Sept 12, 2012 Continents, Hemispheres, Oceans, Oh My!

As I told you in class, don't panic....there is a quiz on Friday.  DON'T PANIC!

The quiz on Friday will be on the continents, oceans, and hemispheres.  We went over all of this information in class today, we will review it again tomorrow, and you will complete a study guide, so everyone will do great!  Below are the links from our smartboard lesson today to some geography sites that you can use to review, practice, or just play games on!

Geography Links (World Online)
Web Geography for Kids
Equator and Prime Meridian
Geography Games

A couple of you were still having trouble or forgot to sign up for a Current Event date so make sure you do that tonight if you have not yet!  (Instructions in posts below)

Natalie sent me our strange news today.  It was about a house in Bulgaria that was shaped like a giant rainbow snail!  Because of its shape it is apparently extremely environmentally friendly....go figure!

Everyone was really into the 9/11 memorial video so my cousin also sent me a picture of the tribute lights that they put on every year on September 11th.  Pretty sweet!

We talked in class about coming up with a mnemonic device to help remember all of the different continents using the letters NSEAAA (for North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Australia, Antarctica, and Africa)  2nd hour came up with Never Sing Eating Antique Apples And Artichokes.  Can you think of any good ones??  Comment if you come up with any!

Sept 11, 2012 Latitude Longitude

Homework: 

• Check e-mail, make sure you received the "Shared Current Event Template" and the shared calendar.  Sign up for a current event date on the calendar
• Latitude and Longitude Worksheet

Figuring out where we are in the world continued today with more study into latitude and longitude...

We reviewed the concept of latitude and longitude on the smartboard and watched a video from Brainpop about it.

I modeled to the students how they would go about getting onto their calendars and signing up for a date but if you need a review, the instructions are in the post below!  Helpful hint: It will probably be a good idea to set yourself a reminder in your calendar for the Monday before your Current Events is due.  Example: If your current event is due on Sept. 21st, click on the 17th and create an event that says "Current Event due Friday".  Click Edit Event and set the reminder to e-mail you.  DEFINITELY write it in your agenda as well the date it is due

Our strange news came from Madisen today who e-mailed me a link to an awesome article about a grandmother who was being sued for painting her granddaughters playhouse pink....the homeowners association did not approve of the shade of pink so they are suing!  Definitely strange news...thanks Madisen!

Finally....since today is September 11th, we discussed that a little bit in class.  Here is a short, but still cool, video of the new memorial from my cousin Mike that works in New York City...

  

Sept. 10, 2012 Themes of Geography Continued

Homework: Check your e-mail and make sure you received the shared Current Events Template and Calendar.  Using the calendar sign up for a date for your Current Events Project.

Happy Monday!  Today in class we finished up discussing the Five Themes of Geography.  We talked about Place, Region, Movement, and Human-Environment Interaction and what the difference is between those.  We also talked about the different tools that geographers use and why they are important.

Have you ever been on Google Earth and looked up your address?  Try checking it out!  One of the students in 5th hour said that she had been on Google Earth earlier that week and had "climbed Mount Everest".  Not for real!  But by using the satellite and camera images they provide you can see what it looks like to climb Mount Everest!

Now, the homework tonight was to sign up for a date for your current events project.  There was some confusion on how to do that.  Here's some help....

What you need to do is open up the calendar I shared with you.  It will be called Ms. Blaney Social Studies (the hour you have it).  When the calendar is open look at any Friday.  It should say Current Events.  Click on that event and hit "Edit Event".  Once in the edit screen, add your name to the title of the event.

So when you are done the event should now read "Current Events: Your name".  If someone else has already signed up for that date put a comma after their name and add your name after theirs.  There can only be three people per Friday.  If three people are already signed up for your date you must pick a different date.  We need three people to sign up for this Friday and then every Friday until Nov. 30th.  Nov 30th is the last week you can sign up.  

If you are having problems with this, leave a comment!

Sept 7, 2012 What's up world?

