History of Navy SEAL/UDT VIdeo brought to you by David Rutherford

The Future is YOURS

Winter Vacation is Upon Us

Students, we have reached Winter Break. I hope you enjoy your days of vacation and have a chance to relax. I hope the break is a good one for you, one that you will get the most out of. School will resume of course, but take your mind off school and studies for the next week and just be a kid and fun. However, before you totally put your mind on "vacation mode," I would like to take this opportunity to reflect a bit on the first half of sixth grade. It seems like just yesterday we all arrived here for our first day of school back in August. Time does fly, but in the past semester, I feel we have accomplished much. We have studied four ancient worlds: Stone Age, Mesopotamia, Egypt, and China. We were able to win $850 for our Scrapbook project. Ancient Quest was published, you traveled the Silk Road, you learned how to blog, you completed your freedom project, you learned new things, you tried to survive a day in the Stone Age, you met Johnny Rawten, and you chose your character for the Wax Museum. We had WSG t-shirts, giveaways, and videos. Overall, I feel like you have done a great job working hard and having a great attitude. Keep in mind, grades are not everything. The type of person you are is what is most important. Be respectful. Be courteous. Be smart. Be nice. Be honorable. Be tough. Keep working hard and strive to be the best person possible. What can you do to have a positive affect on the world? On your country? On your town? On your family? Think about it and be Great. Have a wonderful Winter Vacation.

-Mr. Klumper

Ancient Quest Giveaway

The FIRST person to post the correct answer to this question wins the book: Ancient Quest. Good Luck!
Question: What is the DATE of the Black Team WAX MUSEUM for this school year?

(Hint: The answer is somewhere on Water for Sixth Grade)

Google Tricks

Want to see some fun Google tricks? Check out this video for a few examples. Fun for the whole family.

The Scare

WSG Live!: Ancient China

Ancient China came and went in what seemed like a blink of an eye (that means it went by really fast.) Here we are, at the end of ancient China, preparing to take the test. And with that test, comes WSG Live! This is our fourth ancient world that we have visited so far, which means this will be our fourth WSG Live! event. I am once again excited to blog with all of you in real-time and help you study for your test. Despite the fact that it is an open-note test, you MUST study. You will not have enough time to look up every answer in your notes. WSG Live! is poised to be another blockbuster event, as we share, discuss, and review ancient China together.
I hope to see you there!
WSG Live! Ancient China: Wednesday: 8:00--8:30 p.m.

Student Created Study Guide: Ancient China

Do you want a study guide for the test? Do you want something that you can look at and use to help you get ready for the test? Well, you are in luck because I am going to give you exactly what you want--a study guide. However, I am not going to be making the study guide because if I'm doing the work of making the study guide, then I am doing the learning/reviewing myself, which doesn't make sense because I'm not the one taking the test. So, you will be making the study guide. This is our first "student created study guide" of the school year and it is going to help you get prepared for our Ancient China test. You will be posting questions, then responding to a classmate's questions. Alright, let's get to it...



For our student created study guide, I want you to use the following notes/topics:
1. China Vocab Packet
2. Land of Differences
3. Great Wall of China
4. Dynasties of China
5. Map of China
6. Silk Road
With these topics, you need to post ONE question from EACH topic, which equals 6 TOTAL questions.
Question type: you can use multiple choice, short answer, and true/false. Use a variety of question types. If you use multiple choice, the choices need to be labeled A, B, C, D and they need to make sense.
Student Follow-Up
Today after school through Wednesday night, you need to look at the long list of questions and select ONE classmate to respond to with the answers to their questions.
Follow-Up Example:
"Dear ________,
1. (answer)
2. (answer)
and so on....

Questions in class blogging.
Follow-up outside of school.

Shi Huangdi: Insane Monster or Progressive Visionary?

In ancient China, the land was ruled by dynasties. One of those dynasties, the third one overall, was called the Qin dynasty. The Qin dynasty was established by Shi Huangdi, who united China and became the first emperor of China. Shi Huangdi is perhaps the most well-known ancient Chinese emperor. Why is he so well-known? Well, that is for us to decide. Some people call Shi Huangdi a insane monster who used fear and brutality to rule his people. Others, call him a progressive visionary who established key features to China that continue to shape China today. Today, we are going to look at both sides of the arguement and decide for ourselves whether we think Shi Huangdi is a hero or a villian.
Shi Huangid: Insane Monster or Progressive Visionary?

Task: Use the link above to help you decide what you think about Shi Huangdi. The link will provide you both sides of the arguement, and its up to you to decide what is more important. In your comment, I want you to state in ALL CAPS your decision. "Hero" or "Villain" Then, explain your position in 3-4 sentences. Do NOT just say "I think he is a villian cause he did bad stuff." Give me specifics. Think about your response and give me a good, well thought out answer.

In-Class Blogging.

Terra Cotta Army

Terra Cotta on Prezi

Navy SEAL David Rutherford

WSG Giveaway: Bracelets from China!

All you have to do is be one of the first 9 students to translate the word above and post a comment of the CORRECT word in English.

Use this link to help you translate: Chinese Translation

GOOD LUCK!

Silk Road: Student Scenarios

Students, the Silk Road adventure has begun. I hope you are all still surviving. As you discovered in class, there are many different scenarios for this game. Anything and everything happened to the Silk Road travelers in ancient China. Harsh climate, thieves, warriors, things breaking...it all happened. Thursday, I put you through many different scenarios that I came up with. Now, it's your turn. On this post, comment with a Silk Road game scenario of your own. That's right, now it's your turn to create the scenarios. I will pick a few of them and we will complete our silk road adventure Friday with the student scenarios. Like all of my scenarios, make sure you create a scenario where you either gain points or lose points. Think about the ones I read to you. Be Creative!!!

