End of the year Survey - May 28th

I told you the year would go by fast! I hope you have a great summer! You have been an awesome class to teach! Every one of you has a bright future!

The Great Colonial EC Challenge!

The Extra Credit Opportunity available to you is to take a test covering the original 13 colonies and their distinct differences and characteristics. Remember a score of 80% or more is needed to earn any extra credit.Reviewing the information below will help you prepare!

1. Be able to identify the original 13 colonies, their location and by region, and the major cities of the colonial era.(map from class will help with this)

2. The New England Colonies (pages 109-113)

3. The Middle Colonies (pages 114-118)

4. The Southern Colonies (pages 119-123)

5. The Backcountry (the frontier) pages 126-129.

Early English Settlements Test is Tuesday, 4/15

Here is a practice M/C quiz for you - 10 questions for now...more to come!

Take my online quiz

The Great Age of European Exporation Studyblog 2008

Okay, I have tried to put together a studyblog full of ways that you can help prepare yourself for the Great Age of European Exploration Test this Wednesday, March 12th. Check it out! Here is a link to a multiple choice quiz about the Explorers and Conquistadors that you will need to know for the test.

Take my online quiz

So Why Did They Come? How and Why the Great Age of Exploration Begins - !
Voicethread about the Spanish Empire in the New World - you may need to turn the volume up on this one - plus there is a pause at the beginning but the audio is there

February 28, 2008

Cate Ziegler - how are you?

I just wanted to update you on a couple of things. I hope it didn't make you all nervous down there when the blog started to change a little bit. I needed to create some things for studying for the First Americans Test as well as for some days I was out of town.

We started a new unit on the Great Age of Exploration. Last Monday, students chose one of the more well-known explorers to use for our upcoming Social Gathering (scheduled for next week). Let me know when you are ready and I will let you choose an explorer. The students answered some questions and other things for their explorer. The questions are located below in the blog entry for that day. Once again, let me know when you are ready and I will help you with this.

Tuesday the students read an article about a Chinese sea-captain that historians are starting to call the Chinese Columbus. I want you to read this article and I will fax one down. Or, have you already seen it?

Wednesday I returned and started the unit in earnest. I began by showing the students the very well known oddysey of Francisco Vasquez de Coronado - we discussed his story and I explained why we are doing this unit. Basically, without the Great Age of Exploration there never will be a United States of America. Then we talked about who really discovered America. We had a discussion about Columbus, Zheng He (that Chinese Sea-Captain), the Vikings, and other possibilities through out history. For example - Roman coins were found in an Indian mound in Texas. The mound dated to about 800 A.D. How did those coins get there?

Thursday, today, there was a lot I had to share with the students today. We discussed the homework assignment - Europe in the 15th Century - from the history book. I used a power point and some video to help me with the lesson. I will send these on in an email to Jemi soon.

Okay, let me know if you have any questions.

Zheng He - the Great Chinese Admiral - 70 years before Columbus

Trailer for the award-winning documentary on Zheng He.

Monday, February 26th

Okay everyone, we are beginning a new unit today - the Great Age of European Exploration. Starting with some curious individuals in the 15th century it will lead to people coming over to what is now the United States. These early colonists and adventurers will help begin settlements that will one day grow into the United States of America. It will be a very long journey. I am sorry I can't be with you today and I won't be until this Wednesday. For today though you can get started on an important mini-research activity that will end with you in costume. I will explain later. Ms. Kidd will help you select the name of one of these early explorers. Once you have your explorer go ahead and get started.

Follow these directions:

Open up a new word document on your desktop.
Copy and paste the questions below to the word document.
Begin to research the answers to these questions.
When complete - save the document to a folder with your name on it.
Go to MS GROUP and place this folder into the GREAT EXPLORERS folder (in your class period).

THE QUESTIONS:

What is the name of your famous explorer?
What is his nationality? (where was he born)
What was he exploring or looking for?
What did he find?
How many voyages did he make?
What became of your famous explorer? (did he die? worshipped as a hero? etc...)
What is the major accomplishment he is remembered for?
Copy and Paste at least one picture of your explorer on the word doc.
Copy and Paste at least one map of the voyages or places explored on the word doc.

THESE LINKS (right hand side of this blog) WILL HELP YOU COMPLETE THIS TASK. Browse for your explorer. Good luck and see you Wednesday. Questions? email me at bmarkwald@usmk12.org

The First Americans Test is Friday, Feb. 22nd

This page will help you with preparing for the test this Friday. By no means is this all you need to do to study but it will help. You will find different vokis, voicethreads, and video to help you remember the important stuff!

