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This is Mrs. O'Reilly's page. __**Welcome to the 3-O ****Culture Project **__ ==== ==== The BIG questions for this unit of study 1. //What is culture? // //2. How does where we live influence how we live? // //3. What are the components of a culture? // //4. How do the components of culture influence how we live? // 5. //What happens when cultures come together? // = = You are now ready to start the CULTURE PROJECT! Ask good questions – discover what are you interested in and what you want to find out more about? Your project should include some information about four or more of the components of culture (circles on the culture wheel) so make sure you are asking thick questions that fit into four different components. However, you should concentrate on what you are most interested in. Use this project to develop great organization skills, ownership of your time, and a love for researching culture. Here on this page you will find links to helpful resources. This page will show what we are currently working on and each day more information or research tasks will be added.

**Week One: ****Getting set-up for research ** __**Your Questions for this unit**__  //Think about any qestions that you have about your chosen topic.// //Write them on your Wiki page using the following format:// **MY QUESTIONS ** **1. Before ** research...my **beginning** and my **first** questions

e.g. Why is Spain's population shrinking and what factors are contributing to this?

**2. During ** research my questions during research

<span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">**Web Links ** **//Example of completed research in PowerPoint format//**

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From Sevilla:

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<span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Culture Grams Username: intlbeijing Password: isb =__ Destiny Quest: __= []


 * FactMonster.com**

SIRS data base is a more advanced data base. You could use this while working with a parent or teacher. = [] = = = = Brainpop is a favorite of all third graders. Brainpop Junior has lots to offer for all curriculum areas. = []


 * A PowerPoint presentation for students by Mrs. Bueschlen, teaching them about taking notes effectively.**

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Taking good notes is very important. They should be short, effective and have the key words about what you're researching. ** //My essential question: Why is Japan affected by its location?// ** <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua','serif';">Japan: The land (book) || **<span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua','serif';">Notes in paragraph form: ** <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua','serif';">Japan is made up of a string of islands and the country is long and narrow. Much of Japan is coastline and the interior is mountainous. Japan has a big population so most people live on 3% of the land along the coast. || <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua','serif';">island <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua','serif';">mountainous <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua','serif';">long & narrow <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua','serif';">3% of total = 0.03 ||^  || **Week Two** Showed students how to find pictures with www.picsearch.com saving the picture. Showed them how to put the picture on their wiki page.
 * **<span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua','serif';">Link: **
 * **<span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua','serif';">Notes with KEY WORDS **
 * Monday Feb. 20**


 * Tuesday Feb. 21**

Explore this cool site and learn more about researching effectively: []







We put our BEFORE and any new questions onto our wiki pages. Mrs. Gockley taught us about finding KEY WORDS when we read and research for facts and information, and using these key words to write a paragraph about the topic. We learned that HEADINGS in non-fiction books help us to choose what we need to read for our research.
 * February 22**

Today we focused on PARAGRAPHING and we worked with a partner to find the main idea, key words and supporting details in two pieces of non-fiction writing about Malaysia, taken from culturegrams.com.
 * February 23**

For homework the students will analyze a piece on //skiing// and identify the main idea(s), key words, and supporting details; and then re-write the piece using thier best PenPals handwriting.





February 24 We got started on setting up our **PowerPoint presentations**, after Mr. Stadham showed us how to do this. It was fun adding in our information from our Wiki pages. Miss Faye helped us too.

February 27 Today we learned more about **good paragraph writing**. We practiced writing good, clear paragraphs with a topic, a topic sentence, at least three supporting sentences with details, and a closing sentence that connects to the main idea or topic sentence.

We started to add our researched information into our PowerPoints. We worked on organizing this information into a paragraph.

We also went to the library and checked out a non-fiction and fiction book for each culture that we're researching.

February 28

3-O students again practiced writing a **good paragraph**. We discussed the characteristics of a 'good' paragraph.

We also learned how to import the national anthems of our cultures into our Wiki and onto our PowerPoint. We discussed the importance of a **country's national anthem** and the need to show respect when any national anthem is played. As with all information added to our Wiki spaces and our PowerPoints, I told the students that their researched ideas, or connections, will need to be added to the page about their country's national anthem. Using the key words and important words will be a good start to writing an effective paragraph.

Also, each slide on the PowerPoint should have a title or sub-title connecting it to one of the **components of the culture wheel:** Social, Values/Beliefs, Arts, Economics, Government, Culture Long Ago or Location.

The children worked on typing up 5 questions about their culture, using correct spelling and punctuation. All questions need to end with a question mark.

The children also created a page for their PowerPoint using emblems, symbols, or images of significance that represent their culture.

We discussed the importance of visual clarity in a PowerPoint. Each page should have a title and images should have some key words or a sentence to explain the relevance of the images to the research; just as captions do in a non-fiction text

Today in class Mr. Stadham showed us his website and useful links. He also helped students with any tech problems.
 * The students set up a page for 'citations' on their PowerPoint. From now on, any source used should be cited on the last page of the PowerPoint.
 * We explored Mr. Stadham's website and useful links.
 * The students revised, edited and finalized their questions to date.
 * New information was added to their Wiki pages.

Today we celebrated our International Breakfast here in Grade 3. It was a wonderful opportunity to taste so many dishes from around the world: savory, sweet, spicy, vegetarian and non-vegetarian. It was a multicultural feast. Afterwords, on their Wiki page the children drafted their reflection about this celebration, describing the various foods they tasted, using describing words and naming the countries and continents from where the food originated. Tonight your child should review, edit, and revise this paragraph writing. Tomorrow students will add it to their PowerPoint.

Thank you parents for making this an enjoyable multicultural experience for the students. Well done to all the children for closely following the norms we set for today's gathering, and for being polite and responsible students. The grade three teachers were very happy to see such responsible behavior, considering the high number attending this function.

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