Charlie and I reviewed what we covered last week prior to his illness - our research and study of Alaska and some new vocabulary. We followed an online lesson exploring ancient civilizations and various projects that Charlie can complete to further his understanding - Greek painted pottery, Chinese dragons, plays - "The Illiad" and "The Odyssey", and simulated travel along the silk road. Afterwards, I introduced our new Greek mythology unit and we discussed words we use today that allude to mythological characters. We looked to illustrated flashcards that Charlie will use for an interactive notebook. We learned about characters that we will study next week when we begin reading the actual myths. This is a good way to incorporate language arts and graphic arts into his social studies lessons. He completed HOMEWORK and showed me via Skype the completed assignment, which he will bring in on Monday.
Henry began with a current event today. He chose an article on the dwarf African crocodile and learned about how it is evolving into a new species. He also did a lesson on the Lost Colony of Roanoke. We read an article on how the colony was formed before Jamestown and Plymouth but did not survive and learned about the theories on what happened to the settlers. He watched a video on the mystery surrounding the Lost Colony.
Arianna and I learned about the ancient Aztecs and their calendar sundial. We looked at the different symbols they used for days and how to make a sundial. We read about Presidential pets. Arianna chose Theodore Roosevelt and we researched to learn he had many many pets - more than any other President - a lizard, a macaw, a pig, a pony, and more. Arianna chose to write about his pony on her 3D display of the White House. We quickly discussed money. Arianna has been working on counting money and learning about equivalent amounts of coins and paper currency.
This afternoon, we reviewed the Florida Studies Weekly lesson on Presidents and Patriots. We briefly discussed each person and their role in history. We worked in the related activity packet for follow-up activities. We chose “flag” as our target vocabulary word for this task. Danny drew a picture of the flag and we discussed the meaning. Danny then wrote a sentence using the word, “The flag is big.” We labeled each of our American heroes in the packet as president or patriot. Additionally, we studied the map of the thirteen colonies and discussed how different the map was back when George Washington was president. From this lesson we focused on these main facts: George Washington was the first president and did not live in the White House, John Adams was the second president, and Thomas Jefferson was the third president. We enjoyed reading a fun story by Marc Brown, entitled Arthur Meets the President. The class took a trip to Washington D.C. as Arthur won a writing contest. They visited various locations in DC. In continuing with our study of the Winter Olympics, we watched some video of the sporting event alpine skiing, biathlon, bobsleigh, and skeleton. We updated the medal counts for the ten countries we’ve been tracking and Danny did a nice job to scan the list to match up the country name online with the country name on our paper. He also reviewed his 4 vocabulary concepts for this unit (stadium, Olympic torch, mascots, and Pyeongchang, South Korea). We wrapped up the day with a Time for Kids magazine entitled, Going for Gold. This colorful magazine featured facts about this year’s Olympics including the dates they are being held (February 9 – 25), the location, the torch relay that lasted 109 days, and pictures of the three types of medals the athletes can win. The medals have a texture like tree bark. They were designed to look that way as trees symbolize hard work. Danny was tasked with drawing a picture of himself competing in any event. He drew himself snowboarding in the half-pipe!
Today we watched a TedEd video about the Cuban missile crisis and answered comprehension questions afterwards. We discussed the containment of communism terms used in the telling of this history. We revisited the timeline - the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion, the blockade, and the supplying of missiles by the U.S.S.R to Cuba. We next looked to History.com and a video about the civil rights movement and the march on Washington. We discussed the timeline of historical events.
Henry continued the lesson in the Columbian Exchange. We read an article on the Columbian exchange and how it effected Europeans as well as Native Americans. He watched a Brain Pop Video on it and took a quiz where he scored a 90%. He did a cut and paste activity where he cut out items and had to determine whether they came from the Old World or the New World and put them on the correct side of the map.
In Social Studies, we continued our discussions on the Winter Olympics. We updated the medal counts on the 10 countries we’ve been following. We compared the changes and the medal differences among them. Danny finished adding to his visual dictionary for this project by learning that mascots are things or animals that symbolize a sporting event. We read that Soohorang is the white tiger mascot for the PyeongChang games. We went on to read that: The tiger has been a familiar figure in Korean folk tales as a symbol of trust, strength and protection. In mythology, the white tiger was viewed as a guardian that helped protect the country and its people. The mascot’s color also evokes its connection to the snow and ice of winter sports. The name “Soohorang” has additional significance. “Sooho,” the Korean word for “protection”, alludes to the protection of athletes, spectators and other Games participants. We enjoyed watching videos of the Olympic events of ski jumping, snowboarding, and speed skating. To tie into the Olympics, we skipped ahead in our historical fiction Magic Tree House series to book 16, Hour of the Olympics, by Mary Pope Osborne. We read the prologue to catch up and then read chapter 1 about traveling to ancient Greece! We found Greece on our world map. Danny added to the February page of his month of the year / seasons booklet that is in progress. Danny colored the heart that was given and then we added the Olympic Rings for his personal drawing. In light of President’s Day, we began a Florida Studies Weekly packet on Presidents and Patriots. We read that presidents are leaders of our country and that patriots love their country. We read about George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Betsy Ross, Crispus Attucks, and Sequoyah (the Cherokee Indian who developed an alphabet for their language). We also read about the song Yankee Doodle, which was originally written by the British to offend the Americans. The song was reworded and has become an American patriotic song. Danny enjoyed listening to it!
Craig and I discussed international relations and the changed policy of containment, the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan. We learned about the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile Crisis. We created new flashcards for each.
