The Canadian

ReaderCurrent Canadian events and issues for students in Grades 3 and up

Includes • A News Story • Lesson Plan • Organizer Subscribe to receive 2 additional articles, answer keys, & more!

4 Free Article: Growing Food in Deep Space 6 Comprehension Check | 7 Language Focus 8 Lesson Plan | 10 What Would It Take to Grow Food in Deep Space 11 Map: Nunavut

Teachers serving teachers since 1990 Issue 7 • Sample Edition What you’RE missing Digital Detox Challenge A Prairie Fireball!

Grade 9 student Cody Hutchison was irritated. His It was about 6:30 A.M. on a February morning. friends were always glued to their smartphones. They It was still dark outside. Suddenly the sky lit up to their screens. It was impossible to were addicted with a blinding flash. Security cameras captured a talk to them. So he came . . . www.lesplan.com streak of. . . Subscribe to read the full article. Subscribe to read the full article. 1 (888) 240-2246

* SUBSCRIBE TODAY & GET IT ALL *

With a subscription, you’ll receive eight full issues. “Your package will be a part of my classroom for many years to come!!!” Each issue combines current Canadian events and - M. Schneider, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan issues with geography to expand students' knowledge "I love this publication! It is an excellent complement of Canada while enhancing their ability to read and to my Social Studies curriculum and the activities understand informational text. enable me to cover many provincial outcomes." Three levelled news stories are accompanied by - S. Giffin, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia detailed literacy-based lesson plans, organizers, and "When I have kids in grade 4/5 wanting to know when criteria for assessment, as well as comprehension the next issue is coming, even in December and June, checks and a language focus. that’s when I know I have an excellent resource." - A. Eisler, Burnaby, B.C. www.lesplan.com • 1 (888) 240-2212 • [email protected] The Canadian Reader Current Canadian events and issues for students in grades 3 and up.

The Canadian Reader is published eight times during the school year in English and in French from September through May by LesPlan Educational Services Ltd. Subscribe to The Canadian Reader at a cost of $198 per year ($26.25 per issue), by contacting us at: LesPlan Educational Services Ltd. #1 - 4144 Wilkinson Road Phone (toll-free): 1-888-240-2212 Victoria, BC V8Z 5A7 Fax (toll-free): 1-888-240-2246 [email protected] The Canadian Reader is protected by copyright. Subscribers Email: www.lesplan.com receive one copy of the publication each month and may photocopy Internet: each issue for use by all students and teachers within one school.

How to use this resource:

The Canadian Reader is a made-in‑Canada 2. Canadian news stories – Each of the three articles teaching and learning resource featuring is leveled and accompanied by Comprehension all ‑Canadian content. It has three main Check questions, a Language Focus, and a components; use the entire package, or pick and literacy ‑based lesson plan and supporting choose the pages that suit your class the best. materials. Teach the lessons as they are presented, 1. Literacy Focus – This generic lesson plan focuses or pick and choose the activities and assignments on seven key non-fiction reading comprehension you'd like to explore with your students. strategies, presented in the following order: 3. Did You Know? comic – This comic provides Issue 1: Using Text Features basic information about a current news story Issue 2: Making Connections or event, or supports one of the articles with Issue 3: Visualizing background information. It's a great way to Issue 4: Asking Questions engage reluctant readers and build students' Issue 5: Making Inferences background knowledge in a fun and graphic way. Issue 6: Determining Importance Issue 7: Transforming/Synthesizing Note: All URLs referenced in The Issue 8: Reading Strategies Review and Assessment Canadian Reader are posted as links on Teachers may introduce and practice each our student website at http://www.lesplan. month's strategy using any of the articles in com/en/links. Bookmark this URL on your the issue, or save it for another time or text. school's computer network to give students easy access to our recommended sites.

Share The Canadian Reader with other staff members in your school, including itinerant, relief, and substitute teachers.

Article • Issue 7 The Canadian Reader 3 Growing Food in Deep Space

After a hard day’s work on the Moon, you might be hungry! What’s for dinner? Maybe you’ll open a package of dehydrated food brought from Earth. Or maybe you’ll pick lettuce for a nutritious salad! With fresh strawberries for dessert!

