Oct 31, 2012 Happy Halloween/Mesopotamia!

Happy Halloween!  As well as happy start of a new unit day!.....not as exciting?

Today we began our unit on Mesopotamia.  We started by brainstorming about what Mesopotamia might mean/what it could be, as well as what various vocabulary words might mean.  This process got our brains thinking and more importantly, curious as to what all of things really mean.

After the brainstorming session we dove right into it and visited this website to learn more about this region.  We discovered that the worlds first civilization was located in what is known today as the Middle East between the Tigris and Euphrates River (Mesopotamia means the land between two rivers).  We also discovered that the reason civilization was able to grow there was because of the fertile soil deposited by the rivers each year that made farming possible.

Tomorrow we will use the textbook to take more detailed notes on this region and learn more about it.  No homework, have a great night!

If you're interested here are some pictures of some of the damage done by Sandy at my Aunt's and brothers homes in New York!

Oct 29, 2012 Quiz Tomorrow and Hurricane Sandy Watch!

Homework: Study for Old & New Stone Age Quiz tomorrow!!

Welcome back!  I hope everyone had as awesome a fall break as I did!  Sunday was my birthday and we went to the Packer game to celebrate!

Go pack!!

As many of you have heard Hurricane Sandy is quickly bearing down on the east coast!  Since I'm from New York and my whole extended family still lives there, I like to think I have the inside scoop!  Here's video taken this morning by my cousin of the winds starting to pick up.  The storm is still hundreds of miles away and the wind is already this intense!

Here is a live webcam from the 51st floor of the NY Times building in Manhattan.  The camera takes a picture and updates every 60 seconds so you will be able to see the storm as it hits the city!

Now I promise this is my last Sandy rant....but here's a picture of some flooding already happening near my cousins house...

Now on to class news!  Tomorrow there is a quiz on the old and new stone age material.  You should study from your t-chart that is in your notebook and your old vs new stone age worksheet.  Make sure to focus on their differences and the vocabulary from the section.  Below are some flashcards from quizlet that you can use to help you review.

Oct 22, 2012 Guidance Presentation

Today in Social Studies we had a presentation from Guidance which built on their previous presentation on bullying.  We will have another presentation from them tomorrow before the break.

No homework, don't forget to wear running clothes tomorrow for the Road Runner Run tomorrow!

Oct 19, 2012 Current Events

Since it is Friday today's class was about Current Events!  We had student presentations and watched CNN Student News.

We had some very interesting student presentations.  One was about the wolf hunt happening in WI which spurred an awesome discussion/debate!  Do you think there should be a wolf hunt or do you think it will send them back to the endangered species list?

Two students did an article about "scary shoes" that were recently designed.  The thought behind the outrageous shoe design was to show that beauty can be unconventional and does not have to follow certain rules or guidelines.  Great message!

We finished up with CNN Student news.  If you scroll all the way to the bottom of the page you will see that there is a class calendar.  This will be updated with major events coming up like current event presentations, quizzes, tests, etc.  Hopefully this will help keep you updated on what's coming up in the class!

Finally, I leave you with this.  As a student in class you have recently heard about my adventures trying to give George his eardrops everyday for an ear infection he has.  The only way I got him to sit still for these pictures (and to come out from under the table since he is terrified of eardrops) was to dangle bacon in front of him....a couple of you have requested footage of how big and nasty his ears are so here you go....

 

Have a great weekend!

Oct 18, 2012 Stone Age WS

Homework: Stone Age Worksheet

We opened up class with yet another run in of mine with random wildlife!  I did see more deer last night but the picture was too dark!  However, when I was leaving school last night I saw a bunch of turkey hanging out by the pool doors!  See below

Strange news today comes from Taylor.  She sent over an article from Pennsylvania where some highway paint crews re-painted the street lines right over the middle of some roadkill!  Poor raccoon!

Today we reviewed the information we had on our t-charts and then tested our knowledge with a worksheet that reviewed the vocabulary and t-chart information.  We will check it in class tomorrow so don't forget to bring it with you!

Tomorrow we will have student current event presentations and CNN student news.

