Reading Like A Historian

With the start of school just around the corner, I am still scouring for curriculum that will enhance our study of US history.    I discovered that Stanford is offering free lessons plans that help students read history like a historian. 

The Reading Like a Historian curriculum engages students in historical inquiry. Each lesson revolves around a central historical question and features sets of primary documents modified for groups of students with diverse reading skills and abilities. This curriculum teaches students how to investigate historical questions employing reading strategies such as sourcing, contextualizing, corroborating, and close reading. Instead of memorizing historical facts, students evaluate the trustworthiness of multiple  perspectives on issues from King Philip's War to the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and  make historical claims backed by documentary evidence.



Since the lessons are designed to supplement what is already being taught, this will be a great addition to our history plan!  

Units Include...

1. Colonial
2. Revolution and Early America
3. Expansion/Slavery
4. Civil War and Reconstruction
5. The Gilded Age
6.  American Imperialism
7. Progressivism
8. World War I and the 1920s
9. New Deal and World War II
10. Cold War
11. Cold War Culture/Civil Rights

Visit the "Reading Like A Historian" website by Clicking Here.

NFL Punt, Pass and Kick

The City of Ridgeland in conjunction with the NFL will be hosting the annual punt, pass and kick competition on Saturday, September 15th, 2012 at Freedom Ridge Park.   Registration will be held from 9:00 a.m. - 9:30 a.m.   The competition is open to boys and girls ages 6-15.   Competition is divided into age groups:  6/7, 8/9, 10/11, 12/13, 14/15.   The top scorer in each age division will advance to sectionals which will be held in Jackson.   Both events are free and open to all kids age 8-15.    Winners at sectionals will advance to Team Championship in New Orleans.

The Schultute - Our Favorite Back to School Tradition

We don't know each other very well, but I am a dork.   I love back to school.   Not school necessarily, but the school supplies and new shoes and the fun stuff.

Since we homeschool we try to make the first days of back to school a LOT of fun.    One of our traditions is to make a schultute to hang on the boys' doors on the first morning.   I wish I could say I thought of this fun idea, but it was our friend who started this tradition for us our first year of homeschooling.    None of my schultutes have lived up to that first year's magic, but it is always fun for the boys to see what will be in their "cones".

A schultute is a German tradition and they look like this...

Very simple!   Cones filled with back to school goodies.

Some of the goodies that will be in our schultute this year are...

Olympic Collector Pin - Go USA!

A new set of ear buds.   These are a necessity at our house during the school year.

My boys say it is easier to stay focused when they can listen to any lessons with their ear buds in their ears rather than over the speakers over the speakers.

A Quiznos gift card so we can bike down the street for lunch.

A random assortment of school supplies such as pens, pencils, erasers, post-it notes and yes -- even a box of Crayons!

A $5 bill so we can go and buy school supplies for our Operation Christmas Child as well as extras for our supply closet at church.

and their favorite item of all..

One pass that says....

"I Choose Not To Have School Today!"

What are your back to school traditions?

Doodle 4 Google Mississippi Exhibit

Doodle 4 Google Mississippi Exhibition

Trustmark Grand Hall

MS Museum of Art

Now through August 12, 2012

FREE to the public!

For the last five years, Google has invited K-12 students to create their own doodles and submit them as part of the Doodle 4 Google contest. This year over 114,000 students doodled on the theme “If I could travel in time, id visit….” This Doodle 4 Google 2012 exhibition showcases the best doodles from Mississippi and celebrates the creativity and artistic talents of our state’s youth. Free to the public.

Back in science with Albert Einstein:  Jonathan N, Ocean Springs, MS, Age 9

MS Museum of Art Sale Begins Today

Museum and The Museum Store hours 

Tuesday through Saturday, 10 AM - 5 PM;

Sunday, noon - 5 PM; closed Monday.

The Palette Café by Viking is open Tuesday through Saturday.

Coffee served 10 AM.  Lunch served 11 AM - 2 PM.

Closed Sunday and Monday.