The problem Usually, space travellers bring prepackaged food. It can be freeze‑dried or dehydrated so Humans are planning longer trips it lasts a long time. But will it be nutritious into deep space. They aim to after months or years? Will it taste any good? build a base on the Moon. Dehydrated is when water They are anticipating has been removed What if, instead, we could grow fresh multi ‑year voyages to Mars. from something. food in space? One challenge will be to bring along A contest enough food. “The Deep Space Food Challenge” is “Imagine a crew a competition. The Canadian Space of six astronauts Agency is one of the organizers. The and a mission of challenge is to develop the best food three years,” says production system for use in space. a Canadian Space Agency scientist. “That’s Scientists, researchers, and inventors will a lot of food that you need to bring.” submit their ideas to the contest. Judges will choose the most promising ideas. Then the

Article • Issue 7 The Canadian Reader 4 contestants will turn those ideas into working Could this be a model? models. They will use them to grow food. For ideas, contestants could look to What will make a good food production Canada’s North. In Gjoa Haven, Nunavut, system? According to one expert on growing there’s a greenhouse that’s built inside a food in space, the food should taste good! shipping container. Vegetables grow there year round no matter what the weather. “We could force the astronauts to eat kale all the time,” he says. “The difficulty is that The greenhouse operates on solar and wind people don’t like eating kale that much.” energy. Workers harvest lettuce and cherry tomatoes, broccoli, and strawberries. The food should also be high in antioxidants. These substances are found in certain Food for Earthlings, too fruits and vegetables. They can help protect If we develop food production systems astronauts from too much radiation. On for deep space, they could be used on Earth, our atmosphere helps protect us. Earth too. In the desert, for example. But radiation is a big health risk in space. On rocky islands, or in . Here’s something else to think about. What Contest organizers hope these new ways will power this food production? Space of growing food will “help feed our missions will not have unlimited power. grandchildren and future generations Also, growing food shouldn’t create a lot of both on Earth and off Earth.” waste. Finally, it should be automated. The crops should grow even when astronauts What is the importance of are not there all the time to tend them. this story? Explain.

The Naurvik project in Gjoa Haven grows crops using hydroponics. That means the plants root in a liquid solution instead of in soil.

Article • Issue 7 The Canadian Reader 5 Name: Date: Growing Food in Deep Space Comprehension Check Mark the statements T (True) or F (False). If a statement is true, write one fact to support it on the lines below. If a statement is false, write the word or words that make it true on the lines below.

1. The Deep Space Food Challenge wants to find a way to grow food in Gjoa Haven.

2. Experts don’t think taste is an important factor.

3. Space travellers usually bring fresh food into space.

4. There is a greenhouse on the Moon.

5. Antioxidants help protect astronauts from too much radiation.

6. Food production systems developed for deep space could also be used on Earth.

Article • Issue 7 The Canadian Reader 6 Name: Date: Growing Food in Deep Space Language Focus Prefixes are added to the beginning of a word. They change a word's meaning. im un Example: un + done = undone re dis Directions: Add a prefix from the tag to each of ir the words below. Then, write a sentence to show that you know the meaning of each new word.

1. patient:

2. certain:

3. place:

4. respectful:

5. reversible:

Which words from the article contain prefixes?

Article • Issue 7 The Canadian Reader 7 Growing Food in Deep Space Lesson Plan Before Reading: Read the title of the article aloud. Conduct a class poll: How many of you think that food can be grown in space? Facilitate a Think-Pair-Share discussion. Ask partners to brainstorm what would be needed to grow fresh food in space. Invite several groups to share their thinking. Record students’ ideas on a class chart, titled: What would it take to grow food in deep space? Post for reference. During Reading: As students read the article, encourage them to highlight important information about growing food in space. After Reading: Revisit the before reading chart. Place a √ next to any ideas found in the article. Distribute to each student, or pair of students, a copy of What Would It Take to Grow Food in Deep Space? (p. 20). Use the second section of the article The problem to model how to: a) determine what’s important about growing food in space and b) explain why it’s important. Project a copy of the organizer using appropriate technology, or create a T-chart like the following:

What’s important? Why? Space travellers can’t bring three years This means scientists have to come up worth of food on space voyages. with ways to grow fresh food in space. Scientists are unsure if freeze-dried or This means that the food grown in space dehydrated food will be nutritious or taste must taste good and be nutritious. good after long voyages (months or years).

