Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving, Sixth Graders! I hope you enjoy your five day vacation. Try to do something constructive over break like reading, blogging, or spending time with your family. Don't play video games the entire five days!
Thanksgiving is worthy of a post on Water for Sixth Grade. So, my 6th graders, here is what I want you to do: Tell us your Thanksgiving Day Traditions. Sharing on the blog not only allows your classmates to read, but also allows the whole world to read as Water for Sixth Grade continues to span the globe. Perhaps others from the United States will be moved to blog about their Thanksgiving traditions, thus offering different persepctives of this holiday from around the US.
**Some items to consider when talking about your traditions: What food do you eat? Anything special? Any traditional games you play? Where do you go? Do you travel a lot? Is it a big get togehter? Or is it a small gathering? Do you watch football? Does everyone fall asleep after eating the turkey? Do you go hunting? What do you do? What do you like best about Thanksgiving? Etc....

Pyramids or Mummification?

Good Day, my 6th grade bloggers. Water for Sixth Grade has already dealt with the Nile River and Egyptian Daily Life. So for this post, we will be focusing on only two aspects of Ancient Egypt. You will be commenting on either Pyramids or Mummification. So, one might ask, "Mr. Klumper, how do we know which one to do?" The answer is quite simple: If your last name begins with any letter between A and K, your topic is Pyramids. If your last name begins with any letter between L and Z, your topic is Mummification. Simple, huh? All you need to know is what your last name starts with in order to figure out what your topic is.
Task: Using your guided notes for your topic, tell me about your topic as if I know nothing about it. Act like I have no clue about pyramids and mummification and you are trying to teach me about them. Remember, your audience is not just 6th grade students at Brandon Valley. Your audience is far greater than that. Water for Sixth Grade is sweeping the World. There are people from all over the world reading your thoughts and ideas. Educate them on Egypt!
Good Luck.
Format: Paragraph-Style. Topic Sentence. Use your guided notes to tell me EVERYTHING about your topic.
Length: In order to complete this assignment for full credit (A), you need AT LEAST 300 words. If you are only able to come up with 200 words, you will earn a B, 100 hundred words will earn you a C. Anything less than 100 words is not acceptable.
School Points: 20
Life Points: 5,000
Worth: More than you know, but will soon realize as you navigate your way through the years of life.
DUE: November 25, 2008. 7:00 p.m.

I greatly appreciate your effort and enthusiasm about Egypt. It is just a joy coming to school everyday when students like you are here waiting with great attitudes about Social Studies. You make this the best job in the world.

Ancient Egyptian Daily Life Snapshot

We have discussed the daily life of Ancient Egypt together in class. Now it is your turn to discuss it together, blog-style. We discussed the family, peasant life, Homes, clothing and appearance. Using the things we have discussed, write a 100 word essay describing Ancient Egyptian Daily Life. For your essay, there are some options. You may want to focus in-depth on just one part of Daily Life (i.e. appearance, clothing, homes, etc.) or you may want to briefly cover all topics of Daily Life. It is your decision. You Decide. Whichever path you choose, make sure you hit 100 words.

Format: 100 words. Paragraph Style. Topic Sentence*
DUE: Monday, November 17th. 10:00 p.m.
School Points: zero
Life Points: 1,000
Worth: Gaining knowledge and skills to help you in the 21st century. As the world moves forward, you will be leading the charge with your technological savvy skills.

*Tip for this Post: A topic sentence states what you will be talking about in your essay.

Example of GOOD topic sentence: "The appearance of ancient Egyptians has a very distinct look." From here, I would continue my essay describing ancient Egyptians and explaing why they have a distinct look, what makes them distinct, etc.
Example of a BAD topic sentence: "I am going to talk about clothing."

The Great River Nile

The fact that we learn about the Nile River first during our Ancient Egypt Unit is by no accident. The Nile is by far the most important and essential element for Ancient Egypt. Without the Nile, Ancient Egypt would be a meaningless blip on the Ancient Civilization radar screen. We discussed the importance of the Nile and the various purposes the Nile serves the people of Egypt. Let's take some time to discuss what we have learn about the Nile. You may use your Nile River Notes if you get stuck.

Your discussion should include ALL of the following:
--Describe the picture I have attached to this post. Explain why the picture looks as it does.
--Discuss both the "Black Land" and the "Red Land." Why is it called that? What is possible in the Black land? Why? What is not possible in the Red land? Why?
--Describe how the Nile River is a "Giver of Life" and how it is a "Taker of Life"
--Why is the Nile River so important? Things to keep in mind/discuss: why do people live so close to the Nile, the many uses of the Nile, what Egypt would be like if the Nile River did not exsist, etc...

