Winter Vacation has Arrived

Enjoy the break. You have earned some time off with your hard work so far this school year. Water for Sixth Grade wishes you a very Merry Christmas. I strongly encourage you to do some sort of learning over the break. Read some books, watch a TV show about something interesting, read the newspaper, or better yet: BLOG! The new year will bring new and exciting things to Water for Sixth Grade. Our blog will feature new activities, videos, pictures, and links. Also, after the Break, Water for Sixth Grade will unveil a never before used feature: Podcasting. This is an entirely brand new feature on the blog, one I hope you will enjoy and use to improve your learning and thinking skills. What is a podcast? Well, it's basically like a radio show. It is something that you will listen to. With the podcast, I will talk about all sorts of topics. Perhaps even some interviews of you, the student! Yes, it will be exciting times indeed.
Over the Winter Break, if you are bored or just feel like checking out Water for Sixth Grade, this post is for you to use to post any comment you want. Perhaps you want to share your Christmas plans? Perhaps you want share an exciting gift you either received or gave? Perhaps you want to share what you did for the break? This post is for you to post anything you want over the break that you would like to share.
Enjoy the Break!

Ancient Chinese Inventions In Action

Chinese Inventions In Action from Dan Klumper on Vimeo.

Watch a few examples of Ancient Chinese Inventions IN ACTION! Crazzy Izzy and Olivia the Great demonstrate the use of paper, umbrella, fishing reel, and toilet paper. They also provide you with a demonstration of which works better: chopsticks or fork?

Save Johnny Rotten's Life....

Though we are in the Ancient China unit, Johnny Rotten is still desperately trying to escape Ancient Egypt. In Chapter 4: Johnny Rotten has Show and Tell, his mind flashes back to a happier moment when he was having show and tell in first grade. However, his day dream ends and Johnny is still stuck in Ancient Egypt, trying with all his mite to get out. The next chapter of Johnny Rotten will be published next week, in which we find out if Johnny survives or not, but until then, I am going to give you a chance to save Johnny's life. Post a comment about how he escapes Ancient Egypt. I want to see some creative and imaginative comments. They don't necessarily need to be realistic. I'm looking for creativity and imagination.

Read Chapter 4: Johnny Rotten has Show and Tell (Chinese Inventions)

Ancient China

Chinese State of Mind

Welcome to Ancient China. To get into a 'Chinese State of Mind," we are going to browse (search) through some ancient China websites and post a comment about what we found. This will help us get introduced to the civilization of China. As you will see with this activity and throughout the unit, ancient China has a major presence in our culture.

Task: Use the "China Websites" to learn something about Ancient China. Post a comment about 3 things you learned.

DUE: Friday, December 4th, 2009. 5:00 p.m.

Points: 20

Mummies Revealed Part 2: Mummifying a dead body

Johnny Rotten Goes to Ancient Egypt

Read about Johnny Rotten as he visits Ancient Egypt! Can you figure out what Ancient Egyptian things Johnny is seeing or doing?
Read the Story

Post Comments (if you wish) about your thoughts on Johnny Rotten. What is he doing? What does he see? What ancient Egypt things are there in the story?

Ancient Egypt Student Created Study Guide

As we near the end of the Egypt unit, we are going to start reviewing all the ancinet Egytp material we have learned, used, and applied. With the test only three school days away, you, the student, will be making a "blog study guide." You will recieve a study guide in class, but this blog activity will provide a huge advantage in studying and reviewing our Egypt unit. You will be using all your notes that we have accumulated throughout the unit to post questions about Egypt. You will then read through your classmates questions and answer them. At the end of the day, after roughly 109 sixth graders have passed through Water for Sixth Grade, we will have a long list of Egypt questions and answers for you to use as a review tool for our test next week.

Task:

1. Post 5 Questions about Ancient Egypt. (You MUST post at least one question about Pyramids, Nile, Mummification, and Daily Life. Your fifth question can be from anything else we have studied or learned about. You may post more than 5 questions if you want)

2. Read through your classmates questions.

3. Respond to your classmates' questions by answering them in a new comment. You MUST answer 3 classmates' questions, which means you be answer 15 questions about Egypt.

Example: After you post five questions, you look through the comment list of all the questions and decide to respond to the questions John posted. You will start your comment by saying "Hi john. Here are the answers to your questions" then you list the answers only, you do not need to retype the question. After you answer all of John's questions, then look for someone else and repeat the process. Again, minimum of three people to respond to. You may do more if you have time.

Points: 30

DUE: November 23rd, 2009. 10:30 pm

Educate the Public: Mummification

The egyptians believed that when someone died, their body needed to be preserved for the afterlife. Without preserving the dead body, the passage into the afterlife would not be possible. In order to preserve the body, mummification needed to be done. Therefore, mummification was a major aspect of Ancient Egypt. A major aspect of sixth grade social studies is this blog: Water for Sixth Grade. So today, we are going to combine the two and blog about mummfication. You may or may not have noticed, but people from all over the world visit this blog. It is quite likely that all the people that visit this blog know nothing about Mummfication. Your task is to educate the WSG visitors about Mummification. Assume they know nothing about this topic.

Explain the following items in your comment:
1. definition of Mummfication
2. why did the egyptians mummify?
3. The 7 steps of mummification AND a brief description of that step. (USE YOUR NOTES)
Bonus: If you have time, you may also explain the two rituals at the end of your notes.

In-Class Blogging.
DUE: November 20th, 2009. midnight.

"Look Like an Egyptian"

Look Like an Egyptian from Dan Klumper on Vimeo.