Direct students or pairs to complete the organizer for the remaining sections. When they are finished, invite them to answer the over-arching question, using their organizer as reference. Or, if you prefer, have students create an illustrated web with the question written in the centre of the web. Criteria for Assessment: An effective synthesis (or conclusion) is clearly stated, includes important main ideas, and offers logical explanations/reasons. Extension: Option 1: Design your own deep space food production system Challenge students to use information from the article on food production in space (and additional research from the links in Internet Connections) to design their own deep space food production system using recycled materials.

Article • Issue 7 The Canadian Reader 8 Growing Food in Deep Space Lesson Plan

Option 2: Participate in the Tomatosphere project The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) has created a program called ‘Tomatosphere’. Enroll your class and order a seed kit that contains two batches of seeds – one germinated in space or in space-like conditions; the other, control seeds. Students grow the seeds in a ‘blind’ experiment, record the results, and share their findings with scientists. Check out the link in Internet Connections to learn more about the project. Internet Connections: Read more about this news story: https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/deep-space-food-nasa-canada-1.5915888 Watch the video that launched the competition: https://youtu.be/pVDnGdlIMmA Can you enter the competition? https://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/sciences/food-production/deep-space-food-challenge.asp Discover how food is eaten in space: https://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/astronauts/living-in-space/eating-in-space.asp See how NASA is growing plants in space: https://www.nasa.gov/content/growing-plants-in-space https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/meals_ready_to_eat Learn more about the Naurvik project: https://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/sciences/food-production/naurvik-project-in-nunavut.asp https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/space-agency-teaches-gjoa-haven-growing-food-in- harsh-climates-1.5681294 Find out about the Tomatosphere Project: https://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/educators/tomatosphere.asp

Note: All URLs are posted as links at http://www.lesplan.com/en/links

Article • Issue 7 The Canadian Reader 9 Name: Date: Growing Food in Deep Space What Would It Take to Grow Food in Deep Space? What’s important? Why? A contest Could this be a model? be Food for for Food Earthlings, too

Article • Issue 7 The Canadian Reader 10 Map: Nunavut Complete this map assignment to help you better understand the context of the article Growing Food in Deep Space. Label the following, then colour:

Provinces Alberta Saskatchewan Manitoba Territories Ontario Nunavut Quebec Northwest Territories Capital cities Yellowknife Iqaluit Islands

Devon Island Water Bodies Victoria Island Beaufort Sea King William Ocean Other Island Baffin Bay Ellesmere Island (Denmark) Hudson Bay Baffin Island Gjoa Haven

Did you know? The Arctic Circle is an imaginary line of latitude that circles the globe at 66° 32’ North.

Can you draw and label the Arctic Circle on your map? Use an atlas or other reference source to help you, if necessary. A good map is complete, accurate, and visually appealing.

Article • Issue 7 The Canadian Reader 11 Nunavut

N

0 300200100400 Kilometres Students Can Work In Word/Google Docs...

Did you know… . . . that each issue of The Canadian Reader includes a PDF file complete( document) and a Word file articles( and questions only) Students can complete assignments directly in a Word file. Teachers can email the file to students or post it on the Internet. The Word file also allows teachers to: • easily modify and format content including changing fonts and text sizes • create a PDF document and use Adobe Reader’s ‘Read Out Loud Mode’ • save paper and copying costs and help protect the environment • promote and encourage students’ computer skills

Password Security Google Docs and LibreOffice There are three ways to access data from a Word file that is • You can easily upload the Word file to Google Docs and password protected: share it with students or other teachers. 1) Select the data you wish to Copy and then Paste it into any • You can translate Google Docs into another language word processing program. Use Select All to copy the entire (see Tools>Translate document) but you will need to edit document. the document to suit your requirements. Google Docs 2) Import the entire Word file into LibreOffice (or another can translate into over 100 languages including Spanish, similar program) and then save as a new file. Mandarin, and German. 3) To remove the password from a protected Word file, use • LibreOffice is a free alternate to Microsoft Office and Save As to make a new copy of the file. You can then offers the same functionality. It’s easy to install and use. change the Security settings and remove the password. See: www.libreoffice.org

LesPlan Educational Services Ltd. Visit: www.lesplan.com email: [email protected] call toll free: 888 240-2212 Current Events, Clearly Explained

Students want to know what’s happening in their world – but the news can be difficult and time-consuming to teach. We have the solution. (Five, actually.) The Canadian Reader What in the World?

