Planning a Route

During our mini-geography unit, I want to do something applicable to the real world. There will be a point in your life when you will need to plan a trip, so why not start practicing? To learn about some physical features, cities, countries, continents, directions, and maps, we are going to plan out a route throughout a continent. You will be assigned a continent and must choose your starting location, what vehicle you will drive and where you will make stops along the way. You must travel at least 2,000 miles, so you have plenty of distance to cover. To help you with this, you will use the travel log I have made for you, along with the Internet (google maps, bing maps, mapquest, etc.) 

Designing a Route: Learning geography through real world application

Resources:
Google Maps
Bing Maps
Mapquest
Build a Route

On the Geo Hunt

Before we enter the world of ancient civilization, we are going to spend some time getting familiar with the world we live in. We are going to go on a Geo Hunt, searching for various things around the globe. Before we learn about the Stone Age, Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, India, Greece, Rome and the Medieval Times, we need to get an understanding of where things are at in the world, most importantly the Continents. I also want you to be familiar with finding things on a map, which will be a key skill moving forward. This week we are going to make a brief stop at "geography" before heading into the Ancient World. 
Task: Complete the Geo Hunt activity with your iPad and the resources below. 
DUE Date: Friday, August 30th. 

Resources: 

World Atlas
Maps of the World

Welcome to the Ancient World

In 6th grade social studies, we learn about the Ancient World. The ancient world is a fascinating place that I think you will find very interesting to learn about. It is a place of excitement, danger, mystery and intrigue. To wrap up our first week of middle school, we are going to get introduced to the ancient world. Let's see what we already know and what we can figure out. 
We focus on eight ancient worlds. 
Answer WORD BANK
Stone Age
Mesopotamia
Egypt
China
India
Greece
Rome 
Medieval Times (Europe, England)

Task: Using the internet, figure out which ancient world each term on the list is from. The 8 ancient worlds I listed above is your word bank. Each ancient world will be used many times. 
In-class activity. NOT homework. 

My Summer Blog Post

As they always do, summer went by fast in 2013. Summer is very fun, but I am also excited for summer to be over because that means I get to meet 130 new 6th graders. The start of the school year is exciting, with maybe a little nervousness entering the middle school. Before we get totally into the school year, let's take a moment to reflect on the summer. 

My summer was both good and bad. It was good because I got to spend a lot of quality time with my family. We took a trip to the Black Hills and stayed in a cabin. It was a fun vacation. I worked a lot this summer as well. I shingle houses for Sandia Roofing. We shingled 90 houses in Sioux Falls so we stayed very busy. The weather was pretty good for working outside this summer. Way better than last year's horrendously hot  temperatures. I also spent my time studying because I am currently working on my Masters in Technology. 

Unfortunately, my summer had some bad things happen as well. My dad got in a motorcycle accident on June 25th and has been in the hospital ever since. It was a very tough thing to go through and made the summer not as fun. He is still fighting to get better and perhaps I will tell you more about my dad and his accident in the future.

Task #1: How was the summer for you? In this practice blog post, I want you to tell me about your summer. Try to give me specifics as far as what you did, places you went, things you experienced, etc. Do not just type "My summer was good." I want to hear about your summer!
Task #2: Tell me about elementary school. What do you remember? Who was your favorite teacher? 

Ancient World Highlights

Learning how to use Water for Sixth Grade