Weeks Four and Five:
Whoops I forgot my weekly newsletter last week! I apologize, I wasn't feeling well! We have had a great past couple of weeks! We have done a research project on Constantine's most trusted advisers, a talk show, a brochure, and we are beginning the Schism between East and West in the Byzantine Empire! Though this week was a short week, it was jammed back with learning! Week Three:
This week we dove into the world of Rome, the Byzantine Empire and Constantinople! We created advertisements for why people would want to live in Rome and played a simulation game of a market in Constantinople. I have to admit the game was rigged. It was rigged to show students why people back then would have gone there to trade instead of trading with other countries. Students were certainly bummed to find out that they weren't going to win from the beginning, except for those lucky few who got the number six and went to that group. We finished the week on a more somber note, we discussed 9/11. I explained what it was like to live through that day and how important it is to remember those who lost their lives on that fateful day. We will be getting back to Medieval History next week! Week Two: We survived our second week! We finished up our mini unit on geography and took a quiz on it. I am fairly confident everyone did exceedingly well, we had a lot of practice to get us there! We created our own worlds and incorporated the map elements to it. Definitely some creative minds out there, we had everything from a world on a crab to a donut island... some of them made me really hungry! We also started finally learning some history! We started with the lead up to the Fall of Rome by moving around in some stations. Tonight for homework we are finishing our RAFT assignments we started in class. They get to pick which assignment they want to do and apply what they learned to it! I cannot wait to see what they bring in on Tuesday! Have a wonderful Labor Day weekend. If you are going to the beach stay dry from the storm and have fun!
Week One:
Wow! What a great week! We have a wonderful 7th grade class! This week we had some great ice breaker activities such as "Whoo Are You??" and "Bamboozled Felix Edition"! We got to know our new classmates and learned a little bit about each other. We also started learning some geography. We learned all the terms for how to read a map and then made a booklet for an easy study guide. We have a couple of class periods that are a little too chatty, but overall we have some great classes! |