& up Level 2 (Grades 8, 9 and 10) & up 9 Rick Hansen and 3

PDF/Word resource 5 PDF/Word resource Many in Motion 9 National and international page 3 Europe, the U.S., and 9 Clearly written, leveled Canadian Th e Economy page 14 grade

news stories grade Struggle for Survival in current events articles Somalia 9 Key vocabulary page 9 Cell Phones 9 Literacy-based lesson plans in the Spotlight page 20 9 September 2011 Background information A monthly current events resource for Canadian classrooms 9 Engaging, original illustrations Routing Slip: (please circulate) 9 Varied assignments 9 Comics that build content-area 9 Map assignments knowledge and enhance critical thinking Product details: 8 issues. 36 pages. Available in 9 Maps and illustrations English and in French for grades 3 and up. Product details: 8 issues. 38 pages. Available in English and in French, and in two reading levels, for grades 5 and up.

Currents4Kids.com 3 & up Building Bridges News4Youth.com grade 9

PDF/Word resource & up

9 Online interactive resource 9 Builds understanding of current 5 9 Weekly news stories events that impact Indigenous 9 Auto-graded quizzes Peoples and all Canadians grade 9 Comment page for Online interactive resource 9 Two theme-based articles students to respond to the stories and lesson plans 9 Links to relevant articles, resources, 9 Background information maps, photos and videos 9 Consistent with 9 Extension activities First Peoples Principles of Learning 9 Encourages a respectful, reflective, empathetic, Product details: 38 issues. One subscription allows all and inquiring frame of mind teachers and students access from any Internet-connected device at any time. Available in English and in French. Product details: 5 issues. Variable page length. Available Currents4Kids/Infos-Jeunes: Grades 3 and up. in English and in French, and in two reading levels, for News4Youth/Infos-Ados: Grades 7 and up. grades 5 and up.

1-888-240-2212 www.lesplan.com Contact us for a sample copy or free demo. LesPlan Educational Services Ltd. Visit: www.lesplan.com email: [email protected] call toll free: 888 240-2212 Explore the news. Enhance literacy. Engage your Students! Suitable for Grades 3 and up

Wish your students knew more about their country? Help them to learn who’s who, what’s where, and what’s going on in Canada with a subscription to The Canadian Reader. Special offer This classroom-ready resource combines current Canadian events and issues with geography to for new expand students’ knowledge of their country subscriptions while enhancing their non-fiction literacy skills.

Subscribe now for the 2021 - 2022 school year, and get this The Canadian year’s March, April, and May issues FREE! ReaderCurrent Canadian events and issues for students in Grades 3 and up These current events are the perfect supplement for any Social Studies program. They are a wonderful jumping point for class discussion. Keep up the good work! K. Faltin, Erskine, AB