See some of you at parent/teacher conferences tonight!

Oct 17, 2012 Old vs. New Stone Age

Today we continued our research on the Stone Age.  We finished reading about the new stone age and completed our t-chart.  We added several vocabulary words such as specialize, artisan, technology, cultivate, and domesticate.  

We discovered that the major difference between the new and the old stone age was that in the new stone age people began building communities.  Since the Earth warmed up and they learned to farm, they no longer had to be nomads that traveled from place to place in search of food.  They could put down roots (both figuratively and literally...) in one place.

Strange news today came from Mississippi where a circus truck crashed, resulting in elephants running down the highway!  Imagine seeing that on 41....

Tomorrow we will test our knowledge of the old and new stone age with a review activity.    

Oct 16, 2012 Old vs New Stone Age

We continued our research on the old and new stone age.  We are reading an article that gives tons of information on both time periods along with really good vocabulary words.  Students are taking all of this information and separating it into a t-chart with one side holding all of the information about the old stone age, and the other side the new stone age.  We'll finish up with this tomorrow and test our knowledge with a worksheet.

Strange news today came from Kori and was about a rare oarfish that washed up on a beach.  This fish is rare in the sense that it is rarely seen by humans as they live close to ocean floor.  Give their snake like appearance and lack of scales, they have often been the source of loch ness monster sighting tales!  Thanks Kori!

Oct 15, 2012 Stone Ages!

We had a lot of strange news today.....first we checked out my picture of 3 deer that ran in front of my car this weekend!  Luckily I did not hit them, but I did manage to snap a photo!

Then we watched a video of the man who skydived from space this weekend!  It was amazing!  He dove from 24 miles above the Earth.  It took him 2 hours to get up there and under 10 minutes to fall back to Earth.  At one point he was falling at 833 mph!

Finally we discussed an article that came out that showed that the ingredient in perfume that makes the smell "stick to us" is whale puke.  I did NOT know that....

Today we began our stone age unit.  We started by brainstorming about what we thought we knew about the stone age.  Reasons why we thought it was called the Stone Age include....

• Everything they used was made from stone
• They lived in stones houses
• People were dumber than stones
• The main resource at the time was stone
• The only word they knew was stone
• The Earth was mostly made up of stone

And the list goes on....we also brainstormed about what we thought the difference was between the old and new stone age.  We kicked off reading an article about the two with the following videos. Quite amusing...

Tomorrow we will continue reading the article that discusses the differences between the Old Stone Age and the New Stone Age, as well as finish our t-charts in our notebooks.  No homework, have a great night!

Oct 12, 2012 Question of the Week

This weeks question went along with our read aloud in Comm Arts, Touching Spirit Bear.  It was, If you had to be banished somewhere for one year, where would you choose?

Oct 12, 2012 Current Events and Wear Pink!

Happy Friday!  Today was our pink out at school and I must say everyone rocked it!  Check out our display of pinkness below....

Way to rock the pink everyone!

In class today we had current events.  The student articles were awesome!  One covered how scientists are going to try to journey to the center of the Earth using drills, another covered the new Guinness Book of World Record holders, and another a local business supporting Breast Cancer awareness.  There were many others as well.  Good job everyone!  We finished class by watching today's CNN Student News (link on the left).

There is no homework so have a great weekend!!

Oct 11, 2012 Death of the Iceman

Homework: Wear Pink

Today we finished watching the video on Otzi the Iceman.  We learned about the different tools archaeologists and scientists use to decode the secrets of the past.  If you missed any of it or want to watch it again, the video is attached in yesterday's post!

We discussed what we learned from the video and how that would relate to our next unit, the Stone Age!

Tomorrow we will have student current event presentations and watch CNN student news.

DON'T FORGET TO WEAR PINK TOMORROW FOR THE PINK OUT!!!!!

Oct 10, 2012 Death of the Iceman!

Today's class was all about murder and death....WHAT?!

