Dec 19, 2012 Nile River

What kind of learner are you?  Auditory?  Kinesthetic? Visual?  Word?

There are a lot of us that are visual learners, so today in class we took visual notes on the Nile River.  This means that we took two pages of written notes and condensed them down to one page of pictures basically. The pictures tell the story of everything you need to know about the Nile.  I have the notes on a smartboard doc, so if you missed them, come check with me!

No homework, and HAPPY SNOW DAY TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dec 18, 2012 Egyptian Geography

Today in class we continued looking at what our background knowledge was on Egypt and we began talking about the geography and landscape of Egypt.  We looked at Egypt on a global map to compare it to where we live, and discussed how the different locations on the globe causes us to have different climates.

We also used an interactive map online to read about all of the different landscape features Egypt has.

Tomorrow we will take a closer look at the Nile and how it was a center of life for the Ancient Egyptians.  

Dec 17, 2012 Intro to Ancient Egypt!

Homework: Egypt Section 1 vocabulary

We are officially done with our Mesopotamia unit!  That is aside from referencing it in class all the time.....We have moved on to our new unit which is, drumroll please......Ancient Egypt!  Egypt is so fascinating so this should be a really exciting unit!

We started this off by doing a KWL.  This is a three column chart that students put in their notebooks.  The K column is filled with things that they already know about Ancient Egypt.  The W column is for this they want to know about Ancient Egypt, and the L column will be filled in later with things that we learned about Ancient Egypt.

We had tons of questions filled in in the W column so I will compile all of those and put them on a google doc so you guys have a list of questions you want answered during this unit!

We finished up class by completing the vocabulary for the first section.  You most likely finished them in class, but if not here are the words, and they need to be completed in your notebook for homework (with picture)

1. Nubia: An ancient region in the Nile River Valley, on the site of present-day southern Egypt and Northern Sudan
2. Cataract: A large waterfall; any strong flood or rush of water
3. Delta: A plain at the mouth of a river, formed when sediment is deposited by flowing water.
4. Silt: Fine soil found on river bottoms

Dec 14, 2012 Current Events

Today we had current events.  Students presented their current event articles and discussed them with the class.  We had a couple of really cool prezi's and some great visuals created using Google presentation.  We had a couple people cover the story of dogs being trained to drive cars!  And a few others did the origami house (read the full article on Dogo News!)

We also watched CNN student news.

On Monday we will begin our Ancient Egypt unit!  Have a good weekend!

Dec 13, 2012 Tomorrow

Don't forget if you have current events tomorrow to share your template with me by tonight! If you're not sure if you have it, check the calendar at the bottom of the page.

Dec 12, 2012 Study for Test!

Homework: Study for test and answer essential questions in post below as a comment on that post

Tomorrow is our Mesopotamia unit test!  Here is the blank study guide that you should use to study, and here is the completed study guide that you can use to check you answers.  I did not give answers to the essay questions because I want you to come up with those answers on your own!

Make sure you study the quizlet cards on Monday's post.  Study your notes, the notes linked on the blog, and anything else you have from this unit!

Today in class we did a review activity (see post below) where students came up with review questions and then we used those to study, but study at home as well!  Use the study guide and your resources!

Don't forget to answer the essential questions in the post below as well for homework!  Good luck!

Dec 12, 2012 Review for Test: Mesopotamia

Tomorrow is our unit test on Mesopotamia!  DON'T PANIC!  The following review exercise will help get you prepared for the test.  Today in class you have a number of objectives:

1. With your group create 3 jeopardy questions to be used in our review game/study guide, and one essay question for the subject you are assigned.  The essay question has to be a question that will require more than a 1-2 sentence answer.

• Mesopotamia/The Fertile Crescent
• Sumer
• Babylon
• Assyria
• Cuneiform
• Hammurabi's Code
• Phoenician

2. Answer these essential questions by commenting on this post

• After learning everything that you have learned about this region, how did Mesopotamia impact the world?  
• What group of people do you believe had the biggest impact on the modern world? 

Remember to write like a reporter!  Use complete sentences and think outside the box!

Dec 11, 2012 Notes for Phoenicia

Today in class we finished the last part of our Mesopotamian unit, we took notes on the Phoenician section in the book (linked here).  We went over the key terms and reviewed all of the main details of the culture, including how they gained wealth and what their influence was on the rest of the world.

Thursday is our unit test on Mesopotamia so start studying!  Below is a quizlet that covers all of the vocab that we have had for the unit.  Practice!

Tomorrow in class we will work on a review game to help us review all of the major concepts of the unit.

Civilizations to focus on: The Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Phoenicians, and the Sumerians
Concepts to focus on: Region, government, writing, and religion.

We'll review tomorrow!

Dec 10, 2012 Phoenicians

Today we started the last civilization of Mesopotamia!  We started talking about the people of Phoenicia.  We studied the map to make inferences about their culture, and reviewed the key terms prior to reading.  We found out that they were sea-faring people who dominated trade in the Mediterranean area.  They were famous for the purple ink that they used to dye clothes which they harvested from snails on the coast!  They kept their monopoly in this area by telling others stories of horrible sea monsters to keep them off the water!  Clever.....

Tomorrow we will take notes on this section and begin reviewing for the test on Thursday....that's right, the Mesopotamia unit test is on Thursday!  So you might want to start reviewing your notes.....  

Dec 7, 2012 Current Events

Today was our first current events of trimester 2!  From what I saw today, it looks like everyone took the comments I left on their last current events and made sure to make those corrections for this one, which was AWESOME!!!  Great job everyone!

We had some REALLY interesting stories this week.  One was about bottled water vs. tap water (fill a plastic water bottle with oil and that is how much oil it took to make the bottle!).  There was another story about a hotel made entirely of ice.  Every summer it melts, and each year they build it again!  

We also watched CNN Student News,  See below....

We also found out who won the CNN Heroes competition!  The story is amazing, definitely check it out.

Dec 6, 2012 Hanging Gardens of Babylon

Homework: Current Events (for some)

Today in class we put on our conspiracy theorists hats and watched a video on the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.  Based on archaeologists finds, some believe that these gardens never existed!  Remains of the gardens have never been found and there is no mention of the gardens in any Mesopotamian writing that has been found.....but obviously it has been documented in Ancient Greek writing which is how we know about it...so the mystery remains!  In the video archaeologists attempted to recreate a miniature of the gardens using only tools that would have been available at the time.  We didn't quite finish is, but here is the video below....



If you are signed up for current events tomorrow, do not forget to share your template with me tonight!

Dec 5, 2012 Writing in Cuneiform

Today in class we practiced our writing (and drawing) skills by taking a page out of the Babylonian's tablet and writing in cuneiform!  Everyone had to write their name in cuneiform, print, and cursive.  It was tedious!  No we know why scribes had to go to school for 12 years!

Here is some of our work.....

Dec 4, 2012 Hammurabi's Code

Homework: Compare/Contrast Hammurabi's code to our laws today....At least one paragraph 5-7 sentences.

Can you believe it's December already!  And that it's 60 degrees outside.....

Yesterday and today we began discussing Hammurabi's code, which is a a set of laws created by King Hammurabi in Babylonia.  There are a total of 282 laws and they cover everything from taxes, to property, to adoptions, to murder!  We looked at some of the laws in class, as well as the (very harsh) punishments!  Here is a list of Hammurabi's laws.

We also discussed the reason that we even know about these laws, is that they were written down in cuneiform, or groups of wedges and lines used to write languages in Mesopotamia.

We took notes on this using Cornell Notes (two columns), which everyone also uses in science.  We will continue using this in class since it is being used in many other classes.

Here is the video on the development of writing