It is a relief to have a resource that fits with the curriculum and is teacher-friendly (ready to hand out). The added bonus of having the answers to the questions and discussion 3 Literacy Focus: Making Inferences notes makes my life just a little bit easier. 6 Article: Canada’s New Physics Superstar B. Thibodeau, Saskatoon, SK 13 Article: Git, Coyote! | 21 Article: Finally — a Vaccine! 28 Comic: Black History Month | 30 Answer Key I have been using your product for seven Teachers serving teachers since 1990 2020-2021: Issue 5 years. There isn’t a month that goes by that Please circulate to: I don’t get into challenging discussions with my students with the leads you provide and go in directions I could never imagine. Thank you for this terrific teaching aid! D. Faerber, Pembroke, ON See next for page samples and ordering details!  YES, sign me up for the 2021 – 2022 school year and send me the March, April and May issues FREE* The Canadian Reader Promo code: 3Free Sample Pages * Receive 11 issues for the price of 8. Offer only applies to new subscriptions. Literacy Focus Lost Viking Settlement? Reading Strategy Review Publication English French Grade Level Price Amount . . . make connections. As they Good readers . . . read they think about what the text reminds them of. This thinking – 8 issues or reminding – is called connecting. . . . ask questions before, during, and after they read. Sometimes, the answers to these (Sept. – May) questions can be found right in the story. Sometimes, the answer has to come from you. It’s a thousand-year-old mystery. Where did the Vikings land in North America? When they returned home to Greenland, they told stories . . . visualize. As they read, they make about a place called “Vinland.” A land with grapes. Where, exactly, The Canadian pictures or a movie in their head. These was Vinland? One Canadian archaeologist thinks she has figured it out ☐ ☐ pictures or movies are called visualizing. Exploring new lands they told stories. Some of these stories were Grades 3 and up $210 eventually written down in Norse sagas. Time travel back a thousand years. Norse Reader . . . make inferences. . . . determine importance. They seafarers we call Vikings had settled Archaeologist Birgitta Wallace has read in Greenland. Leif Erikson sailed from They fill in, in their sift and sort information in the sagas carefully. She has also studied there to explore unknown lands. He and the site at L’Anse aux Meadows. She has heads, what is not their heads, making decisions his crew were likely the first Europeans been trying to figure out where the Vikings written or shown on about what information they to set foot in North America. had their second camp, “Vinland.” What in the World? Norse the page. Predicting is need to remember and what They built a settlement at L’Anse describes “It’s really clear that L’Anse aux aux Meadows, on the very ☐ ☐ one kind of inference. information they can ignore. the people of ancient Meadows is base camp ... it Grades 5 and up $210 northern tip of Newfoundland. Scandinavia. A saga is a fits with everything,” she says. long story about heroic From this base camp, they “And from that camp we know events. Level 1 continued exploring. they went farther south.” . . . transform their thinking. They add their background knowledge, their experience, and their thinking to what they are Finding Vinland They would have explored the Gulf of St. Lawrence, she thinks. They found The Vikings did not keep reading to come up with a new way to think about something. a place where wild grapes grew. The journals of their voyages. What in the World? Sources: Gear, Adrienne, Nonfiction Reading Power, Pembroke Publishers, c. 2008; Harvey, Stephanie and Goudvis, Anne, Strategies That Work, sagas also describe coastal sandbars, But when they got home, Stenhouse Publishers, c. 2000; and Hoyt, Linda, Mooney, Margaret, and Parkes, Brenda, Exploring Informational Texts, Heinemann, c. 2003. rivers, and lots of salmon. ☐ ☐ Grades 8 and up $210 4 The Canadian Reader 2017-2018: Issue 8 6 The Canadian Reader 2017-2018: Issue 8 Level 2

Sunscreen by the Squirt The Canadian Reader Online Weekly Answer Key (Sept. – June 38 issues) N

GREENLAND (Denmark) Currents4Kids ☐ ☐ Grades 3 and up $210 Viking Exploration

Baffin Bay

Douglas Wright was just under 30 when he died. David Cornfield Baffin Island was 32, and the father of a baby. Both men had promising lives ahead Atlantic News4Youth ☐ ☐ Ocean Grades 7 and up $210 of them. But they died of melanoma. It’s a form of skin cancer. NUNAVUT Melanoma? Their goal is to raise awareness about skin cancer. They want to prevent you Skin cancer is the most common type of and others from getting melanoma. cancer in Canada. Melanoma is its deadliest form. It is also one of the fastest-rising NEWFOUNDLAND Sunscreen dispensers and cancers in Canada. Older people A L’Anse aux LABRADOR The foundations are installing Meadows get it, but so do young people. foundation is an Hudson Subtotal 50 bright yellow sunscreen Bay organization started with Skin cancer is caused by too gifts of money that gives dispensers in Toronto’s QUEBEC

