Hello, Turkey!

Hello, to our friends in Turkey! Welcome to Water for Sixth Grade and Welcome to Brandon, SD, USA. Thank you for being a part of International Connections. Thank your teacher, Ms. Akyol, for participating in this new program. She is a great teacher. The Internet can make the world a small place, so it only makes sense to use it to learn about the world. Anyone can learn about the world from books, the vision of International Connections is to learn about the world from the perspective of kids living in other countries. So THANK YOU for being part of the first interaction. We are very excited to read what you have to say about school and life in Turkey. Please answer the questions below. You may also add other things that are not covered in the questions. Even things you may feel are boring to you, would be very fascinating to us.

To post comments: Click below the questions where it says 'comments.' A small window will appear that allows you to read other comments and to type your own comments. Answer the questions in the box and then click "Name." Only type your first name. Do not enter a website in the box below where you type your name.

1. What is a typical school day like in Turkey? (how many classes do you have, do you switch teachers, what types of classes do you have, etc. Anything about your school day.)

2. What do you do for fun in your free time?

3. What type of food do you eat? What are popular foods in your country?

4. What is the weather like in Turkey?

5. What type of clothing do you wear?

6. What Holidays do you celebrate?

7. Share with anything else about your country that you want.

Hello, Scotland!

Water for Sixth Grade would like to welcome our new friends from Scotland to Brandon, SD, USA. Thank you very much for being a part of this. Scotland, along with Turkey and Brazil are the first countries to be a part of International Connections, a new program I started that I feel can greatly benefit us all. Anyone can learn about countries from books, but if there was an opportunity to learn about other countries by talking to students living there, wouldn't that be far more interesting? I couldn't agree more. A big Thank You to Mrs. Wood and Mrs. Ross for their willingness to participate in this program. We are very excited to learn about Scotland--your school, what life is like, what is unique about your country, etc. We will also like to share what our country and what our school is like with you.

To answer these questions, click on "comments" below and type in the box. After you are done writing, check the box by "name" and type your first name. Do not enter a URL address. Just your first name is all you need to do. Thank you.

1. What is a typical school day like in Scotland? (how many classes do you have, do you switch teachers, what types of classes do you have, etc. Anything about your school day.)

2. What do you do for fun in your free time?

3. What type of food do you eat? What are popular foods in your country?

4. What is the weather like in Scotland?

5. What type of clothing do you wear?

6. What Holidays do you celebrate?

7. Share with anything else about your country that you want.

Hello, Brazil!

Hello, Brazil. Welcome to Water for Sixth Grade. My name is Mr. Klumper. I am very excited and honored to welcome you into our world here in Brandon, South Dakota, USA. My students and I are looking forward to learning about Brazil and learning about you. Thank you for taking the time to share with us. I would ask that you would simply answer the questions we have posted for you. Answer as many as you would like. If there is a question you do not want to answer, that is okay. We want to learn as much about you, your school, and your country as possible. Please include your first name only. When you publish your comment, simply click the circle before "Name" and type your first name. Do not type in an URL address. Just your name is all you need to do.
Questions:
1. What is a typical school day like in Brazil? (how many classes do you have, do you switch teachers, what types of classes do you have, etc. Anything about your school day.)

2. What do you do for fun in your free time?

3. What type of food do you eat? What are popular foods in your country?

4. What is the weather like in Brazil?

5. What type of clothing do you wear?

6. What Holidays do you celebrate?


Again, Thank you very much for participating!

Students, What is the Roman Republic?

Welcome back to Water for Sixth Grade. Time to do some serious blogging about Ancient Rome. Yesterday we discussed in class the Roman Republic. The republic of Rome is the first half of the Ancient Rome Unit. With this blog post, please share with me, your fellow classmates and the world what you know about the Roman Republic by discussing the follow topics on your Guided Notes: "Republic Begins", "Early Days of the Republic", and "Republic Ends." Use your guided notes we covered yesterday to summarize each section.
Format: For each section, type the Section heading, followed by AT LEAST five sentences.

