Fever 1793 Character Trait Posters

We have been hard at work on the story of Fever, 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson!

 Grandfather

 Eliza

 Matilda

Mother

Roanoke, The Lost Colony

In Language Arts class we are beginning a new writing assignment based on the story, Roanoke The Lost Colony An Unsolved Mystery From History. The book is written by Jane Yolen.

Today in class we watched a video and visited a website which gave us additional information, and at sometimes, conflicting information to what we already thought we knew.  I have included the two links so that students can do some additional research if they would like.

http://history.howstuffworks.com/american-history/roanoke-colony.htm

http://www.history.com/videos/mystery-roanoke#mystery-roanoke

We will begin the actual writing piece next week.

"March"ing Through the School Year

Top-O-The Mornin to ya!

In language arts we continue to discuss adjectives and have moved into the trait of Word Choice. It is one of my favorites because the kids really begin to play with words and try and come up with all kinds of spicy words to excite their writing.  Please ask your kids about their decorated words, and look early next week for pictures.  Also please practice  synonyms, antonyms and homonyms with them as we will be moving to that next.  We will have a couple of big writing projects with this unit, and details on those will follow.

In social studies, we continue to study explorers, we are however, at the same time, beginning to move into colonization as the two are so closely entwined. We finished our simulation and I am happy to report that I only had a few students die of typhus or scurvy, and although some got blown off course, all eventually found their way back to Spain or Portugal successfully.

In reading, we are still reading Fever, 1793. If you haven't spoken with your child about the book, please do so.  It is a great story that works well with our science curriculum.

Look next week for pictures!

Social Studies Happenings!

Currently we are completing our Explorer Simulation. To date we have had two explorers die; we currently have three with Scurvy and one with Dysenterty. Our three crews, two sailing for Portugal, and one for Spain have encountered some hardships, including being blown severely off course, and having their supplies go bad. They have been sailing for several weeks, and are keeping a log of their progress.

Additionally we have watched some fun videos, they are kind of corny, but they are fun.  Parents may especially enjoy the Christopher Columbus one as it will bring  you back to the days when we could only watch cartoons on Saturday morning. Please see the links below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQzBJDoRDsc Christopher Columbus

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwzoH2a-E4A A serious video about Magellan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pM-igYjn6E4 Th Animaniacs Ballad of Magellan

Also check out the free iPad App, Crazy Columbus!

Cancellation Day Activities!

Please be sure to download day one of the cancellation day activities. If students complete the work we will not have to make the day up at the end of the year!

Completed Marco Polo Map

For those of you who are out, or didn't get to finish it in class, please refer to the previous post for the interactive video, but here are a couple of photo's of the completed project.

Explorer Videos

Check out these videos as we learn about Explorers.

http://www.eduplace.com/kids/socsci/books/applications/imaps/maps/g2_u5/index.html an interactive video about Marco Polo's travels.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzFq0Ivwz9g Zheng He
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jL2z2VCg5fw de Gama
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQzBJDoRDsc Christopher Columbus

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwzoH2a-E4A Magellan