During our second hour of social studies today, Craig and I continued with U.S. history to learn about the Vietnam War. We discussed strategy - the Ho Chi Minh Trail - and policy - containing communism, the problem with a guerrilla Vietcong enemy, and the use of tactical herbicides to defoliate. We looked at the "Universal Declaration of Human Rights" promulgated by the United Nations and discussed the same. We watched a video on History.com to explain the Vietnam War. We also looked to maps to see why Cambodia and Laos were fragile neighbors. Craig was intersted in the elaborate tunneling the Vietcong accomplished to aid with surprise attacks and survival.
Craig and I reviewed ideas, events and concepts covered in our last class. We also looked at flashcards. We added new words to the word wall - de jure and de facto segregation and affirmative action. We discussed again HOMEWORK about the 1950s. We read in the text and followed the timeline through the 1950s and 60s, assassinations of JFK, MLK Jr., RFK, and Malcolm X. We will next begin learning about the Vietnam War.
Jayne continued her study of American Symbols. She read an informational text about Bald Eagles. She was able to summarize the information and tell me the main idea and key details in each section of the text. After learning about the Bald Eagle, Jayne took a quick comprehension assessment about her reading. She did quite well. Next, Jayne, created some bald eagle puppets. After completing the puppets, Jayne created a puppet show which restated the key facts about the Bald Eagle. Jane really enjoyed today's topic and did a fine job sharing the information she learned in her impromptu puppet show.
Yanuell and I continued his research on the different cultural aspects of China. Today, he filled in the quick facts page in his binder finding the population, capital, currency, leader, type of government, religion, and geographic location. While researching the land and climate, pollution was brought to Yanuell's attention. He found the ten most polluted cities in China, the causes, and images showing the smog. Then, he compared this list to the ten most polluted cities in the world. Finally, Yanuell printed and glued a map of China into his binder along with information about its climate and landforms.
Charlie created a 2D representation of the world from the Greek point of view, where Greece is the center of the universe, the world is flat, the river/ocean rotates around the circumference of the Earth, and the Mediterranean Sea is in the "middle of the lands." Afterwards, we discussed his mythology HOMEWORK, which is due Friday. Marcos joined us for Geography Trivia at the end of class.
Craig and I reviewed, to refresh his memory of where we left off in U.S. History a week ago. We also reviewed flashcards and vocabulary. I assigned HOMEWORK - to read pages 363 and 364 and answer questions about the culture of the 1950s. We read in the text together, looked at illustrations, and a BrainPop video to learn more about the cold war, the civil rights movement, JFK, MLK, the Cuban missile crisis and culture of the 1950s. We discussed Brown vs. the Board of Education and changes that came thereafter. We also discussed Freedom Summer, boycotts, sit-ins, and freedom rides.
We had 30 minutes this morning, so Arianna and I continued with the Superbook episode "Let my People Go!" We discussed Egypt, the slaves, and the Red Sea. We also reviewed the new vocabulary word "pharaoh."