In-Class blogging.
The above picture is a scene from the Shakespeare play: Julius Caesar

Tell Me Some Rome Stuff

Colosseum, Gladiators, Pompeii, Julius Caesar, Forum, Circus Maximus, Nero, Senate, Marcus Aurilius, Roman Numerals, Christianity. These are a few highlights coming your way in the Ancient Rome Unit. To start Rome off on Water for Sixth Grade, you will browse a website and tell me 2 things you learned. Quite Simple, yet very beneficial.
Use the Website on the "Ancient Rome Link List" located on the side.
DUE: Friday, February 13, Midnight.

Finish Greece, Please...

Congratulations for finishing the Ancient Greece Unit. However, you have one last thing to do before we officially "shut the book" on Greece. We have covered a multitude of topics throughout this unit: mythology, geography, government, city-states, war, religion, way of life, etc. On our final day of Greece, to finish not only your test, but also to finish the unit, let us now blog about a few topics we studied throughout the Unit. This is the second part of your test, so work hard and do a good job on it.
Task 1: Tell me about the Story of Zeus. (His birth, about his father eating his kids, etc.)
Task 2: What do you think about Greek Mythology? (Just give me your opinion. Be sure to support your opinion with examples.)
Task 3: Tell me about Democracy by answering the following questions: What is it? Who Rules? What are the advantages of this form of Government? Are there disadvantages? What happens when the population gets too large?

Blog Advantage: You may use your Notes for this Post.

Points: 30 (10 points per Task)

Each Task should be about 4 or 5 sentences.
DUE: February 6th, 2009. 8:00 p.m. Yes, this date is two days after the test, however, the advantage you have with the Blog is that I give you a couple extra days to get things done, taking into account not everybody has Internet at home.

This is an important Post on Water for Sixth Grade. Share your knowledge of Mythology and Democracy with the world. Over a hundred countries will be tuning in to read our thoughts. Good Luck, and as always, Thank you very much.

Greenday: "Working Class Hero"

We have it so good in America. We are totally unaware of how some people actually live around the world. Be thankful for our life. Don't take it for granted. As this music video says at one point, the people of Darfur and Sudan are hunted like rabbits. Be thankful, help others.

Test Questions, Please...

This will be a new experience for you on Water for Sixth Grade. An experience, I believe, you will find very beneficial. Using your guided notes, notes for videos, ABC book, etc., you will be coming up with "test questions" for ancient Greece. Each student must post 10 test questions dealing with Ancient Greece. The test questions can be multiple choice, short answer, or true false. Try to have a variety, though. Variety is good. For True/False questions, if you make a question that is false, you MUST explain why the question is false. Multiple Choice questions must have at least 3 choices. Do NOT have ten questions about what the gods and goddesses are. You must post both the question and the answer, of course. Number them, so I can quickly check how many question you have. This is graded. At the end of the day, this post will be the ultimate tool to help you study for the test AND help you with your Ancient Greece Board game we will be starting next week. I will pull questions from this post and insert them into the real ancient Greece Exam that you will take at the end of the Unit.
Example:
1. Who is the ruler of the gods?
Answer: Zeus

2. What is Democracy?
A. rule by one man
B. rule by the wealthy
C. rule by no one
D. rule by the people (Correct answer)

3. True or False. Greece had a major river
(answer:False)

Point Total: 20
DUE Date: January 30th, 2009. 9:00 p.m.

I greatly appreciate your effort and enthusiasm so far during this unit. Keep up the hard work.

What is in a Name?

We will begin talking about Greek Mythology this week. The main part of Greek Mythology are the gods and goddesses. Some, perhaps, are quite common: Zeus, Apollo. Others may be new to us: Ares, Haphestus, Hera. We will be taking a look at the notable Olympians and the Titans. We will discover that the names of these gods, goddesses and Titans means something. Posideon: god of the sea, Ares: god of war, etc. With this as the theme to our new post for the week, let's think about what our own Name means. Using the link along the side under "Name Meaning," find out what your first name means. Simply click on the link, type in your first name, and share the origin and meaning in your comment. It should be interesting to see what all of our names mean. Enjoy!
Example:
Name: Abby (my wife's name)
Origin: Hebrew
Meaning: A Father's Joy

Joe Roos: "Troop"

I went to high school with the singer of the song. He is in the Army and made this music video while he was in Iraq. Respect the Troops.