The Migration Theories Voicethread - help review the theories


Check out the video on Cahokia below - it will help you understand it better.


The Iroquois Great Law of Peace!

Feb. 14th and Feb. 19th

Afternoon Cate,

Last Thursday, Feb. 14th, the students were in the computer lab for the final time working on their Native American Story Books. These are due on Wed. Feb. 20th.

Tuesday, Feb. 19th, I started class with final directions of what to do to finish the storybooks. Then we began our last topic for this introductory First Americans unit. We are discussing and learning about the Hau de no sau nee or the Iroquois as they are also known. We are reading a handout in class about their contributions to our society. I will send this down with the questions they are discussing. Okay, let me know if you have any questions.

Feb 7th, Feb 8th, Feb 11, Feb 12, AND FEB 13TH!!

Hi Cate,

Things have been crazy around here since last Wednesday's snow day. Here is a brief summary of what we did in class the last four days:

Thursday, Feb. 7 - In the computer lab, I introduced the students to the Native American Story Book project. We looked at the guidelines, examples, and they chose stories to read.

Friday, Feb. 8 - In the lab working on the stories. I will talk to Jemi about the Story Book Project.

Monday, Feb 11th - Mr. Paul Salerno came to our room to present his stories about working on the Sioux (Lakota) indian reservation in South Dakota. He brought props and told his stories.

Tuesday, Feb. 12th - (I was home sick with a little girl). Students went to the lab and worked on the stories.

Wednesday, Feb. 13 - We spent today discussing the two civilizations that we are examining that existed before the United States came into existence. We reviewed the Anasazi virtual tour and made sure everyone had the right information. Then we learned about the moundbuilding culture that once existed primarily EAST of the Mississippi river. We discussed the story Journey to Cahokia. They took a Journey to Cahokia reading quiz. We looked at examples of mounds on a power point. Add this information to the back side of your Anasazi notes/tour: The Mound Builders! Location: Primarily EAST of the Mississippi River. 1000's and 1000's of mounds built for reasons that are now lost. 3 types of Mounds are found - 1. Effigy mounds - made to be in the shape or "likeness" of something i.e. birds, animals, people, 2. Burial mounds (self-explanatory), and 3. Mounds constructed for religious purposes. Largest mound pyramid in the world is at Cahokia, Illinois. Cahokia was a great mound city which had influence all over the region. Wisconsin is the state that contains the most mounds that remain today - over 4,000. They are all over the place.

Check out the video on Cahokia below - it will help you understand it better.

Wednesday, February 6th

Snow day today!!!

Friday, Feb 1, Monday Feb. 4, and Tuesday Feb. 5

Afternoon Cate,

Okay, let me break it down like this:

Friday, Feb. 1 - We discussed the homework from the book reading (pages 27-29). Big discussion about what I learned in 7th grade history - The Bering Land Bridge Theory. Using the smartboard I gave them a visual look at what the Bering Land Bridge Theory is all about. BUT, I then said that there were new ideas about the origins of Native Americans begin discussed now. The students then watched 20 minutes of a NOVA video called the Mystery of the First Americans. I will send this video down to Jemi. No notes with it - just watch and get freaked out!

Monday, Feb. 4. - Okay, we continued our discussion about the Origins of the First Americans by reviewing from Friday. We reviewed the Bering Land Bridge theory (also called the Clovis Theory/People) and talked about Kennewick Man from the video WITH emphasis on the difference of his skull shape to those of Ancient Native Americans. Where did this guy come from? So, this was a lead in to reading an article on the different migration theories that are HOTLY debated by scientists today. I will fax down the handout. BUT, I wouldn't do this until after watching the NOVA video.

Tuesday, Feb. 5 - We were in the lab today. We had a binder check. I would like to see your maps Caitlin - the political and physical maps? Students got on the computers and we began a look at two different early American Indian civilizations - The Anasazi and the Mound Builders. Today we focused on the Anasazi or "Ancient Ones" also known as the "Cliff Dwellers". Visit the our class website and go to American History 2008 - First Americans - and find the link to the anasazi and mound builders 2008. Students also did a virtual tour of the Anasazi by going to the website (same as above) and clicking on Anasazi Virtual Tour. I will include the work for this. I saw your email for the story you are choosing that is fine unless you want to choose another. There is time yet to choose.

January 31, 2008 - Begin the First Americans

Afternoon Cate,

Today we started our new unit - The First Americans. I began by explaining my philosophy of teaching history - thru the use of telling stories. I shared two stories with the students. Each story represented a term they should know. I told a story about a mermaid as an example of a primary source (eyewitness account - person or artifact was there at the time of the event). You can read the story at
Next I shared a story from the book I wrote about my Grandfather. I used this as an example of a secondary source (2nd hand account - the person or artifact was not there at the time of the event).

