "tour" of the Parliamentary buildings in Ottawa via utube.  What gorgeous architecture!  We then gave the kids the challenge of sorting out the three parts of government: legislative, executive and judicial.  This week's homework?  To determine what each branch is responsible for.

General Brock (The War of 1812)

This is Matt's mini report on one of his favourite heroes during the War of 1812, General Brock. 

Shrill, earsplitting shrieks exploded out of the cool, calm night air.  Inside the fort the alarmed American soldiers ran and grabbed their guns.  In the morning, the British General Brock rode out of the trees on his famous horse, Alfred, and demanded the Americans surrender.  The Americans gave up Fort Detroit without a fight. 

General Brock was a very tall and smart man who led the British and Canadian troops during the War of 1812.  He knew the Americans had more soldiers than he did and he also knew that they were terrified of the First Nations people.  So, he worked with the First Nations’ leader, Tecumseh, and ordered the First Nations warriors to do their terrifying war cries in the forest outside Fort Detroit at night.  In the morning he had his untrained militia dress up in the British red uniforms to make it look like he had many fully trained soldiers.  This was the British second victory during the War of 1812 between the British and Americans. 

Brock then died from a bullet wound on October 13, 1812 but his troops were still at it twelve battles later, at the Battle of Crysler’s Farm.  The American General was trying to head north to capture Montreal in Lower Canada. The new British commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Morrison, ordered his troops to go forward in their scarlet uniforms, go back into the forest and turn their uniforms inside out.  When they walked forward again in their “white” uniforms the Americans thought there were more Canadians than they were and they retreated.  In fact there was actually only one Canadian soldier for every ten Americans!   

Throughout the War of 1812, each British general who led the British and Canadian troops would usually use Brock’s strategy of bluffing to win.

Delicious Mapping

To begin our unit on Canadian Government we jump started things with an afternoon of mapping.

First we made some sugar cookie dough:

 

Then we painstakingly cut out our maps of Canada:

While our maps were baking we spent some time filling out the details

on paper maps of Canada:

Then we decorated our maps and enjoyed eating them!