It's true, today's class was more gruesome that most as we discussed the life and death of Otzi the iceman.  Otzi is a man that lived approximately 5,300 years ago.  His EXTREMELY well preserved body was found in the ice along the Italy and Austrian border in a mountain pass in the Alps by two hikers.  Since he died and was frozen he is the most well preserved ancient body ever found.  He skin is so well intact they even his tattoos are visible.  They also found many artifacts with him including clothing and tools.  We discussed how this relates to the archaeology unit we just finished up and how this would transition into discussing our new unit, the Stone Age.

We read an article on Otzi which answered many of the questions you had posted on my blog a few weeks back about Otzi.  We then watched the following video regarding him which we will finish up tomorrow....




This link will also take you to a photo gallery about Otzi from National Geographic

Today's strange news came from Bryan!  There is a waste facility in France that processes waste from m&m's.  Apparently the bees in this area have taken a liking to the sugary substance and are now producing honey in a variety of bright colors!  Unfortunately the honey is not allowed to be sold since it is produced from "waste" so beekeepers in France are not too happy.....but it looks cool!

No homework, have a great night!

Oct 8, 2012 Test Review!

Homework: Study for test tomorrow!!

Tomorrow is the test for the Archaeology unit!  Make sure you study off of the review sheet (completed review sheet on Thursday's post).  Make sure you can recite the answers without looking at your paper!  Also, don't forget to bring your completed review sheet with you to class since you will be turning it in before the test.

Since we watched a presentation from the guidance counselors on Friday we had student current event presentations today.  There were some awesome articles!  Great presentations!  Once article was very reminiscent of the movie The Lorax as there is a business man in China selling "canned air" due to the pollution in the city he lives in.  Crazy!  Good thing we have all this fresh air in Pulaski!

There will be a sub in class tomorrow so please be on your best behavior as always!  Remember to bring something to work on in case you get done with the test early.

Oct 4, 2012 Study Guide!

Today in class we finished up our fossilization filmstrip worksheets.  If you didn't turn it in today it's now late so get it to me ASAP!  The link to a copy of the worksheet is in yesterdays post.

This Tuesday the 9th we will have our first TEST!  Everyone should have written it in their agendas, but I'll put it on our class calendar as well.  So in preparation for the test today we filled out our study guides as a class.  Here is the completed study guide in case you missed something in class or just want an online copy!

We'll review on Monday so don't worry about the test!  Make sure to hang on to your study guides because you will turn them in the day of the test.

Tomorrow we will be watching a presentation in the auditorium from the guidance counselors.  Have a good night!

Oct 3, 2012 Fossilization

We transitioned to talking about the process of something becoming a fossil by discussing what happened to our prehistoric animals after they died.  

We reviewed the definition of a fossil which is the remains of a living thing.  We also talked about the 6 steps to fossilization which are: 

• An animal, plant, or human dies
• Before decay begins it is covered quickly in mud, silt, sand, volcanic ash, or in tar
• Time passes, more dirt and sediment covers the remains and the soft parts disintegrate (skin, organs, etc) until only the hard parts remain (bones, teeth, bark, shell, etc)
• Water filters through the sediment and replaces the organic materials with minerals
• The remains are now petrified or turned to stone
• Someday because of erosion or an excavation an archaeologist may find the fossil and share it with the world

On the filmstrip sheet you needed to write one of the fossilization steps in each box and draw a picture to go with it.  

Our strange news was the grossest one yet!!  It was about a girl in India that had a 4 lb hairball removed from her stomach and intestines!  When she's at school she likes to munch on hair and chalk and eventually it built up in her stomach....gross!  

Have a good night!

Oct 2, 2012 Last Day of Glogster!

Today was our last day of working on Glogster!  If you did not finish your Glogster you need to do so as soon as possible because it is now late!  Tomorrow we will discuss the steps to fossilization and create our own filmstrips.....

No homework have a great night!

Oct 1, 2012 Glogster

Today we continued working on our Glogsters.  In preparation for classes that will be switching this week we took students around the building to see where their new classes would be.  Since we didn't get the whole class period to work on our Glogsters we will finish them up tomorrow.  Tomorrow is the last day we will be working on them!  So if you think you need extra time you might want to work on them tonight!

No official homework, have a great night!