Assignment #26 - Where Children Eat and Sleep

Hey R8A,

  The year is winding down and I can hardly believe it. We will only have a few blog assignments left and today's relates to Geography. As we spoke about on Monday in class, people around the world live in strikingly different conditions. Your living conditions, however, do not always correlate with happiness. Sometimes, people living in what appear to be the most difficult conditions, are, in fact, the happiest.

  I want you to reflect on the following question as you view the slideshows for this assignment: What does every human being need in order to survive? What does every human being need in order to thrive (be happy and successful)?

  Check out What the World Eats either as a slideshow or on a blog. The slideshow has slightly more information, both the amount of money spent and the favourite foods of each family are included with the slideshow.

  Look at Where Children Sleep, again, either as a slideshow or on a blog. This time,
I strongly recommend the slideshow, as it contains way more information about the child and his or her interests. However, if you want to compare the bedrooms all at once, the blog post allows you to do that. For a little challenge, check out the blog post first and try to guess where each of these children might live before reading the information included in the slideshow.

  Think about what the photos and short descriptions tell us about the quality of life for these families and children. Do certain foods or rooms guarantee or predict how happy people will be?

  Now, for your assignment: create a new post, link back to this one and write a reflection. Describe the ideal home life you would like to create in your fictional country. Think about one family and one child within that family. Think about the crops that would grow in your country and what kind of industries are there. Write about the family's food consumption, national dishes and favourites. Write about one child in that family, give him or her a name and describe him or her in a way similar to the Where Children Sleep slideshow. Describe his or her interests, passions and dreams. The information you include in this post will give you and your readers a good idea about the quality of life in your country.

  Your post should include at least two clearly written paragraphs, as well as at least two photos to accentuate your points.

  I'd love it if you were really creative with this and perhaps wrote from the point of view of one of your fictional citizens (a diary entry, a letter, a blog post!). Be creative!

  Also, if you want, tie this in to our picture book unit. What kinds of books might your family enjoy?

  Enjoy and I look forward to reading your posts.

  When you have written your post, please leave a comment on this post to let me know you are done. Thanks!

Assignment #25: My Childhood Top Ten

Hello R8A,

  Your newest assignment has a lot of purposes:
1. Practicing your fantastic Writers' Workshop skills.
2. Reflecting on your childhood. Always a fun exercise!
3. Preparing you for our upcoming unit in English (I'll leave you to do a little guessing on this one!)
4. Demonstrating your amazing blogging skills.

  For this assignment, you are going to create a Top Ten list of your favourite childhood things. In your list you must include at least FOUR childrens' books (that you enjoyed under the age of 10) and TWO toys/games you liked to play as a little one. You can choose what you write about for the others.

1. Start a new post titled "Assignment #25: _____'s Childhood Top Ten"
2. Write a list of your top ten childhood items/memories (include at least four books and their authors and at least two toys/games).
      -number each item
      -write the title in bold
3. Write one paragraph about each item, what it was, why you love(d) it and if it is still special to you.
4. Add a relevant photo to each item on the list. Make sure you place it in the post with that item.
5. Link to websites about each of the books you chose (amazon, chapters, or another site).
6. Proofread carefully and publish your post.

Marking criteria
-Creativity
-Use of Writers Workshop tools: vivid images, muscular verbs, verb tense
-Clarity
-Images
-Structure of blog post
-Handed in on time
-Detail in descriptions
-Links to favourite childhood books


I want to give you time to work on this and be creative, but I'll be sharing my Childhood Top Ten with you as well!