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

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.

Celebrity Spotlight: Jessica Kumari

Water for Sixth Grade would like to welcome its first ever celebrity blogger: Jessica Kumari from Channel One News. This is a monumental moment in the history of WSG and I would like to thank Jessica Kumari very much for taking time out of her busy schedule to answer a few questions on our blog.



1. What is your favorite book?

2. What is your favorite movie?

3. What is the best thing about working for Channel One?

4. Were you nervous when you were reporting from North Korea?

5. What is a typical day like for you working for Channel One?

6. What college did you go to?

7. Who are your favorite sports teams?

8. Do you know anything about Ancient Egypt?

Again, Thank you very much for doing this. We really appreciate it.

A Conversation about the Nile River

Our first focus during the Ancient Egypt unit was the Nile River. We took notes from a PowerPoint on the Nile River before any other topic. We made a study tool about the Nile for a quick, easy reference guide on this important topic. We did all this stuff for a reason: the Nile River was the most important element Ancient Egypt had. Without it, Egypt would not exist in the way it did. Without the Nile, Egypt would simple be a blip on the Ancient Civilization radar. We will now take the Nile River into a new arena, that of the Blog. For this post, you are going to have a conversation with an imaginary person. You are going to educate that person on the Nile River by telling them all about it and explaining all that you know of the Nile. The imaginery person you are talking to can be someone you actually know, your mom or dad, Johnny Rotten, a sports star, an actor or actress, me, anyone! A conversation is not just one person talking the whole time. There is back and forth dialogue. So the imaginery person must talk as well. The very first comment for this post will be an example. You must model your conversation after my example. Use your guided notes or your Nile poster to make sure you don't forget something important about the Nile. Have fun with this, be creative, be funny!

***The imaginery person you are talking to should ask you AT LEAST 5 (five) questions about the Nile River
In Class Blogging.
DUE: November 13th, 2009. 10:00 pm
Points: 20

Constructing the Great Pyramid

Egypt Video Short