Yes, it's the last week of school, but we're still involved in dynamic learning opportunities. Students should have turned their books in by now and will have taken their final exams. Notebooks can be cleaned out.
At the first of the week we'll focus on the "SOCIAL ISSUES" of WORLD HUNGER and CHILD LABOR that not only pervade Africa, but also many areas of Asia that we have studied during the year.
Mid-week we'll shift to debate format,examining a variety of issues that American politicians must address---rapid transit, environmental concerns, benefits for working mothers, social spending, crime, lotteries,legal reform, immigration, socialized medicine, and a number of other political issues. As you know, your middle schooler enjoys expressing his/her opinion.
WEDNESDAY during DEAR we'll read an interesting article called "Smuggled to America" about a teenager whose parents paid to get him out of China and into America in hopes of a better life. He spent years paying for their decision.
Posted by Mrs. Glenn at 03:42 PM
Since all grade levels have Field Day this week we'll have some schedule alterations and special group activities during regular connections time.
MONDAY: Book report museums will be set up and then we'll have a lesson on Child Labor in Africa. Students will present role plays from the various aspects of the child labor problem-UNICEF, former child slave, former child trafficker, and government official.
TUESDAY: We'll have a a chance to see museums from other classes and students will present theirs. View the attached rubric. Download file
WEDNESDAY: FIELD DAY
THURSDAY: KENTE cloth is due today. Students will take an open note test on African economics and government. This will count as their last test grade.
FRIDAY: I will be out today. Students will have a lesson on the OAU, Organization of Africa Unity, and a number of other organizations that aid in the development of Africa.
Posted by Mrs. Glenn at 03:42 PM
MONDAY we'll begin our study of African government with a lesson on the ethnic problems that African countries have had after being freed from colonial rule.
TUESDAY As we study Foreign Involvement students will be able to explain the effect that world rivalries and foreign intervention has had on the governments of independent African nations. Students will explore further to understand the effects that civil wars and ethnic violence have had on children and other civilians.
WEDNESDAY DEAR today....don't forget NEXT MONDAY our Class Museum book reports are due!!! Dissecting Dictatorships is the lesson today and we'll learn why many African countries became dictatorships in the years after colonial rule ended.
THURSDAY Emerging Democracies is the topic today as we examine how some governments are successfully moving to democracies in Africa.
FRIDAY Students will recognize similarities and differences between the Kingdom of Morocco's government and other African governments as we study this unique government. The OAU (Organization of African Unity) role in Modern Africa will also be explored.
Homework: WordSearch on Government terms
Posted by Mrs. Glenn at 03:41 PM
Book selections include Mara, Daughter of the Nile by Eloise Jarvis McGraw and Beverly Naidoo's books on apartheid, Chain of Fire, No Turning Back and The Other Side of the Truth. Students may select their own book for approval from me. It is important to remember that these books are not selected for their reading level, but for the historical and cultural content.
Posted by Mrs. Glenn at 01:49 PM
African Culture is incredibly interesting. This week we'll start with general traditions.
MONDAY students will kick into drama gear with dramatizations of five African folktales in the lesson, "Tell Me a Story", but first we'll examine a graph depicting Africa's diversity.
TUESDAY "In the Spirit" more closely examines some of the beliefs and practices of Africa's traditional religions.
WEDNESDAY Today we'll explore more of the history of the affects of colonialism on Africa...just not enough time to finish that last week! It's DEAR today as well...a good suggestion-start reviewing for Friday's history and culture test!
I will be OUT today at an inservice, but will review for the test tomorrow.
THURSDAY your student may come home "clicking" or speaking Swahili as we study language in Africa. We'll also study the Lemba, an African tribe with an interesting history. Homework: Crossword puzzle on history, study for tomorrow's test.
FRIDAY we'll take a test on African history and culture as studied in the past two weeks. Then we'll read more about Kente cloths, their history and related traditions. We'll look at some sites that show the various colorful patterns of this traditional Africa cloth and next week students can design their own Kente cloth. Read more about Kente on these sites.
http://www.marshall.edu/akanart/cloth_kente.html
http://members.aol.com/davilojo/p1.htm
http://www.virtualexplorers.org/ghana/kente.htm
Posted by Mrs. Glenn at 03:41 PM
AH! Back to our joyous high level learning and thinking.