National Archives Experience

It was exciting to discover the National Archives Experience.   The National Archives is located in Washington, D.C. on Constitution Avenue, but for those of us who are not close enough to visit on a regular visit, they have created The National Archives Experience.  It is an amazing online tool that students can use to create posters and videos. The National Archives Digital Vault creation tools allow students to drag and drop digital artifacts into a poster or video. The National Archives provides images, documents, and audio in an easy to use editor. When making a poster students can combine multiple images, change background colors, and create captions to make collages of digital artifacts.

 In addition to creating posters, students can create videos.   You simply drag your images onto the editing templates, type captions, create image duration of play and select audio tracks. 

DQ Miracle Treat Day

Tomorrow, July 26, is Miracle Treat Day! For every Blizzard® Treat sold, participating Dairy Queen stores will donate $1 or more to the local Children's Miracle Network Hospital. So let's all enjoy a Blizzard and help local kids.    

It is supposed to be HOT tomorrow and ice cream is always a good way to cool off.

What is your favorite blizzard???

National Library of Virtual Manipulatives

The National Libary of Virtual Manipulatives was created to supply teachers with interactive mathematics manipulatives. It is available free of charge on the web.

 

 Learning and understanding mathematics, at every level, requires student engagement. Mathematics is not, as has been said, a spectator sport. Too much of current instruction fails to actively involve students. One way to address the problem is through the use of manipulatives, physical objects that help students visualize relationships and applications. We can now use computers to create virtual learning environments to address the same goals.

One Minute French

Got a love of language but only 60 seconds to devote to it? Then try this free series of mini-lessons in for English speakers who want to learn French.

 One Minute French

One Minute French provides an introduction to basic French. With this course you will not become fluent, but you will acquire a range of useful expressions which you can use while on a trip to a French-speaking country. Your efforts are guaranteed to make a good impression on people you meet. The phrases included in this course have been specially chosen to help the learner make fast progress on the basics of French, with each new episode building on previously-learned knowledge.

Road to Grammar

If you have read Facebook or Twitter posts lately, you realize that a lot of our kids need more grammar practice.    We recently discovered Road to Grammar and Road to Grammar, Jr.  

With plenty of quizzes, games, downloads and extra practice, this is a great way to provide your students with the extra practice they need.    This has been a great summer bridge activity for our kids and we will use it in our Friday "computer" sessions to reinforce what we have been studying during the week.

Road to Grammar

The Google Art Project

The Google Art Project uses Google Earth street view technology to allow visitors to take virtual tours of the top museums in the world. Visitors can navigate the hallways, zoom in on art work to see the details of the brush strokes, view information about the artist, and build a personal art collection. There are so many great features to this site . I embedded a YouTube video that provides a short introduction to this site. It is well worth the three minutes it takes to view it.

American Revolution Center/Timeline

We are studying US History this year so this is an amazing find for us.   It is an interactive site created by the American Revolution Center. Here is a description of the center straight from their about page:

The American Revolution Center will establish the first national museum to commemorate the entire story of the American Revolution and its enduring legacy. The museum will display its distinguished collection of objects, artifacts, and manuscripts from the American Revolution era and will offer programming, lectures, symposia, and interactive learning for teachers, students, and the general public.

The highlight of the site is the interactive timeline for the American Revolution.  

 You will see a highlight of significant dates. There are also artifacts as images. If you click on an artifact it will enlarge. In some cases there are links to video and or audio podcasts about the artifact or event.

 This is an excellent site to pull up on an interactive whiteboard. You can use it to introduce the American Revolution or as a review.  The site also includes quizzes and lesson plans.

Web2.0 calculator

While it won't replace the TI-84 Plus, it can do what your average high school student needs it to do. The best part is, you don't have to use it on the Web2.0calc site because they offer three widgets that you can use to embed the calculator into your own blog or website.

http://web2.0calc.com/

Speed Crunch

A free scientific calculator application for Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems. Speed Crunch performs all of the functions necessary for high school Algebra and Geometry courses except graphing.


http://www.speedcrunch.org/en_US/index.html

• history and results on a scrollable display
• up to 50 decimal precisions
• unlimited variable storage
• intelligent automatic completion
• fully usable from the keyboard
• more than 50 built-in math functions
• optional virtual keypad to be used with a mouse
• on-the-fly and selection calculation
• customizable appearance
• syntax highlighting and parentheses matching