History of Halloween

Interested in the history of Halloween? Take a look at this video from the History Channel!

http://www.history.com/video.do?name=halloween

Colonial Diversity

Today we are looking at diversity in the English Colonies. Each student will choose to research
one of the following: New England Colonies; Middle Colonies; or the Southern Colonies. There is a chart to use in order to collect information:
http://ericir.syr.edu/Virtual/Lessons/crossroads/sec4/Unit_3/Unit_IIIQ4R1.html

Some sites that might help your research:

http://www.east-buc.k12.ia.us/00_01/CA/home.htm

http://www.kknfa.org/Religion_13Colonies.htm

http://cybersleuth-kids.com/americanhistory/chapter2/middlecolonies.htm
http://www.kidinfo.com/american_history/colonization_ne_colonies.html
http://www.kidinfo.com/american_history/colonization_s_colonies.html

Thursday, October 28, 2009

Today students categorized their colonial occupations as: upper sort; middlin sort; and lower sort. The second step was to place themselves in social rankings in colonial times. The English colonists came from a monarchic society. They were born into a particular order of society. Opportunities were limited to that social order. We then watched a film about Benjamin Franklin who managed to move up the ladder of success even in that monarchic system. In America opportunity was there for those who were willing to work hard.....

To learn more about Ben Franklin, click on the following link:

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=1215742n

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Today each student received a colonial occupation....
1) Describe occupation
2) Explain why that person is important to the colony
3) Justify your person as upper sort; middlin sort; or lower sort
You will need to do a little research, the links below might help!

http://legendsprings.dvusd.org/colonial_occupations.htm

http://www.history.org/Almanack/life/trades/tradehdr.cfm

http://colonial-america.suite101.com/article.cfm/colonial_occupations_in_early_american_history

Farmers: http://www.history.org/Almanack/life/trades/traderural.cfm
Planters: http://www.historypoint.org/education/teaching/history_backyard/tobacco_slavery_virginia_colonies.asp

Colonial Life

Today we "re-wrote" the Mayflower Compact. Hopefully, we learned a little about the people who signed it. For instance, only men signed the document because women were economically dependent on their husbands; Some of the men signed their name with "Mr." because they were considered gentlemen rather than commoners; and perhaps they lived in a perfect world where there were no rules for spelling, capitalization, and punctuation.

Brand New!!!

Welcome to my blog. During the second quarter this year, students and parents should be able to follow assignments, go to important links, watch videos for class, and even play games for social studies skill building!