Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Christmas Break

Hey did you know:
On this day in 1783: George Washington resigned as Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Arm and retired to his home at Mount Vernon, Virginia, with no inkling that he would be drafted to President 6 years later....

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE EVE! It is amazing that Christmas is here and in some parts of Washington we are even seeing snow. I hope that you and your families will have a very blessed and merry joyful Christmas. I know I personally am blessed in having you all present in my life and I enjoy watching you all blossom every week. I also am already enjoying this break to enjoy my littles.

This past week we missed Mrs. Hellyer but enjoyed having Mrs. Hayes stay with us and see how great each of you are. Even though we had shorten class due to the Christmas Party (how fun was that!) we were able to push through a lot of information. We started off with some debates and an open discussion regarding a hot topic in our American Society currently: Vetting Syrian Refugees.  I was impressed on all the input and ideas each student gave. Remember, I asked that while you are break you keep up with the current events so we can have a large discussion upon our return!

We followed the morning discussion with great presentations from Emma and Isaac. Emma did a wonderful job creating a unique presentation by having some of her classmates read letters from the Famous Women of the War. Isaac also gave his energized, spunky, game show presentation of The Tories, Loyalist, Hessians, and Red Coats role in the War. Each week we are seeing more and more of each of your personalities coming through to teach the whole class, mentors included, key information about each topic. Thank you for each of your hard work towards your presentations.

We have Two more presentations for this semester:
Tillie: Fashion of the Colonial Days
Zach: The Role of Spies in the Revolution

Thank you for the writing assignments turned in. I enjoy this opinion paper because it allows for a lot of creativity. It has been fun reading these.

The writing assignment while you are on break is over the following:
When the war was over and thousands had died, was it worth it? 

Also use the break to get caught up on all the writing assignments if you are missing any. The Key Ribbon for the writing portion is for all the opinion paper assignments.

Do not forget that we will be discussing the final book of first semester when we return. Be sure to read it and I would like each of you to pull out 2 things from it for our discussion.

1- What was something you gained in knowledge about 
George Washington that you didn't already know?

2- What words inspired you to be more like George Washington?  
(Quote or passage from the book.)


MARK YOUR CALENDARS:

KEY of LIBERTY vs SWORD of FREEDOM Battle 
January 15, 2016 
More details coming!!! 

Parents Night 
January 21, 2016

Next Class meets January 7! (Yep 2 more Thursdays off!) Lets start the year off right! I want to check off each of you on MULTIPLE key requirements! You have plenty of time. Set yourself a realist goal and work towards it!  Remember Mrs. Hellyer and I will be doing final check offs for Key Requirements January 14! This means you have less than a month. Make sure you challenge yourself, but also allow yourself to make obtainable goals. DO NOT WAIT UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE!!!

Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas.
Teacher Amber








Monday, December 7, 2015

Week 11

Great job to Hannah on earning her Declaration of Independence ribbon! What a good example to the rest of us to show that memorizing that document is NOT so impossible after all!

Thanks to Eliana for all the good information about the militias and minutemen, and also for the battle game. Who knew straws and cotton swabs cold be so much fun? This week's presentations will be given by Emma on famous women of the war, and we'll have a make-up presentation by Isaac on the roles of tories, loyalists, Hessians, and red coats in the war.

Your opinion paper this week is a fun one: Write a letter home as if you were someone who lived in the colonial period. This one is wide open--you could be a soldier, a delegate to the Congress, a loyalist colonist, a British general, a slave, or one of many other options. Have fun with this one, and don't forget the details!

Keep working hard on your award requirements, and we'll let you know soon the date for our upcoming battle with the Sword of Freedom class. See you all Thursday!

P.S. Here's a link to the video we started watching last week:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETroXvRFoKY

-Mrs, Hellyer