Task: Create your own scenarios for the Silk Road game. If you are lucky, I just might pick yours!

DUE: Friday before school.

The Silk Road Adventure Begins!

The time has come for the Silk Road Adventure. The silk road was a major trade route for people in ancient China. They would use this route to bring silk into Europe to get the things they needed. Nobody else in the world had the silk worm. Only China, which put China in a great position. They would bring silk into Europe, where there was a high demand, and trade it for things they needed. The trip was made by many people, but it was a very difficult trip and many people did not survive. You must use your head and do a good job of making decisions, otherwise you may find yourself in a bad situation. You need to plan for the unexpected. Anything and everything will be coming your way when you embark on your trip on Thursday. When you begin shopping, a few helpful things to keep in mind: there's a great chance one of your camels will die, so perhaps you better buy an extra one. Trips of this length can be quite dangerous, but they can be also quite boring, so plan for that. Don't allow yourself to get bored. The Silk Road was a dangerous place, full of bandits and thieves. With that in mind, it would be a great idea to buy plenty of silk, for without it, its impossible to win.

Twitter Alert! I will be at my daughters music concert tonight twitting helpful tips or clues on how to win the silk road game. So tune it, because those tweets will soon vanish, like your chances of winning if you don't see them.

Good Luck on the Silk Road Adventure. Be Confident. I hope you all survive. (but I doubt you will.)

Website Launch: Accept the Quest

Today, I am launching my new website that is devoted to "Ancient Quest." This is a website that I built to inform others about this book and the opportunity to implement it in their classroom. I thought perhaps others would like to use it in their 6th grade classroom. I feel that it is a good supplemental reading item in any ancient civilization class. This website provides many things that enables people to get a good idea of what "Ancient Quest" is all about. On the site, people will find a synopsis of the book, brief summary of all the chapters, a "look inside" to get an example of what its like, and a description of how the book aligns to 6th grade standards. The website address is: http://acceptthequest.blogspot.com

Accept the Quest now....

I Travel the Silk Road

Johnny has discovered fire, invented farming, and mummified the Pharaoh Khufu. Now, he travels to the far east in search of his 4th golden coin. In this world, Johnny will travel the 4,000 mile Silk Road, desperately trying to reach the end for that is where the golden coin awaits. This task will prove to be the most daunting yet, with dangers around every corner from nature and his own friends.

Read: 5. I Travel the Silk Road
Questions for I Travel the Silk Road

Ancient Chinese Inventions in Action

A Video from Assisi, Italy...

I am excited, once again, to post a video from our friends in Italy. Check out what they tell us about school uniforms. Also, a couple other teachers have joined in. Students, look closely because during the video, if you look at the smartboard behind the students, you will see Water for Sixth Grade. Post a comment if you want. We will be making another video to send them soon.

Welcome to Ancient China

Try our slideshow maker at Animoto.

Ladies and gentleman, I would like to welcome you to ancient China. For this ancient world, we will be traveling to the far East, in search of knowledge about many different topics. We will learn about the landscape of China, the Dynasties that shaped this great civilization, inventions that still impact our world today, and finally the Silk Road, a journey that will test you physically and mentally. This three week unit will go fast, so buckle up and get focused.
Task: To start the ancient China Unit, I would like you to explore the Internet for ancient China information. I have provided a list of links for you to use on the side of WSG. Browse through one site or all the sites. It is up to you. Post a comment telling me something you learned about ancient China from the sites I've provided. Good Luck.
DUE: Friday, December 9th, 2011. Midnight.

Italy Beyond the Classroom: Q and A

Hello, again, to our friends in Assisi, Italy. We enjoyed the video and seeing what our new friends look like. We hope you enjoyed ours. We hope to trade more videos and pictures in the near future. Since the last time we corresponded, we have thought up some questions that we would like to ask you. Being that most of us will never get to Italy, this is our chance to talk to people living in Italy and learn about what life is like there. We study Ancient Rome in March, so this is also a good opportunity to get started with that. If you would be able to answer some of our questions, that would be awesome. We are anxiously awaiting your replies so we can learn about your country. Thank you very much. We all appreciate it a lot. Post your comments on this blog post.

Questions:

What are some common foods in Italy?

What is the most popular sport in Italy?

What do you do for fun when you are not in school?

Do you play video games? What games do you like to play? Are the video games in English?

What are some popular Christmas traditions in Italy?

What are some popular tv shows and movies?

What is school like in Italy? What are some subjects you learn about?

What holiday’s do you celebrate?

What is the weather like? Does it snow?

Is there anything else you would like to tell us about? (Rome, Colosseum, etc…)

Thank you again for participating!!!

Transition Day: Scrapbook Design Studio

This day has finally arrived. It is the Transition Day for our Scrapbooking the Ancient World Project. So far, the folders have offered their services as our temporary scrapbooks. We all had our fingers crossed that I would win the grant for the binders. Luckily, I won the grant so we are now able to retire the folders and transition to the binders. Today, for our transition day, our goal is to get all of our scrapbook materials out of our folders and into our binders. However, that is not our main goal. Our main goal today is to design our covers for the binders. We will be using the computer which will allow us to design a sharp looking cover, something you can be proud of. We need to take advantage of our computer day today being that we don't get them very often. So, work hard and concentrate to get your cover done before class is over. Once your cover is done, then you can work on getting everything transferred to the binders, complete requirements, etc. To help you with your cover design, I have provided a link for you. Follow this link VERY CLOSELY because there are some very important things on it that you need to be aware of.
Use this Link: Cover Design Studio