Okay, then we began to talk about the First Americans. Students learned about the meaning of the word - Pre-Columbian (before Columbus). To start learning about American History you have to start at the beginning - before we were a country. We talked about the people that were here before. The students did a journal entry in which they answered three questions 1. What is an indian? 2. Where does the word indian come from? 3. When you hear the word "indian" what comes to mind? After they wrote answers we discussed there responses. For number 1. Students have an idea that indian refers to people that are indigenous to this country, there roots go back before Europeans, Africans, and Asians came here. For number 2. Indian comes from the mistake made by Columbus when he thought he was near the Indies islands off the coast of the Asian mainland. It is a word that has stuck for good and bad. For #3 - students gave a variety of answers most of them pretty stereotypical and they agreed that A. they don't know much about native americans and B. what they do know comes from TV, movies, and sports...

After all of our discussions I showed them what we will be doing in this unit and had them write down SO, WHAT DO YOU THINK NATIVE AMERICANS REALLY WANT? and they copied A. Respect, B. a chance to have culture celebrated and understood, and C. the opportunity to have their history learned alongside the rest of American history.

That's it - here is the reading and homework for tomorrow!

January 29th and January 30th! End of Geography unit!

Hi Cate,

On Tuesday, Jan. 29 we had the Great Geography Challenge to review for the test on Wed. Students were put into three teams. There were five events - these events were various map trivia games and use of the salt dough maps (and a buzzer round). It was fun and highly competitive in some classes!

Today, Wed. Jan. 30th - Big Geography Test! I faxed it down to Jemi. Good luck! Tomorrow we begin U.S. History.

January 28th, 2008

Hi Cate,

Today the students made salt maps of the United States to see how well they knew the basic physical features of the United States. This took most of the time in class. Tomorrow we have a Geography Challenge. Good luck on the test. Let me know what else I can do to help!

January 23 and January 24, 2008

Hi Cate,

How are things going down there? I don't want you to worry too much about taking the map quizzes that the students have done here. Right now the most important things are completing the maps (Political and Physical) and focusing on the notes that I am sending down to you. I will be sending the notes for the Southeast and Northeast parts of the U.S. soon. The Big Geography test is coming up on Wednesday, January 30th. The test covers all 50 states and capitals, major physical geography of the U.S. (from your maps) and info from the notes.

Yesterday and today we covered the final leg of our whirlwind tour of the U.S. We viewed the CD-Roms for the southeastern and northeastern parts of our country. We practiced our map knowledge on different maps on the smart board. The students took their last two map quizzes. This coming Monday we will make salt dough maps in class. Tuesday is a massive geo competition day with lots of different games in preparation for Wednesday's test. After this unit it will be easier to follow along with what we are doing in class.

January 21nd and 22nd

Hi Cate,

January 21st was Martin Luther King Jr. Day. We had a number of activities to celebrate the day. So, no class stuff today.

Today is January 22nd, today is a special schedule day because of the chorus concert. So, all we did was discuss the three map quizzes we did so far. We continued our tour of the United States by looking at the Midwest region. We also spend some time at the Smart Board using the markers to identify certain areas. I will put together a packet of the notes we have done so far. I will also send Jemi the three map quizzes we have done too. This will all be done later today.

Mr. M

January 17th and 18th, 2008

Hi Cate,

Yesterday and today we continued our tour of the United States. We watched a segment on a CD-Rom about the western states (Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada)and took notes. I was not able to do what you suggested in the email regarding putting the CD-Rom on a media player and sending it to you. I will look into it with Mr. Montagne. Students took Map Quiz #2. Today we had Map Quiz #3 on the Midwest/Great Plains states. We also did a playdough geographic activity. Using a cut-out shape of the United States, students made mountains, rivers, lakes, deserts and valleys out of playdough and attempted to put them in the right locations on the map. It was fun. Have a nice weekend!

January 16, 2008

We began today with a tour of Mr. M's updated website. The U.S. Geography page is located on the American History 2008 page. Let me know if you have trouble finding it.

Students practiced some of the geography of the Pacific States on the Smartboard in class. Mr. M asked questions and they approached the board to circle or label items.

Then we finished our notes about the Pacific States. Mr. M answered questions. Then it was time for the quiz. Quizzes will be returned tomorrow. Homework for the western states is on the homework site. Talk to you tomorrow!