much exposure to sun. So money to individuals or waterfront parks. That makes Gulf of MANITOBA it’s a preventable disease! groups in need. it easy – and free – for beach St. Lawrence P.E.I. goers to slap on sunscreen. NEW BRUNSWICK That’s why the families Miramichi of Douglas Wright and It’s a great idea. Perhaps some day there Name: NOVA David Cornfield have set up SCOTIA will be sunscreen dispensers everywhere. ONTARIO UNITED foundations. They use the What if you aren’t in Toronto? Throw a Date: STATES hashtag #besunsafe and the ON add 13% HST NB, NL, NS & PEI add 15% HST HST container of sunscreen into your pack 0 300200100400 Kilometres website besunsafe.ca. Discovering Canada Canada’sor sports bag to takeGreat along with you. Trail Con The CanadianAlso, Reader someCanada’s sections of2017-2018: the Issue 8Trail Great follow the 15TrailWith summer coming, your family n t 30 The Canadian Reader 2017-2018: Issue 8 ia en shoulders of roadways or even highways. d t Comprehension Check may be looking for things to do outside. a Organizers say those are “interim” parts n You may want to pick out a section a All others add 5% GST GST of theAnswer trail. They the hope questions to eventually below see in complete sentences:

n of the Great Trail to explore. C

e i them replaced by off-road trails. d a You may find yourself walking along shady C n The1. WhoTrail also helped includes build“blue” sections the Great Trail? ont ca trails through Vancouver’s Stanley Park. enu Total that follow waterways and lake shores. Paddling a canoe along the north shore of You’ll need a canoe for those. Lake Superior. Following an old railway line So yes, the Great Trail isn’t the walking through the Laurentian mountains of Quebec. Hiking along the east coast of Newfoundland. trail across Canada that some expected. Instead, it’s a network of hundreds of smaller The Great Trail might even go right trails (and canoe paths), stitched together. 2. by your community. If so, just hop Some When sections was are brandthe Great new. Some Trail follow completed? on and see where it takes you! old railway lines. Some are popular trails that hikers have been enjoying for years. What’s new is that they have been pulled As you see it, what is the Deliver to (please print clearly) 3.together Why todo become some Canada’s people Great say Trail. the Trail isn't finishedimportance yet? of the Great Trail? “We loveIt the started idea – it’s with like a hugedream. long The dream was to build a trail across thread, connecting all Canadians together,” said one Canada.family out hikingFrom on coast the trail. to coast, and up north, too. The longest trail in the world! It would connect all Canadians. It would Name encourage them to explore more of this amazing country. Bold project "It's the longest trail system in the world, and it's in our backyard. This Work on the Great Trail started in 1992. is Canada's path," said a supporter. School It was a community effort. Volunteers 4. Whatbuilt trails parts and bridgesof the near Trail where are consideredWait "interim" a moment... sections? they lived. Others donated money. Not everyone was excited. Some said that

Address The organizers hoped the Trail would the Trail might be connected, but it wasn’t be completed by 2000. It wasn't. But in finished. It wasn’t the foot path across Canada 2017 – Canada’s 150th birthday – the Great that some people had dreamed about. Not yet. Trail was finally connected from coast to 5. Howcoast. doIt linked people 15,000 travel communities on blue along sectionsFor instance,of the Trail?the original dream was for a City Province/Territory Postal Code 24,000 kilometres. Celebrations were held non-motorized trail. It would be for hiking, across Canada to mark this milestone. biking, horseback riding, and cross-country skiing only. But in the end, parts of the There’s an app for that! A computertrail were app opened has beenup to recreationaldeveloped Email* with information aboutvehicles the such Great as ATVs Trail. and snowmobiles. 2017-2018: Issue 8 The CanadianThe ReaderCanadian Reader The Canadian 2017-2018: Reader Issue 8 21 22 2017-2018: Issue 8 23 * Email required for password notification How to Order Billing Options Online: www.lesplan.com ☐ Bill school ☐ Purchase Order Fax (toll-free): 1 888 240-2246 P.O. # Please charge to: ☐ MasterCard ☐ VISA Phone (toll-free): 1 888 240-2212 Mail Card Number LesPlan Educational Services Ltd. Cardholder Name Expiry Date (MM/YY) #1 - 4144 Wilkinson Road Victoria BC V8Z 5A7

Visit www.lesplan.com to download

FREE SAMPLES of all our publications! 12-F