Thursday, February 26, 2009

World Studies (Thursday Activity)

Choose five countries from the list of fourteen I gave you in class. Complete the worksheet and hand it in by the end of the period.

All of the links you need to find the answers are here:


South Africa:

Have you seen these classroom photos?
More classroom photos on the school website:

Sunday, February 22, 2009

February 23-27

World Studies:
"Diversity Toss" Activity: Each student will need five index cards. One card will contain each child's name, one card- race, one card- religion or no religion, one card- gender and one card- something special/unique about the child such as skill, personality characteristic, etc. Break the kids into small groups. In their small groups, kids will take turns "tossing" one card at a time into a center pile. They are asked to pretend they must give up one thing about themselves until they are left with one thing remaining. This is what they view as the most important aspect of themselves. As each child tosses a card into the center, he or she may choose to briefly discuss why they chose to "give up" this card before other cards. After the entire group is left with one card each, they should discuss why their remaining card represents what is most important about him or herself. Once the small groups are finished with their discussions, hold a large group discussion sharing results. Ask the kids what they thought the purpose of this activity was. Discuss briefly.
Teaching Tolerance Lesson:

World Map, Africa Map and Asia Map Activities this week.
Thursday: Lab Day

U.S. History:
Criteria for granting cert
"Tootsie the Goldfish Activity"
"Ball Toss Review Game"
Methods of Interpretation
Articles IV-VII
"Snow Ball Review Game" (Version of "Literary Snow Ball Activity")
(Working in groups of three of four, formulate a challenging question from today's lesson. Write your question on a piece of paper and crumple into a ball. Throw your "snow ball" to another group. Each group has one minute to come up with the correct answer. Write the answer on the paper. After time is called, draw a line under your answer and throw the paper to a new group and repeat. If the new group agrees with the answer written above, simply write "agree." If they disagree, write the correct answer.)
Thursday: Word Search
Friday: Begin the Bill of Rights

Writing Lab
Marley: A Dog Like No Other (Read two chapters a day. Complete "Five "W's and an "H" Worksheet)
MANY excellent ideas for book discussions:
Fun ideas for kids:
Two cool activity ideas:
Literary Snowballs: This is actually a lot of fun. Divide into 2 teams on either side of the room. Hand everyone an 8 ½ x 11 sheet of paper on which to write a question from the book. Crumple the sheets into “snowballs” and, at a signal, throw them across the room to the other team. The team who correctly answers the most snowball questions wins. (The question writer on the other team must agree to the answer.) Scoring: 2 points for answering the question; 1 point for posing a question the other team can’t answer.
Whose Line Is It Anyway? Chose someone to read quotes by or about various characters — from the current book or past book selections. Members try to guess who said what and when. If you want, divide into teams and keep score.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Helping Mothers and Babies

Monday, February 2, 2009

Autism Resources

CNN Specials:

Hunger in America

Looking for extra credit opportunities? Watch one of the video clips linked below and share your comments. In your comment, briefly discuss what the clip was about. How did it make you feel? Is there anything you can do about this issue? If so, what will you do?

Post your comments here or on a piece of notebook paper. Include the name and date of this post if you are handing in your comments. Five points extra credit.

What can you do?

CBS News story "Blessings in a Backpack" Video link and story:
CNN Story: