Medieval Feast

Today is our medieval feast! The kids helped decorate the classroom with hanging "tapestries" (table clothes) and a tower next to our door. The students are bringing historically accurate food for the feast, from ham and cheese, to sparkling grape juice and fruit. Earlier this week we learned about table manners of medieval Europe, what medieval Europeans ate as well as how they dressed. Some of the resources I used are posted below. The kids chose a king and queen as well as other, lesser roles, such as lords, ladies, princesses, and princes, we even have a few serfs. The students chose their roles. The roles they have chosen will determine where they sit at our feast, with the king and queen sitting directly in the middle. During the feast we will be using silver plates, cups and spoons (no forks!). We will also enjoy some medieval music by The Kings Singers who made music for the enjoyment of King Henry VIII.

Medieval Feasting: Hands on History

The Kings Singers

An Evening With the Tudors. A How-To

End of the Year Medieval Dinner Party

I would love love LOVE to throw a Medieval Dinner Party during the last week of school as a way to celebrate the year as well as end the unit on Europe in the Middle Ages with a bang.

I am currently brainstorming what I would like this party to look like.  I have found costume ideas, food, and a lesson on manners during the middle ages found on TPT. I have been thinking about maybe having games as well, that will depend on how long the dinner takes.

I would like to make this a sort of end of the year project, where students have to research how each social class lived, including how they dressed, where they lived, and what they ate. I was thinking of sectioning the students off into each social class, but we will see. I am so excited! I feel like my mind is going a mile a minute! I LOVE learning about the Middle Ages and I am so excited to share my love of it with my students. I want to make this something the kids will never forget!

Other useful resources:
Fonts to use for invitations.

Design your own crest. (for classroom decorations)

Some books to read as a class.

Coat of Arms; meaning of colors and symbols

Illuminated Letters

presentation of medieval art, music, and coat of arms

Types of Government Project

Before we start the economics project, I have decided to take a week and focus on types of government. I have placed the students into groups and have allowed them to choose their government type (if there was a dispute they paper, rock, scissored for it). I gave them a rubric and an overview on the first day, then they got to work brain storming. The projects they are coming up with are fantastic! One group is going to do a mock election for democracy. Another group is going to dress as a queen and princess to present monarchy.

Types of Government Project

Name______________________________________     Date_____

Members of Group_________________________________________________________________________

Type of Government _________________________

Overview

You will be placed in a group of 6 students to work on a project to further our understanding on different types of government. We have learned about four types; monarchy, dictatorship, democracy and theocracy. Each student in the group must participate in the project or their grade will be harmed. The rubric below states everything needed to get full credit. Everyday you will explain to me what your group worked on in order for me to give you participation points for that day. You must be sure to complete the daily progress sheet and turn it into the tray to get the credit.

Rubric

**** Bonus**** 3 extra points for dressing up

_____  /5 Include name of government.

_____  /5 Who rules in your type of government?

_____ /5  How do they get their authority?

____   /5  What are the limits on governmental authority and the rights of citizens?

____  /5   Give an example of your type of government.

____  /25 Points

** Bonus 3 points if you dress up**

Because this is a group project, and has a lot of independent work, I figured it would be a good idea to find a way to keep track of their progress each day. I decided to use a daily progress sheet for the students to fill out before the end of the class, this way I can see who is working and who isn't as well as what they have done and what they need to do.

Daily Progress    ***MUST TURN IN FOR PARTICIPATION CREDIT DAILY***

Name_______________________     Date__________

What did you do today?_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What did your group members do today?_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What do you still need to do?

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I am so excited to see the end product!!!

Some of the students work.

Weo

I just discovered a wonderful online tool that I am very interested in using. I have not done much with it yet, but I wanted to save it for later. It seems fairly user friendly, and you are able to post assignments that will be automatically graded! You are also able to connect to other educators, which I find very useful and interesting. I am excited to play with it more and see if I can incorporate it into my classroom, I will probably end up choosing one of my classes to be the guinea pig for this website. I am currently looking into whether or not they have an app.

Weo


*** I could not find an app:( ***

End of the Year

                                                     


As the year is winding down, I have decided to do less tests and more projects. The 6th grade has already taken their end of the year test so we will be going more in depth in subjects they struggled with. One of those subjects is economics. I have found some really great resources to do some in depth projects to better understand the topic. This is an entire unit on economics, where they will choose their occupation, home, and vehicle. These choices will help students understand the benefits and consequences of our financial choices.  The link takes you to TPT page, where it is $8.00.
STEM Economy Simulation Unit
I also found some fun easy activity pages for students to do during down time. This link is also from TPT and it is $3.00.
Economics Activity Combo Pack

In 7th grade we are currently learning about Ancient China. I found a great resources that has everything you would need for a project on Ancient China. It includes the steps needed to be taken in order to be successful, key words that would help with research, as well as websites students could use to find the research.  This resources is FREE!
Ancient China Project
Another great resource from TPT, is an interactive notebook for Ancient China. Unfortunately its $4.50, but it has a lot of great interactive activities for the students to learn more in depth about the subject.
Ancient China Interactive Notebook

***Note***

Students loved the STEM Economy Simulation Unit! They said it was their favorite project of the year. Here are some pictures.

