Time Travel

Story of the World Vol 4- Chapter 1-2 Quiz

Ashley Allain — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 22:39:51 +0000

I wanted to share a handout for chapters one and two of Story of the World Volume 4: Modern Times. This could be used across multiple grade levels as a quiz, group activity or assessment tool.

Happy Learning!

The Industrial Revolution

Ashley Allain — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 21:33:08 +0000

For the past couple of weeks, we have been talking about the idea of revolution. I began the chapter by playing the Beatle's hit while the kids brainstormed their ideas about the meaning of the word revolution. The following are some of their responses:

war
change things
a circular path
a planet's orbit about the sun
social change
protest

As you can see, they were not too far off! From here, we built on our discussion about the changes in agricultural techniques that moved Britain and other European countries forward. They noticed that in the early 1700's most people still worked at home, however, by the mid 1800's people began "going to work" often in factories. The rural farmers and craftsmen could not compete with factory made products. They often had to sell their products for considerably less. Eventually, these rural workers had to make the shift to factory work themselves if they were to have any hope of providing for their families.

Our 2nd grader created a wordle highlighting the main inventions of the First Industrial Revolution while our 3rd and 5th graders updated our Dipity timeline.

Early Modern HIstory on Dipity.

We discussed the four main factors that brought about the Second Industrial Revolution:

coal mining
a canal system
capital
cheap labor

From here a great activity would be to compare and contrast life in the 1700's to life in the 1800's. You could create a Wallwisher to post stickies or use and online whiteboard, like Dabbleboard, to create a t-chart. To conclude, our fifth grader realized that progress often comes at a price. She wrote a reflection on the exploitation of children during the mid-1800's. We rounded out our chapter by watching the BrainPop movie on the Industrial Revolution.

Peter the Great Wordle

Ashley Allain — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 18:05:35 +0000

We have recently studied Peter the Great for early modern history. As a review, the kids used their notes to create a wordle highlighting his life acheivements.

Wordles are a great way to review, assess and just have fun with the material you are studying.

Resources for the Salem Witch Trials

Ashley Allain — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 02:47:48 +0000

Here are a collection of resources to use with the Salem Witch Trials during your study of Colonial America.

Resources:

Discovery School- Salem Witch Trials

Witch of Blackbird Pond Study Guide

National Geographic Kids- Salem Witch Trials

Salem Witch Museum

Moghul India Wordle

Ashley Allain — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 18:04:50 +0000

Today, we used a wordle activity to assess what the kids learned during our unit on Moghul India. First, I asked review questions and we add the answers to our wordle. After creating the wordle, they shaded the facts that went with each emperor according to the following color chart.

Jahangir: red

Shah Jahan: blue

Aurangzeb: green

Facts about India: yellow

Digital Poster of the 30 Years' War

Ashley Allain — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 18:51:11 +0000

We are studying the Early Modern Period in world history this year using Story of the World Volume 3 and History Odyssey Level 2. The kids created a wonderful digital poster using Glogster highlighting the main people and events of the Thirty Years' War. This was a great way to assess what they learned. Check it out! You can click here to go directly to the Glogster site.

Christopher Columbus Scratch Project

Ashley Allain — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 18:01:43 +0000

To celebrate Columbus Day, our daughter created an interactive Scratch report. You can view a brief description of his life, his maiden voyage and a map of his adventure by clicking on each button.

Many thanks and credit to Skitch, she snapped an image and uploaded the file to her program. Super cool!

To view her program, simply click on the image below and it will take you to the Scratch website. Don't forget to check out the many Christopher Columbus resources found below the Scratch program.

Happy Learning!

Resources

Early Modern Era: Aligning History Odyssey with Story of the World

Ashley Allain — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 17:21:16 +0000

This year we are entering the Early Modern era (17th-18th centuries) of world history. The beginning of this period was dominated by trade, empires and exploration. Europe essentially took over the known world and made a striking presence in the Americas. There was tremendous growth in the arts and sciences as the Age of Inquiry gives rise to the Industrial Revolution. At the close of the 17th century, however, revolution is inevitable. We will study its effects on farming, industry, science, art, literature, transportation, and government. Most importantly, we will witness the birth of our own country.

To tackle these issues, I have chosen to continue to use History Odyssey Early Modern Level 2 for our fifth grader and Story of the World Vol. 3 with our second and third graders. History Odyssey will serve as the "spine" of the course. In addition, we will use The Kingfisher History Encyclopedia and The Story of Mankind to supplement our studies as well as various works of literature. Many of the assigned writing projects will be directly related to these readings. It is my goal to take an integrated approach to history, literature and writing allowing more time for us to delve deeper into many of the course topics.

As many of you are aware, History Odyssey takes a regional approach while Story of the World is taught in chronological order. This can prove tricky when trying to keep everyone on the same topic. To make this year run smoothly, I created a table aligning the chapters from Story of the World to those in History Odyssey. In addition, I included the corresponding pages from The Kingfisher History Encyclopedia and the recommended chapters from The Story of Mankind. The literature selections featured are those used in History Odyssey and are recommended for the middle grades. Story of the World includes various selections for the younger grades.

If you would prefer, click here to view a pdf of the file. Please feel free to share and add comments.

Medieval Social Classes

Ashley Allain — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:44:47 +0000

This morning we were having a little techie fun exploring the Medieval European social class system. Check out the glog our children made to demonstrate the hierarchy.

Capetian France Word Cloud

Ashley Allain — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:55:43 +0000

Made with WordItOut

This morning we created a word cloud to review the key places and events related to Capetian France. How much do you remember? Test your knowledge or create your own word cloud!