I uploaded all of the homework for this week onto the "Homework and Lessonplans" tab.  I also have included my lesson plans for this week.  Feel free to read what I plan to do and then compare that to what sometimes happens in class.  It is not always possible to plan for everything.

We are still talking about ancient people.  Mary Leakey is still on the agenda and in fact we are finishing up the reading from yesterday, pages 14-20 in the book.

Homework:  Paleolithic Age Worksheet

Bell-ringer:  What are the two ways that Archaeologists find dig sites?

Happy Monday to all!  We are in full swing with the early human history.  The students are learning about Archaelogists and dig sites.  We are reading pages 14-20 in the book. 

Homework:  Sites of Human Remains

Bell-ringer:  What was "Old Mother's" job?

Map quiz.  Following the quiz we are reading "Maroo of the Winter Cave" on pages 10-13 in the book. 

No homework.

Bell-ringer:  What type of location are you finding when you use latitude and longitude?

LATITUDE AND LONGITUDE BATTLESHIPS!!!!  The students are learning about coordinates and finding their absolute location using latitude and longitude.  After the lesson we will play battleships as a class.

Homework:  Study for map quiz.

Bell-ringer:  List the 4 intermediate directions.

We are covering the parts of a map in class.  We also are taking notes and working with a partner to find the parts of a map. 

Tonight is the first "real" homework.  The students have a worksheet called, "Locating the continents and oceans." 

Bell-ringer:  Explain human/environmental interaction.

Don't know what happened to the day yesterday, I guess I was hoping it was Tuesday because we are doing some pretty cool things today. 
Today's topic is the Five Themes of Geography.  The students worked in groups to come up with their own definitions of the 5 themes before we went over them as a class.  Following a class discussion each student was to come up with an example for each of the five themes.  If they did not finish before the end of the hour they were to finish it for homework.

Bell-ringer:  What does a historian do?

Homework:  Study for map quiz and finish Geography theme examples.

We are reading pages I 1- I 7 in class and taking notes.  We have the map quiz coming up on Friday so keep studying.

Bell-ringer:  What are three of the civilizations we study this year?

Homework:  Study for quiz.

This is still a short day so we are just covering the proper procedure for talking about our weekends in class.  Following weekends I passed out the maps to study for the upcoming map quiz (next Friday). 

I am  looking forward to this year.  It seems like we have a  great group of kids that love to learn and get along well with each other.  Hopefully all parents are able to attend the parent night on the 26th from 6-7:30 pm.  I look forward to seeing everyone there.