We'll have the AFRICA MAP TEST on Wednesday of this week...we keep running out of time to discuss what is on the PHYSICAL FEATURES portion! Students will be given 2 maps. One to identify the countries and one to identify the physical features that will include the following: Sahara, Kalahari and Namib Deserts; the Great Rift Valley; Mt. Kenya, Mt. Kilamanjaro and the Atlas Mountains; the Nile, Orange, Niger, Zambezi and Congo/Zaire Rivers; Lake Chad, Lake Victoria and Lake Nyasa.
MONDAY we'll review the African history we covered before CRCT and begin with a History Mystery about African Trade.
TUESDAY students will learn about the African slave trade and read a primary source of one slave's experiences.
WEDNESDAY brings the MAP tests and DEAR. Students are currently working on their FINAL book report of the year in a mini-museum form. It is due on May 14.
THURSDAY topics include colonial rule and a short play; students will create a mind map of as they take notes.
FRIDAY we'll wrap up with a timeline of African history from as early as the 1600's that influenced the creation of apartheid and its eventual demise. We also have a crossword of African history terms.
NEXT WEEK: AFRICAN CULTURE!
Posted by Mrs. Glenn at 03:40 PM
CRCTs this week! We'll continue to study Africa and also review for Friday's Social Studies CRCT. Don't forget your online tests which should be taken by Wednesday. You should return a sheet signed by your parents.
Homework for this week is a cubing strategy-due Friday. Cubing is a great strategy to use when you are trying to help students understand a major concept. And, it's a great pre-writing activity should the teacher choose to assign a formal paper after the cubing exercise. In this instance, we're going to cube APARTHEID in Africa because it will most likely be covered on our Social Studies CRCT on Friday. Students will basically define apartheid, discuss the laws imposed and people involved in trying to fight this separateness for decades. They'll compare apartheid with other events throughout history which sought to divide rather than to unite and collaborate. They'll be reminded of lessons where civilizations flourished because leaders respected all people and focused on education and unity.
Here's a pdf on the strategy.
Download file
There are a number of examples in class that I will show the students. It's best done on a square tissue (Kleenex) box...(minus the tissue). Here are the prompts for our assignment.
Download file
NEXT MONDAY, April 23 students will have an African Map test. Test will include identifying the countries (not capitals), the Sahara, Namib, and Kalahari deserts, Sahel, Savanna. Seregenti Plain, Nile River, Mt. Kilamanjaro, Congo/Zaire River, Congo/Zaire Basin, Great Rift Valley, Atlas Mountains and Ethiopian Highlands.
In class we'll continue to work on CRCT review...this week with a PowerPoint and online games.
Students are demonstrating remarkable recall and understanding!
Posted by Mrs. Glenn at 08:36 AM
http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/lesson/lesson071.shtml
http://www.runet.edu/~geog-web/whatgeog.html
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/resources/ngo/education/themes.html
http://www.eduref.org/cgi-bin/printlessons.cgi/Virtual/Lessons/Social_Studies/Geography/GGR0011.html
http://www.peacecorps.gov/wws/guides/lithuania/lithgeothemes.html
Posted by Mrs. Glenn at 09:51 PM
Notes Below!
Continue reading "Japanese Economic Review"
Posted by Mrs. Glenn at 09:45 PM
History of Cartography
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/HistTopics/Cartography.html
Brief History of Maps and Cartography
http://academic.emporia.edu/aberjame/map/h_map/h_map.htm
Map and Globe Skills games
http://ssms.pasco.k12.fl.us/jaguars/_teams/_6h/_geography/_geo/geo_cur_mapskills.htm
Posted by Mrs. Glenn at 09:15 PM
Click here to listen to China's national anthem. Download file
China's geographical size, population, and spheres of cultural and political influence are too vast to be ignored. The People's Republic of China has the world's third largest land area and is the world's most populous nation. The various dialects of Chinese are spoken by more people than any other language, and Chinese culture has left an indelible imprint on East Asia and parts of Southeast Asia.
Chinese immigrants and their descendants have made substantial contributions to American society and culture. Chinese laborers participated in the construction of the transcontinental railroad which hastened the settlement of the American West. Chinese immigrants worked in mining operations in the West and on Southern plantations during Reconstruction. Chinese food has become as "American" as spaghetti or tacos. Today Chinese Americans are prominent in our culture. The works of Chinese American writers, have won critical acclaim and are consistently on best seller lists.
