Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Stone Age Study Guide

Stone Age Study Guide - Answers

Important:
1. The test is on WEDNESDAY, September 30th.
2. The study guided handed out is shorter than the one on the blog. In order to receive full credit for the study guide, the student only needs to fill out what was handed out to them in class. However, the study guide on the blog covers everything that will be on the test, so it would be helpful to look over the entire study guide on the blog.


Good Luck!

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Stone Age Recall: Key Concepts

We have been covering the Stone Age for the last couple weeks. We have talked about hunting, cave art, what their life is like, artifacts, how we learn about the past, how things have improved for these people, etc. For this blog post, I am going to ask you to think about some of the key concepts we learned about so far this unit. You may definately use your notes for this blog post. Take your time and do a good job. Do NOT rush through this. Do a thorough job in answering/disucssing these key concepts. I want you to discuss 4 main concepts of the Stone Age. Read below for an explanation on what to do for each of the 4 concepts.


Concept #1: Learning about the Past: How do we learn about the Stone Age? There were no books written during the Stone Age. So, how do we know anything about that time period?

Concept #2: Cave Art: What has Cave Art taught us about the Stone Age? Discuss what cave art tells us about their lifestyle, what it tells us about what is important to them, etc. Also, share what types of things they painted for their cave art drawings.

Concept #3: Fire. Think back to "Before We Ruled the Earth" part 1. Share how they hunted the Irish Elk, what problem/challenge they faced, and how they solved that problem.

Concept #4: Domestication. We discussed via PowerPoint how things started to improve for the Stone Age people. We talked about the effect the glaciers melting had on their lifestyle. We also talked about domestication and what that meant for the people. For this last concept, describe how they lives improved because of glaciers melting and domestication. Things to think about: Why did more farm land improve their lives? Why did domesticating animals and plants impove their lives?

Points: 20 (five points for each concept completed)

DUE: in-class blogging. If you do not get finished, you have until Sept. 30th, 2009 to complete it.

Good Luck! Thank you so much for your hard work and positive attitudes so far this school year. Keep up the good work!

Stone Age Vocab-fabulous


Welcome to the computer Lab. The computer lab is glad you are here. The computer lab is exciting about getting to know you. You should be excited as well. We have experienced Water for Sixth Grade a little bit so far this school year. Today, we are going to get the full experience with In-class blogging. The aspect of a blog that makes it more than just a website is the fact that you can post comments onto it. Also, you can respond to other students because you can read what they wrote. It is a big online discussion, if you think about it. Blogging is what I call a Three-Headed Monster: 1. THINKING about what you are going to write. 2. WRITING your thoughts, opinions, answers, etc. 3. READING what your classmates have written to gain a better understanding of the topic. Good Luck. Read the task below to understand what to do.

Task: "Vocab-fabulous" Get out your vocabulary packet. In your vocab packet, you have worked with numerous stone age words. For this task, you will pick AT LEAST ten of the vocab words we have done in the packet and write a paragraph/story using those vocab words. You need to use the words so things make sense, so think about a way in which you are going to accomplish this.
VERY IMPORTANT: when you use a vocab word, put an asterick (shift-8) before AND after the word. Ex.: I want to be an *archeologist* when I grow up because I like studying the past. Do not just write ten unrelated sentences using the vocab words. It needs to all go together, like a story should!

You will have a chance to read other stories written by your fellow classmates when all of them get published on the blog. Read what others have written and tell them what you think, in a respectful way, of course.

Points: 20 (2 points per vocab word used CORRECTLY)

DUE: In-class blogging means you will do it in class. If you do not finish, you will have until Sept. 30, 2009 to finish.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Stone Age Vocabulary PowerPoint

Artifact Dig


Artifacts help us learn about the Past! My sixth grade students digging for artifacts.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Stone Age Cave Art


Look at the cave painting I posted. It is a zoomed out version of the cave art we looked at during class. What do you see? What does it mean? Share your thoughts by posting a comment.

Cave Art can provide many clues into the lives of people living in the Stone Age. We had a great discussion about cave art and what the various paintings mean. We looked at paintings and discussed what we saw, what the paintings were trying to tell us, and what we can learn about life in the Stone Age based on the paintings. Artifacts that have been dug up and cave paintings that have been discovered are the two most significant methods of learning about the Stone Age.
I have provided a link for you to click on to further your learning and understanding of cave art. By clicking "The Cave of Lascaux" you will enter a website dealing with various aspects of cave art. After you have arrived at the website, click on "Discover" then click on "Virtual Visit." This site will give you options of various gallerys you can look at to see more cave paintings. Another option: after arriving at the main site, click on "Learn" then click on "Test your knowledge." This is a fun site that provides puzzles of the cave art for you to put together.

Task: Look at the Cave Art painting I have posted. Study It. Analyze it. Share what you think is happening, what you see, and what it means.

Task #2: Click on the Cave Art Link, explore the site.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Welcome to the Stone Age


We have finally arrived at our first Ancient Civilization. This unit will be approximately four weeks long. We will be doing a variety of things to help us learn about the Stone Age and archaeology. It should be a fun ride. In class, we looked through our textbooks to help get acquainted with what the Stone Age is all about. Using some of the items we talked about, using your prior knowledge, using things you found in your book, please tell me something about the Stone Age. Tell me one thing or tell me 10 things, it is up to you. I want you to post something, however, because we need to start practicing this process so we can start down the path of becoming Master Bloggers. This blog post is designed to activate prior knowledge and to show me what you already know going into this unit. Share with me, your classmates, and the world what you already know about the Stone Age. Good Luck!

Task: post a comment sharing what you already know about the Stone Age.
Due Date: September 14th, 2009. Midnight.
Points: Practice Points. No points awarded.
I appreciate your effort and attitude so far this school year. Keep up the Good Work!