Group Projects

Today I introduced my concept for a group project I want to try out with my 7th graders. It is an open-ended project, where students can basically do what ever they would like for the project. The past two weeks we have been studying Chapter 12,  Early Civilizations of the Americas. The civilizations get a little confusing, therefore I have decided on projects. First I made a list of what they could do the projects on:

The people of the Northwest Coast

Iroquois

Plains Indians

Peubloans

Mississippians

Hopewell

The Adena

Aztecs

Maya

Inca

Next I allowed them to form their own groups, maximum of 4 students. After they formed their groups, I ripped up some paper with the numbers written on them, 1-10. I went around and had each group choose a number (the numbers were face down), this will be the order in which they will get to choose from the list above.

This is an open-ended project, so I will allow students time to brain storm what they would like to do for their project. Some examples are: make a totem pole for the Northwest Coast people, do a research project, make a poster, create a slide show, build a tipi for the Plains Indians, draw a trade route from the Hopewell to Canada and the Gulf of Mexico, build a replica of Serpent Mound, draw or recreate the legend of the Aztecs, recreate the Mayan game, or build a replica of Machu Pichu.

I have never done an open-ended project before, so I am a little apprehensive as to how this will go. I am excited and hopeful that the students will come up with something creative and thoughtful.

This is the rubric I made.

Rubric for Early Civilizations of the Americas

Project Title:

_______________________________________________

Members of Group:

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Subject of Project:

The People of the Northwest Coast _______       Iroquois ________        Plains Indians ________

Puebloans ______          Mississippians _______        Hopewell _______         The Adena ______

Aztecs ______          Mayas ______          Inca  ______

Member Evaluation:

1. Did everyone work equally as hard? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
2. What responsibility did each member have in this project? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
3. Why did you choose to do this project? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
4. Why did you choose to do this civilization? ________________________________________________________________________

Rubric

	5 Point Answers	3 Point Answers	1 Point Answers
Name of the Civilization	Include name and location of civilization	Include name only	Include location only
Where they lived	Include where they lived, and what they lived in. I.e. next to a river, in pueblos	Include where they lived only	Include what they lived in only
What they ate	Include what they ate and how they got their food. I.e. They ate corn because they grew it, then preserved it.	Include what they ate only	Include how they got their food only
Explain relevance of project to course of study	5 Sentences, capitalization, punctuation, spelling and grammar all correct	3 Sentences, capitalization, and punctuation all correct, some spelling and or grammar errors	1 Sentence with poor grammar, punctuation, spelling, and capitalization
Front page of this Rubric Filled Out	All questions are answered with thoughtful responses	All questions are answered with generic responses	Not all questions are answered

Comments:

/25 Points

Learning About The Inca Empire

I found two really great websites with some great ideas for the Inca Empire unit. I wanted to post it here for later use.
*Note: One of the lesson is geared toward 3-5th grade, but it can easily be used for older grades in order to meet their standards.

Couriers in the Inca Empire

Mr. Donn's Lesson Plans for Inca Empire

To begin the unit I used Google Earth to take a virtual tour of Machu Picchu.

History.com Rise of the Incas

History.com Machu Picchu

Zombie Geography

I recently went to a professional development meeting and found out about a really fun resource other teachers are using, it is called Zombie Geography. It is a project based curriculum that includes 10 lessons. I am going to try to stretch the lessons for each week. I plan on using this curriculum with my Social Studies intervention class. I have been struggling with what to do with them since the beginning of school and I finally have something solid to do with them. They are super excited about it too! We start Monday!!

Zombie Based Learning

Interactive Notebook

I found an interactive notebook on Teachers Pay Teachers that was free. Unfortunately, not all the interactive notebooks on TPT are free, so I have decided to make my own!

Whole Brain Teaching

I have recently discovered whole brain teaching and I am very anxious to try it. I am posting some websites just for my own personal reference down below to help me de-clutter my brain a bit.


A Blog All About Whole Brain Teaching

Whole Brain Teachers of America


5 Rules for Whole Brain Teaching Listed Below

Success Story!

This entire year I have been struggling with a class I have twice a day. They are a class where almost every student has an I.E.P. or some other form of help. For some reason their behavior with me has been atrocious and I have started to dread having them. Worst of all, I have them twice a day, once for 5th period, and once 10th period (the last class of the day).  My theory for their poor behavior is that I was too nice at the beginning of the school year. I didn't know the balance of structure/ discipline and fun/easy going. I think many first year teachers have experienced this struggle.
Any ways, today we had a wonderful class period filled with learning! Students participated, raised their hands, and were engaged in the lesson!

What I did differently:

1. I had students come up with their own rules for the classroom to address the various needs of our class.  The issues I have been having with this class are: talking out of turn, being late for class, being disrespectful.   The rules the students came up with and voted on are the following;

• If a student talks out of turn, they must stand in the corner for 5 minutes.
•  If a student is late for class two times in one week they will be written up. 
• If a student is late for class three times in one week they will be given a lunch detention and homework. 
• If a student is late 5 times in one week they will be given an after school detention.
• If a student is disrespectful 3 times in one week, they will be given a write up.

2. Before class we discussed the rules, this seemed to help deter bad behavior because they were aware of the consequences. I am going to remind them of the rules every day for as long as it is necessary.

3. I started our math intervention class out with silent work time. This way students start the class on a quiet and calm note.

4. During the lesson, I passed out points to those who participated. Some students received several points for answering questions and following along. 

Today was by far the best day I have had with this class! I am so excited!