Good Luck on this very important Nile River post. This is the most essential element to understand in dealing with ancient Egypt. Be confident in your ability to adequately disucss the Nile.

The Egypt Unit is well underway. Thank you for your continued effort and enthusiasm about Social Studies.

Pyramids of Egypt PowerPoint

Pyramids Of Ancient Egypt

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own.

Obama Wins!

Water for Sixth Grade would like to offer our deepest, heartfelt 'congratulations' to Barack Obama for winning the Election, making him our next President of the United States. This is truely a historic moment in the history of our Country. We are fortunate to be able to witness these historic times first hand. We are here, living through them, in the moment. The record number of voters in this election signifies that there is a change in attitude in America. More people than ever are starting to care and starting to realize that they have a voice in this country. Appreicate the fact that you live in America. Do not take it for granted.
It will be exciting and interesting in the months ahead as Obama begins his presidency in January.
Good Luck to President Obama.

Students: Now that the election is over, what are your thoughts? Did you watch the election on T.V.? What do you think of the whole thing? Share your thoughts, comments, questions........

Nile River PowerPoint

Nile River

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own.

Daily Geography: November 3-7

Egyptian Art: What can we learn?

Do you remember the Stone Age Art? All those paintings about hunts, animals, fighting? Remember all the things we could "see" and "learn" from them? Well, now let us try the same thing with Egypt. Because of Egypt's writing system, we can learn about them by actually reading about them. However, studying their artwork can help us look into the past of Ancient Egypt and enable us to discover their culture, their beliefs, their way of life. I have attached a picture of Ancient Egyptian art. Click on the picture to see a larger version.
Task: Look at the picture. Study the picture. Think about the picture. Analyze and post your comments about the picture.
I want you to tell me what you think about this picture. First start in general terms: What do you see? What does the picture mean? What is happening? What is going on in the picture?
Here are a few things to focus on, perhaps: Why is the smaller person facing the opposite direction from the other two larger people? Why is the small person holding on to the larger person's leg? Why do the larger people look different than the smaller person? What is different about them? What is with all the birds? What is on the far left side? Weeds? flowers? grass? What is the largest figure doing? Where are they? Why do you think that?
Share your thoughts, but be prepared because your opinions and thoughts are up for debate. Read other people's comments and agree/disagree with them. Remember, it is very important that you say why you agree/disagree. Be Respectful.

**Thank you for your effort thus far in the Ancient Egypt Unit. I greatly appreciate your enthusiasm and positive attitudes. You kids rock.

Surfin' the Egyptian Web

Okay, here's the deal: Some of you have not finished your Library book fact search sheet. And that is okay, despite the fact that we are done with the Library books. So, one may wonder, "How am I going to finish my Library Book Fact Search Assignment?" Valid question. Thank you for asking.
For this post, entitled "Surfin' the Egyptian Web," we are going to work together in a massive effort to find websites about Ancient Egypt. This is a post like no other so far in this young school year. Here's how it works: Go to the Internet, use a search engine (google, yahoo, msn, etc.) Search for websites that deal with Ancient Egypt. Keep in mind that Ancient Egypt is a VERY broad topic. So, with that in mind, you may want to try and narrow your search. For example, perhaps you want to search for "Nile River" or "Great Pyramid" or "King Tut." Any aspect of Ancient Egypt is a possible search item. When you have found a valuable website dealing with some aspect of Ancient Egypt, post the link. Along with the website address, tell me what you like about the website or what is cool about it. The possibilities are endless. Before you post your Ancient Egypt website, check the comment list to make sure nobody else has posted that link. Do not post a link somebody else has already posted. Think about the consequences of this post: There are roughly 135 students on the Red team. If everybody finds a different Ancient Egypt websites, we have over a hundred websites on our hands. And out of those hundred plus websites, there has got to be cool websites.

**Those of you who have not finished the Library book fact search: Look at websites that have been found by me or other students and finish your sheet by getting facts off the websites. Simple, huh?

*To get the activity started, I have included the British Museum site for Ancient Egypt on the side of the Blog under "Ancient Egypt Links". Perhpas your site will be worthy of making it to my Ancient Egypt Link List!

Good Luck and as always, thank you for your hard work and positive attitude.