In an era in which we are coming to recognize the fact of global interdependence and the finite nature of the earth's resources, the complete integration of the PRC's one billion producer-consumers into the world economy poses a novel developmental challenge.
(ERIC Digest)
Posted by Mrs. Glenn at 07:00 PM | Comments (0)
Our study of India will highlight and showcase contributions the peoples of India have made in the arts and sciences. The geography of India will be taught in concert with its history. India is the largest country of the South Asian subcontinent. Its terrain, climate, and natural resources have greatly influenced conditions of life and development of cultures in the vast expanse of India. It is a nation with a multitude of cultural differences. Many Indians are descendants of Indo-European or Aryan peoples; Dravidians, or peoples of central Asian or southeast Asian backgrounds. In addition, a small number of modern European settlers call India their home. Students will explore India as an emerging nation in a complex, interdependent world community. ( ERIC Digest )
The study of the Indian subcontinent includes investigating Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
Posted by Mrs. Glenn at 07:00 PM | Comments (0)
The most important tip for studying history is to USE YOUR CORNELL NOTES!! Reflect on these questions...
Continue reading "Japanese History Review"
Posted by Mrs. Glenn at 02:23 PM
India Links
Mr. Dowling
http://www.mrdowling.com/612-caste.html
Posted by Mrs. Glenn at 01:03 PM
It's such fun to use online games. Try your hand at these geography games for fun! More to follow as I create and locate additional gaming opportunities! THIS IS A GREAT CRCT REVIEW!
The GIA Quia Webpage Games
ALL Africa Games
Geography Competition: Asia, Middle East, North Africa
Posted by Mrs. Glenn at 12:40 PM | Comments (0)
The International Date Line
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/docs/international_date.html
The Story of Longitude and Latitude
http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/geology/leveson/core/linksa/latlong_menu.html
NASA on Longitude and Latitude
http://pwg.gsfc.nasa.gov/stargaze/Slatlong.htm
Latitude and Longitude Crossword Puzzle
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/xwords/19990501.html
National Geographic: Crack the Code
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/activities/01/crackcode.html
How Latitude Changed the World
http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~feegi/index.html
Posted by Mrs. Glenn at 11:51 AM
Read more about the Japanese Government if you'd like....
http://www.kunaicho.go.jp/eindex.html
http://www.sangiin.go.jp/eng/index.htm
Questions to study for the GREAT JAPAN EXAM include...
Continue reading "Japanese Government Review"
Posted by Mrs. Glenn at 11:44 AM
Time and Chronology is a standard covered on the CRCT. Here's a review!
TIME ZONES:
Read About the History of Time Zones
http://physics.nist.gov/GenInt/Time/world.html
Check out Time Zones in the good old USA
http://www.time.gov/
How the Four US Time Zones Came to Be
http://www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/gilded/jb_gilded_timezone_1.html
Convert Time Zones
http://www.timezoneconverter.com/
Greenwich
http://http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/time-zone/
International Date Line
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/docs/international_date.html
The Debate over AD, BC, CE, and BCE
CE stands for "Common Era." It is a relatively new term that is experiencing increased usage and is eventually expected to replace AD. The latter is an abbreviation for "Anno Domini" in Latin or "the year of the Lord" in English. The latter refers to the approximate birth year of Yeshua of Nazareth (a.k.a. Jesus Christ). CE and AD have the same and value. 2004 CE = 2004 AD.
BCE stands for "Before the common era." It is eventually expected to replace BC, which means "Before Christ." BC and BCE are also identical in value. Most theologians and religious historians believe that the approximate birth date of Yeshua of Nazareth (Jesus) was in the fall, sometime between 7 and 4 BCE, although we have seen estimates as late as 4 CE and as early as the second century BCE.
Try this!
How many years in a DECADE? SCORE? CENTURY? MILLENNIUM?
Can you name FOUR synonyms for a period of time in history? (could be geological history, too!)
Posted by Mrs. Glenn at 11:03 AM
Click here to listen to Japanese folksongs
Download file
Download file
Read on...for more about what's in the culture section of your exam!
Continue reading "Japanese Culture Review"
Posted by Mrs. Glenn at 09:31 AM
Read about the geography of Japan at this link.
http://www.isop.ucla.edu/eas/japan/geography/geo1.htm
Use the five themes of geography to explain the cultural and physical geography of Japan. Read below:
Continue reading "Japanese Geography Review"
Posted by Mrs. Glenn at 09:14 AM
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