Tuesday, April 10th

Puritan Day in Court:

• We began with a discussion and review of Puritan history in the Massachusetts Bay Colony and New England. Mr. M referenced the handout they highlighted from the night before. 
• We then moved to talk about the first major war in American history - King Phillip's War. Students watched part of the video (We Shall Remain) from the night before and completed a handout. 
• Puritan Day in Court - three students were accused of crimes against their Puritan community and the trial was on!

Monday, April 9th

Welcome Back! Today our agenda was:

• 1. Quick Reminder/Review with Mr. M on what we have covered so far during this unit titled: The Foundation of E Pluribus Unum
• 2. Discussion about the video clips from "Desperate Crossing" from last weekend and some Amazing "Coincidences" or Miracles (?) involving the Separatists and their story...
• 3. Introduce the Puritans. Mr. M gave out a handout of a brief Puritan history. Students are highlighting the important information from a list Mr. M gave them. Also, Mr. M helped some of our "criminals" prepare for their Puritan Day in Court tomorrow.

Puritan punishment - the "stocks"

Thursday, April 5th

Okay, today our agenda was:

• Review the lesson from the night before (background videos on the Separatists). Mr. M asked what questions the students may have had. 
• After reviewing the story of the Separatists, Mr. M focused on the decision facing the pilgrim group when they found themselves off of Cape Cod instead of Northern Virginia. The result was the Mayflower Compact.
• Students spent some time working together to translate the language of the Mayflower Compact into simple to understand words. 
• Finally, Mr. M showed the first clip from Desperate Journey: The Untold Story of the Mayflower. Students will watch the other two over the weekend.

Wednesday, April 4th

Today we completed our look at Jamestown, Virginia and began our story of the Separatists as well. Here was our agenda:

• Mr.M began by wrapping up/reviewing the Jamestown Story. We also reviewed the homework questions from two nights ago - Jamestown and Werowocomoco.
• To complete the look at Jamestown, Mr.M talked about dead people....umm, the remains of the colonists at Jamestown. They are everywhere at the site. Bones have stories to tell, too. They are a great way to show how harrowing and dangerous life in the early 17th century was especially at a place like Jamestown. 
• Then Mr. M introduced the Story of the Separatists as we began our look at the final English settlement we will learn in this class - Plymouth, Massachusetts. Mr. M explained the background story on where the word "Separatists" comes from, who these people were, and why they were hated.

Thanks for visiting Jamestown!

Tuesday, April 3rd, 2012

Happy Tuesday, today our agenda was:

• Mr. M started class by collecting the rubric goals for the third quarter.
• Then we hit the main topic of the day - The Jamestown Story (using the storybooks created the day before). Students took turns sharing their part of the story. Mr. M added info where needed.
• During this discussion of the story of Jamestown, Mr. M infused questions from the lesson sent home the night before.

Monday, April 2nd, 2012

Welcome Back from Spring Break!!

Today we returned to our story of Jamestown! The agenda looked something like this:

• Began by letting students tell of visits they may have made to historic places over break.
• Got organized for the start of the 4th quarter!
• Mr. M introduced the main activity of the day - the Story of Jamestown. Each student was given a small part of the story. Then, they were to retell that part of the story using any graphics/images they wanted. Mr. M collected their stories (placed on small sheets of paper) to turn into our own Jamestown Graphic Novel. Tomorrow we will share these.

Friday, March 16th

The Last Day Before Spring Break!

Today our plan was:

• Learn about the birthplace of American history - Jamestown, Virginia (1607)
• Jamestown is a massive archaeological site - we focused on archaeology - what is archaeology? what are archaeologists looking for?
• Students then looked at an example "dig" in the classroom. They identified the different features and artifacts in the "dig" and determined who might have lived at the site.

Have a nice break!