Trying to pick countries from each continent, Yanuell chose Brazil as his next country to research because of the Amazon rainforest and river. We began preparing his binder, cutting green construction paper and gluing on the page templates. Then, Yanuell researched and completed the quick facts page with information pertaining to location, population, government, religion, and economy. Finally, we compared the length and location of the two longest rivers in the world, the Nile and Amazon river.
Craig has shown an interest lately in Facebook in the news. Today I brought in news articles and an op ed piece from The Palm Beach Post and a Newsela article from the AP about Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook, and privacy. We discussed this in depth. Craig and I read together and annotated the text. Afterwards, we continued with "The Roosevelts" and learned about FDR and the New Deal, FDR and the press and the Supreme Court. We reviewed concepts learned last week and discussed Theodore Roosevelt's imperialistic leanings and his "big stick" policy. Finally, we reviewed U.S. government - the three branches and presidential powers, checks and balances, and the Supreme Court prior to completing the handout "Developing Criteria to Judge a President's Record in Foreign Affairs."
Arianna and I only had 10 minutes of class today, so we looked at the book, "How to be a Pirate." We also briefly looked at latitude and longitude on a map. I made hot chocolate for Arianna!
Henry continued with the lesson on the Southern colonies today. He watched a video on the southern colonies and learned about their cash crops, laborers, and industry. He compared and contrasted these colonies to the Middle and the New England colonies. He colored and labeled a map of all 13 colonies coloring the New England, Middle and Southern colonies different colors, and identifying which colonies were in which region.
Arianna and I had a productive class today! She has not forgotten a thing although we have not had social studies class in weeks. I quizzed her on new vocabulary from our last class and reading - fertile, tourist, barter, scribe, modern, agriculture. We finished reading "Mrs. Frizzle's Adventures in Ancient Egypt" and Arianna created a map, on her own, of Egypt, identifying the Red Sea, the Mediterannean, the country, the continent, the Nile, and all the surrounding oceans.
Charlie and I reviewed today, the rise and fall of the Roman Republic, the Roman Empire, Caesar, Augustus, Cincinnatus, bread and circuses, legionary, republic and latifundia. We discussed elements of government from ancient Rome that influenced American government. Charlie requested that we study Communism. I explained that it is a complex concept for 6th grade! He was insistent. He seems to understand it, so far, when we compare and contrast it to capitalism, especially. We discussed that it is an extreme version of socialism, also discussing Karl Marx and modern examples of social democracy like Bernie Sanders' campaign.
Craig and I continued with our study of the Presidency. We continued with Ken Burns' "The Roosevelts: An Intimate HIstory". We discussed the proverb Theodore Roosevelt admired, "Speak softly but carry a big stick" and his international policy, whether he was an Imperialist, and the Roosevelt corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. Craig made an effort to add more to the T-Chart with Presidential duties and responsibilities. We continued to watch the video about FDR.
Craig and I discussed collusion. We began a lesson on the Presidency by considering a day in the life of the President. We discussed the President's roles and responsibilities and watched a short video on the Kids' Democracy Project/ PBS. Craig chose to research two Presidents today - Trump and Reagan. We began watching "Ken Burns: The Roosevelts - The Evolution of the Presidency" which follows Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt and explains monopolies, talking softly, strikes, the New Deal, and the Supreme Court.
This morning we began with a Pebble Go video on the Statue of Liberty. We learned various facts about the statue. Danny then worked on his flip page activity for his Interactive Notebook. We worked on his sentence development and sounding out words together. Danny wrote that it came from France, is 300 feet tall, is for freedom, and it is in New York City. Danny colored the picture. We then reviewed and discussed all of the American Symbols we’ve covered. Next, we moved on to our next unit of study, Economics. We read, Ella Earns Her Own Money, by Lisa Bullard. Ella is a young girl who wants a soccer ball but her mother says she needs to buy it for herself. After reading the story of how she earns her own money through doing various chores, Danny and I created an anchor list for his Interactive Notebook. We wrote down chores that kids can do to earn money such as washing the dishes, cleaning out the car, taking out the garbage, and helping clean the garage. Finally, we worked in Danny’s Geography textbook. On the U.S. map, Danny found and colored all the states that start with the letter I. We read about cities. People live near each other in cities with houses near each other as well many services such as doctors, businesses, schools, and churches. We then looked at 8 pictures and determined which methods of transportation we would see in a city and which we would not.
