During each week of the Settlers of CAA project, we have been doing a group design challenge. This gives us opportunities to think creatively and critically, while building Belonging and Community within our mentor groups. Below are a few examples from our Cardboard Fort and Snow Sculpture days. We also had homemade vehicle races, anthem creating challenges, and student-created dance challenges.

We just wrapped up another major project in the year 4/5 pod - this one was themed after the board game Settlers of Catan. We recreated the game board on a poster that matches the map of Canada, and coloured the hexagon blocks based on the geographic region that they fall into. The kids spent six weeks completing challenges, earning resources, and working through their workshop classes in order to develop their civilizations by building roads, settlements, and cities.

Some of the major curricular points that we met through this project include:
- procedural writing through a "Settler Survival Guide" infographic project
- multi-digit multiplication and regrouping with addition and subtraction through performative scenes and comics
- area, perimeter, and mapping through the creation of homestead blueprints
- stories of non-European immigrants through creation of paper freedom quilts and pastel drawings
- waste and our world topics, as well as how plants grow and change through the creation of mini-greenhouses
- instrument families through the creation of homemade instruments, plus we practiced singing in a round by learning the song "Sons and Daughters" by the Decemberists

We had a very snowy Thursday which kept many of our students at home. So instead of our usual planned activities, we decided to spend the afternoon painting together. In small groups, we looked at the work of Maud Lewis and designed our own folk-art inspired landscapes on the theme of Community. It was the perfect way to spend a snowy afternoon!