Elementary

Examines the history of Canada including the Inuit and First Nations people, Viking settlements, French and British exploration, the Hudson Bay Company, and the structure and function of Canada's government today.

Discusses how Canada's geography shaped its history and culture. Looks at land formations, rivers, climate, wilderness areas, and natural resources. Examines cities lie Vancouver and Ottowa, and small farming and fishing communities.

Viewers will learn about traditional Canadian symbols, contributions of Canadians, food, holidays, crafts, folktales, and Canada Day.

Examines the ancient civilizations of the Olmec, Aztec, and Maya; Spanish conquest of the Aztec; the impact of Catholic missionaries; the wars for independence. Looks at Mexican leaders such as Benito Juarez, Father Hidalgo, and General Santa Anna.

Looks at how the geography of Mexico has shaped its history, society, and culture. Examines a variety of regions including the Sonoran Desert and the rainforests of Chipas. Discusses major industries like silver mining and tourism.

Viewers will learn about the rich cultural heritage of Mexico. Looks at the influences of indigenous people and Spanish rule in clothing, folktales, foods and holidays. Includes a sample day in the life of a fisherman's son and a young girl in Mexico City. Also looks at Tejano bands, artwork of Diego Rivera, and Talavera pottery.

Students will learn about resources they can use to improve their writing. They will discover that they can look at the work of other writers, use books like a dictionary or thesaurus, use writing techniques like rhyme, alliteration, and onomatopoeia, organize ideas and facts with outlines or story maps. Proofreading tools are also discussed.

Professor Plot, the zany publisher of Wordswork, has given his editors a unique challenge: Showcase four different types of writing, each with its own purpose and audience, in the upcoming issue of the magazine.

Expository writing emerges as the theme for this issue of Wordswork, and the editors are on a quest to fill the magazine with writing that informs or provides facts. The team quickly realizes that expository writing can be anything from a school science project to a letter to the president!

Viewers learn the importance of prewriting (thinking and planning), how to transform ideas into a written draft, different types of sentences (lead, topic, etc.) editing, proofreading, and publishing.

Viewers will learn about the story-writing process. Discusses character, setting, plot, the ending, and looks at ways to organize ideas through the use of character webs and story maps. Examines character and plot development, diologue, and descriptive details as a tool for making a story interesting.

'People, places and things' emerge as our young editors' theme for the next issue of their literary magazine, launching them on a mission to identify and learn all about nouns. In Nouns, young viewers will enjoy following along with the Wordswork team as they discover that nouns can be common or proper, singular or plural.

The Wordswork staff decides on an action theme as they prepare the latest issue of their literary magazine, and that can mean only one special group of words: verbs.

The Wordswork staff is on a quest to fill their magazine with those groups of words we all know and love: sentences. Their job sounds simple enough, but little do they know that a sentence isn't just any old group of words. To be considered a sentence, those words must convey a complete thought and contain both a subject and a predicate.

The Wordswork staff is on a mission to tackle those tiny symbols that help make our writing more clear: punctuation! The team digs through the writing samples submitted to their literary magazine to uncover the rules of punctuation.