We are working on cave paintings this week as we start our study of prehistory. These are simulations of cave paintings found in France that have been dated to as old as 30,000 years. The students have been given a template and sand paper to add texture to their art. The paintings are due Thursday and so far the students are doing a great job!
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We are going to be closing out unit #1 next week with a final map activity. The goal is for students to be able to read and interpret the maps using the key/legend. The map is a facilitator for the higher level thinking that needs to go on. We did one activity this week see attached (Agriculture and Animals) then we had two days for anti-bullying (no WONDERful Wednesday this week). Next week we will finish our discussion of the MAP of the Roman Empire (see attached) and talk about how the Romans used their territory to feed the people in the city of Rome. Next week we will do a short fly over of pre-history, and do some cave paintings!
Maps, maps, and more maps. We have been working through the continents discussing major geographical features so that when we start studying civilizations we have a general context for their locations. Major rivers, deserts, seas, mountain ranges will be tested on Friday. We will finish going over these major features tomorrow. The focus of these features is Europe, Asia, and Africa, but we are discussing some features of the Americas. Ask your student to show you their map, and get them studying for the test Friday.
I apologize for some confusion regarding the online textbook. I understand that the link was disabled on the school website. We have since fixed that link and it should now be working.
A quick note on the online textbook. I explained in class today what my expectations are for homework. I wish I could check books out to students and then be able to set a timeline. However, that is not an option so I am forced to compromise. I will always give students enough time to finish their textbook based assessments in class. If they do not finish, it will be because they didn't use their time wisely. The textbook is available online and most people will be able to access that either from home or for free from the public library. My classroom is also available to work in before school, during lunch, and after school. There is homework room after school 3 days a week. In short, there are a large amount of opportunities for student's to turn in work. I will always be willing to accept late work if the student needs more time. I won't accept late work if the student was wasting time. I hope this clears this up a bit. Please let me know if you have questions or concerns. Please email me if you or your student is having trouble and needs extra time or more help. The textbook can found at this link under ancient history: DHMS Textbook Links A couple of students asked me to upload a video that we have been using to help us picture and process the enormous amount of time that has lasped since the earth was formed. Here it is:
http://www.realclearscience.com/video/2013/08/30/history_of_earth_in_a_calendar_year.html The test over this is today. Make up tests will be possible during lunch or at HW room if a student needs to redo. This week we are starting to get into a more regular routine. Today the classes elected group leaders and did some quick research on the titles for their groups. They came up with Emperor/Empress for Rome, King/Queen for Babylon, Pharaoh for Egypt, and "the Great" for the Greeks. We also continued to discuss the Earth's timeline and we started taking notes in their Comp. books on the dates to know. They will have the full list by tomorrow and will take a practice test Thursday to prepare for a final test Friday. This week we will start introducing some vocab to Unit #1. I have uploaded all the vocab words to Quizlet and you can follow that link to see the words and study those for future assignments, tests and quizzes. I will try and upload all of the vocab words to Quizlet this year. If you are not familiar with Quizlet, give it a try. It is a great study tool and they have a solid smartphone app as well. Also this week we will start our WONDERful Wednesdays. This is a chance for students to discover and learn about something ancient that interest them. See the attached sheet to see what the expectations are. The students may be asked to share their discoveries with the class to develop some public speaking skills. Lastly, we will be getting familiar with the textbook today by doing another Scavenger Hunt. This time through the textbook. As always please e-mail me if you have any questions!
History classes are required to go over planners with their students this week. Yesterday, we discussed some changes to the planner after it went to print and today we will be finishing and grading the Planner Scavenger Hunt worksheet. After that we will get back to our history of the earth timeline later this week.
It has been a great first week in Ancient History. We started off talking about the timeline of earth's history and how vast 4.5 billion years really is. We used an analogy of one year to compress the earth's timeline. This will give students perspective on time and will in hopefully make the thousands of year ago that we will be discussing seem more relevant and closer to our time frame.
As an introduction, I gave the students a pre-test on this material. This is entered in the gradebook so that I can see growth when they take their post test. I will be doing this from time to time. In parent portal, the grades that do not count are marked that way. I just wanted to give parents a heads up that all zeros and ones in the grade book won't count against their student. As, this is my first teaching Ancient History I am still trying to figure a few things out. After I had my syllabus printed, I realized that I wanted each student to have a comp. book that would help them stay organized with their notes as well as a way for me to check their notes. So please supply your student with a composition notebook for class this year. The syllabus is coming home today. There is a place for students and parents to sign and return to me. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Had a great time getting to know the classes today! Thanks to Percy Jackson and Kane Chronicles these students really know their mythology!!!
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AuthorThis is the official blog for Room 113 at Desert Hills Middle School. Archives
February 2017
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