Feb 28, 2013 Current Events

Today in class we had current events!  We had a lot of really cool articles including one about flying squids and a pen that creates 3D drawings and sculptures.  We also spent some time finishing up our Map of Greece worksheets.

Tomorrow we will have our incentive and on Monday we will continue learning about Ancient Greece.

Feb 26, 2013 Map of Greece

We continued with Greece today.  To start class off we went over the question from last night's homework.  Some of you came up with some great inferences about life in Greece!  When we answer these critical thinking questions make sure you are making inferences and trying to come up with new ideas outside of what we reviewed in class.  Good job everyone!

We then looked over the map of Greece that was in the presentation yesterday and students were given a blank map of Greece.  In partners everyone worked on getting their map filled in and labeled and began answering the questions on the back.  We will continue to work on this tomorrow, so don't forget to bring your worksheet to class!

Feb 25, 2013 Ancient Greece!

Homework: Answer Ancient Greece geography critical thinking question

Happy Monday after the unexpected long weekend!  Today we moved on to our next unit which is....drumroll......ANCIENT GREECE!

So today we created a KWL chart for Ancient Greece (what we know, what we want to know, and what we have learned).  Obviously we can only fill out the K and the W columns for now. Turns out you are all very interested in how the ancient Greeks made their houses and buildings....who knew.  We introduced Greece today by looking at the landscape of Ancient Greece and its geography.  We compared it to the units we've looked at so far and went through the similarities and differences.

Homework for tonight is to answer the following critical thinking question......

How did the geography of Greece affect the way in which people lived?

Feb 20, 2013 Test tomorrow!

Tomorrow we will have our unit test on Ancient Egypt.  Here is a link to the completed study guide.  If you would like more practice here is a link to the blank study guide as well.

Remember to review all of your notes in your notebook, your vocab sheets, and your webquests.  Let me know if you have any questions!  Below are flashcards and games that will help you study the vocabulary.

Feb 19, 2013 Taboo!

Welcome back from your long weekend!  Today in class we started reviewing for the Ancient Egypt test on Thursday.  Egypt is a big unit so don't wait until the night before to start studying!  

Today in class we played a vocab review game based on the game Taboo.  Students were paired up and were given a vocab word to describe, along with a list of words that they could not use to describe it (Ex: Word is Nile River, you cannot say River, Egypt, Life, flood).  This forced everyone to have to really think of many different ways to describe the vocabulary word, thus reinforcing the concepts!

Tomorrow everyone will have the class period to work on completing the study guide for the test on Thursday.  Tomorrow I will put up a copy of the blank study guide and a study guide with the answers to help you study along with quizlet flashcards.  

Feb 13, 2013 Building a Pyramid Webquest

Homework: Pyramid Webquest due tomorrow

We continued working on our webquest today.  Today was the last class day to work on webquests, they are due tomorrow!  Don't forget to use complete sentences!  Don't guess on the answers, get the answers from the game.

Today was hat day!  Tomorrow is neon day!

Feb 12, 2012 Building A Pyramid Webquest

Homework: Webquest due Thursday, Hat Day tomorrow

We continued our pyramid webquest today.  I added some helpful hints to the google doc (linked on yesterday's post) to help you beat the game!  Remember to check on each slide if there is a question that goes along with that slide so you don't miss any answers.  Answer using complete sentences!

Today was pajama day!  Don't forget hat day tomorrow!

Feb 11, 2013 Building a Pyramid

It's mismatch day! Check out the outfits below....try not to get too nauseous!

In class we started our Building a Pyramid Webquest.  Here is a link to the google doc (which was also sent to you in your e-mail) and here is a link to the interactive building a pyramid game.  We will continue working on this tomorrow in class.  Remember, you will lose a couple of times before you win!  This will help you learn all of the aspects of building a pyramid and will help you answer all of the questions on the webquest doc.  DON'T FORGET to share it with me!

Feb 7, 2013 Inside the Great Pyramid

Today we finished up our National Geographic video on the Great Pyramid.  This was, in my opinion, the best video we've watched all year.  The tour inside the pyramid was awesome and they were unveiling new discoveries for the first time on camera!  It was super interesting and informative.  Rock on National Geographic!

Tomorrow is current events so don't forget to check the calendar at the bottom of the page for your date!

Feb 6, 2013 The Great Pyramid of Giza

Today in class we went over our visual notes.  They were done really well!  Here are a few examples.....

Awesome job!  Students paired up with a partner (someone they had never worked with before, THE HORROR!) and used their visual notes to review everything we had taken notes on yesterday.

After this we watched an awesome National Geographic special about the Great Pyramid in Giza.  The really cool thing about this video was that they take you directly inside the pyramid, through the tunnels, up to the pharaoh's chamber, and they are opening up a never before seen sarcophagus!  Exciting stuff....we will finish this up tomorrow and discuss how pyramids are engineered and built.  

Feb 5, 2013 Egyptian Religion Notes

Homework: Written and visual notes on Egyptian Religion

Today in class students took notes on Egyptian Religion.  They worked with partners to take Cornell notes on the remaining pages in the chapter (84, 86, and 87).  Once notes were completed they needed to be checked and approved by me, and then students need to create visual notes!

If you did not finish the notes in class or if you need to check your notes to make sure you have everything, here are the completed notes.

As we discussed in class, after taking visual notes for the section about the Nile River, everyone did fantastic on the quiz!  So that's why we are creating them again!  Remember your visual notes are based on your written notes so don't just automatically start drawing the Nile River!

Your completed written notes and visual notes are due tomorrow so get to work!

Feb 4, 2013 Egyptian Religion and Pyramids

Homework: Section 3 Picture Vocab Sheet 

Happy Monday!  Today in class we began discussing the history of Egyptian religion which will help us understand why the Egyptians built the pyramids.  We went over the vocabulary for the section and made vocabulary picture sheets.  The vocabulary is below and remember for the vocab sheets you should only see the word and the picture (the definition should be underneath the flap).  

1. Afterlife: Life after death
2. Mummy: A dead body preserved in lifelike condition
3. Pyramid: A huge building with four sloping triangle-shaped sides; built as royal tombs in Egypt
4. Giza: An ancient Egyptian city; the site of the Great Pyramid

Make sure if you did not finish your vocab sheet that you do so for homework.  Tomorrow we will continue reading about this topic and delve further into the topic of the pyramids.  

Feb 1, 2013 Current Events

Sorry about the lack of posting!  It has been awhile, but to catch up this week has been all messed up!  With the two hour delay and school being canceled, and student led conferences.....yikes!  To sum it up....this week we worked on our student led conference presentations, reviewed what we had learned about pharaohs and mummification and then watched a National Geographic video that nicely tied the two together and gave us some more really interesting information about the two subjects!

Today we had current events.  We had some really cool student articles shared and then we watched CNN Student News (below).  We learned that February is Black History Month and Heart Health Month (wear red!)  And of course we also discussed....the Superbowl!  Who's going to win the 49ers or the Ravens?? 

There is no homework, have a great weekend!