Today's class was all about current events.  We started class by watching today's CNN Student News.  A link to this can always be found on the right hand side of the blog under helpful links.  This is an awesome quick rundown of current events happening around the world that is super kid friendly and engaging.

This was also a great segue into discussing our current events project for class!   Throughout the year students will need to present current event articles for class.  Right now I will have a sign up sheet for the first trimester and will then have them re-sign up when trimester 2 begins.  The template for the current events article write-up can be found here as well as under Helpful Links to the right.  Essentially, you will need to find a current events article present a one paragraph summary of the article and a one paragraph personal reaction.  The presentation method is TOTALLY UP TO YOU!  Be creative and have fun with it!  Think about what you would like to see if you were watching a presentation!

Since I have no shame.....attached are the example videos I created for you of a BAD presentation, and a better presentation.  While the better presentation gives a good summary of the article and is more professional, DEFINITELY feel free to jazz yours up and make it more exciting!

So there is no homework this weekend except to keep your ears to the pavement for interesting news stories!

EXAMPLES OF CURRENT EVENTS PRESENTATIONS

Bad presentation.....


Better presentation.....

Sept 6, 2012 Geography!

Where in the world are we??

Today's class focused on the 5 Themes of Geography, which are Location, Region, Place, Movement, and Human-Environment Interaction.  But before I delve into that good stuff, we opened up with of course an odd news story.  Today's search  came up with an article from USA Today about a man whose teeth had rotted out of his mouth because his orthodontist had left his braces on for 11 YEARS! Longer than some of you guys have been alive!  There was some gagging, but overall it sparked some interesting discussions!

Back to geography.  While this year in social studies we will be covering ancient civilizations we wanted to start out the year with some review of important background knowledge students would need throughout this class.  Today we got through the first theme of geography which is location, or where is it?  Location deals specifically with:

• Cardinal Directions (N, S, E, W)
• Intermediate Directions (NW, NE, SW, SE)
• Latitude: Distance N or S of the equator, measured in degrees.  Think of climbing a ladder, you can only go up or down
•  
• Longitude: Distance E or W of the prime meridian, measured in degrees.
• 

And finally....

• Hemispheres: The equator divides the Earth into the Northern hemisphere and the Southern hemisphere, while the prime meridian divides the Earth into the Western and Eastern hemispheres

We practiced figuring out which hemisphere different countries and oceans were in, and as we found out you can be in more than one hemisphere at a time!

Tomorrow in class we will discuss current events and when you will be presenting them!

Sept 5, 2012 One more intro....

Hear anything strange in the news today?

I opened class today with a couple of strange news stories, which I will likely start doing most days from here on out since it was a hit.  As we discussed in class today, students will be presenting current events articles throughout the year so I decided to present some "current events" articles to begin class...The first article involved a missing woman that joined the search party for herself.  The second story was about a woman that was arrested four times in a 26 hour period for playing her music too loud.  Not a good day for the ladies!  These amusing stories sparked a great discussion about recent news stories students had seen or read about.  

Students then completed a notecard about themselves that I will use throughout the year to call on students, make groups, pick "volunteers", etc.  Finally, since we only had time for a very short icebreaker yesterday we played the game 2 truths and a lie, where students write 3 things about themselves (one being false) and the other kids have to guess which one is the lie.  It was a great way to get to know everyone and the kids practiced working in small groups.

Tomorrow we will begin discussing and learning about the 5 Themes of Geography.

First Day of School!

If you are reading this....it means you have survived the first day of school!  Congratulations!  Today in class we went over what supplies you would need to bring to class everyday and did some fun icebreakers.

What you need to bring to Social Studies class everyday:

• Agenda
• Social Studies Notebook
• Social Studies Folder
• Writing utensil

Some interesting facts I learned about students....

• Two of my students have Russian tortoises' 
• One of my students has a black belt in karate...watch out 5th hour!
• A lot of you went on much cooler vacations than I did this summer!

By the time we went over the supplies and got to know everyone a little it was time to head out.  Hopefully the rest of the year goes as well as the first day went today!  Thanks everyone for being so polite and friendly!