Weekend Homework

Hi class!

Your homework this weekend is this:
1. Read an online workshop about writing poems, and then write a poem. This is due on Monday.
2. Do a social studies project about an explorer. This is due Tuesday.

All the information is on the blog!

Language Arts Homework: Write a Poem
Please go to this website: http://teacher.scholastic.com/writewit/poetry/karla_home.htm. It is called "Poetry Writing with Karla." Read the first page, and then press "Start." Read through all the pages until you get to "Publish Online." If you want to, you may publish your poem online, but you do not need to. I just want you to write a poem in your notebook. It is due on Monday.

Social Studies Project DUE TUESDAY!

Your social studies project is harder. You need to make a little book about an explorer. Your book needs to have:
1. A picture of the explorer
2. A map of where the explorer went
3. A timeline of the explorer's life
4. A page with 10 facts about the explorer. DO NOT COPY ANYTHING FROM THE INTERNET!
5. The flag that was on the explorer's ship. (For example, Christopher Columbus was Italian, but he sailed for Spain, so he had a Spanish flag on his ship.)
For extra credit: You can include a picture of the ship that the explorer used for extra credit.

Here are the names of your explorers:
Luisa: Vasco Nunez de Balboa
Antonia: Juan Ponce de Leon
Kent: Walter Raleigh
Juan Manuel: Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet France
Juan Luis: : James Cook
Juan Felipe: Fernao Mendes Pinto
Martina: Francisco Pizarro
Nathalia: Vasco da Gama
Laura: Bartolomeu Diaz
Sofia: Marco Polo
Manuela M.: Ferdinand Magellan
Jorge: Abel Tasman
Mateo: Sir Francis Drake
Dani: Hernan Cortes
Manuela R: Amerigo Vespucci
Pablo: Henry Hudson

If you have any questions, just send me an email or leave a comment!

Social Studies Homework for Thursday (October 14th)

Learning about history is important, but it is just as important for us to know about things that are happening in our world, today.

A very special and amazing story about people who survived something awful is happening right now. Tonight, I want you to learn about it. We'll keep talking about the Middle Ages tomorrow (including Marco Polo!), but right now, today, it is more important for you to learn about this.

I would like you to read all the news you can find and watch all the news you can find on TV about the Chile Mine Rescue. To help you, I've included a video from YouTube. It is okay if you read about it in Spanish--after all, Chileans speak Spanish, you speak Spanish, and this happened in South America. You should understand this in your own language... but then I want you to write a journal entry in your social studies notebook.

Journal: 15 sentences

1. What do you think it would be like to be trapped inside the mine? How do you think the miners felt?

2. How do you think the miner's families felt?

3. How do you think the miners felt as they started to be rescued?

4. If you were one of the miners rescued today, what would you want to do first?

Here's a video to get you started:

Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome

For homework tonight (due Wednesday), I would like you to copy these notes in your social studies notebooks and watch the videos below.

Ancient Greece:

Had a democracy (government controlled by the rich men)
Started philosophy
Had literature
Had theater
Had sporting events (including the First Olympics)
Had complex architecture (columns and arches)
Religion based on gods like Zeus

Ancient Rome:

Had a republic (voted for representatives)
Had the same gods as the Greeks, but with different names
Created shared public spaces like libraries and post offices
Had a HUGE republic that stretched all over Europe (see the map)
Built many famous buildings and architecture that still exist today
Fell apart because it got too big

Here is a video about Ancient Greece:


Here is another video about Ancient Greece:


Here is a video about the buildings you can see today that were built in Ancient Rome:


Here is a video about a city in the Roman Empire that was buried by a volcano!


Tomorrow we are going to compare religion in Ancient Civilizations and the Middle Ages. On Thursday we are going to learn about indigenous cultures in the Americas.

The NEW Seven Wonders of the World Assignment

Goal: Pick a new "wonder" of the world so our class can make a list of our Seven Wonders of the World.

1. Research famous places in the world, natural and man-made. You can look up cool places online through websites like WikiTravel, Lonely Planet, or National Geographic. You can also use the website www.new7wonders.com.
2. Pick ONE special place that you think should be one of the “New 7 Wonders of the World”.
3. Make a (small) poster about that place. You can make it on the computer and print it.
4. Include this information:
a)a picture of the place you pick
b)the city, country, and continent where it is
c)how it was made
d)how old it is
e)why you think it is a wonder of the world

Also, for extra credit, you can vote for the new seven wonders of the world that you want. Go to new7wonders.com. Then, you need to click on "New7Wonders" then "New7Wonders of Nature" or "New7Wonders of the World". Then, click "Vote for the New7Wonders." You'll need to select them and then create an account. You can use this page in Spanish if you want to, and I'm sure your parents can help you. When you have picked the seven you want to vote for, email me a copy OR write down the seven you want and give the list to me.

If you have any questions, just send me an email or leave a comment.

Homework for the week, so far...

Social Studies: Due Thursday
Science: Due Friday
Reading Plan: Due Friday
Math: Assigned every day and due the day after I assign it. (So, you have math homework to do tonight for tomorrow.)

***Also if you didn't finish your journal in the THIRTY MINUTES you had in class, you need to finish it tonight.
There will be other homework, but this is good for now.

Seven Wonders of the World: Social Studies Homework

Hi class!

Today you are going to learn about the ORIGINAL Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

The first person who made a list of "wonders of the world" were two guys in Greece named Philon and Antipater. (Weird names, right?) They basically wrote a "travel guide" for the ancient world. Kind of like a guidebook you might buy if you were traveling in another country, but very old.

Anyway, these guys were living near the Mediterranean Sea, in Greece. It's here:

See that purple country on the water named Greece? That's where those guys lived. They didn't travel to many places except places near the Mediterranean Sea.

Anyway, these "wonders" were like landmarks, or famous places, that were really important to the people who built them. They were usually monuments, like the St. Louis Arch or the statue of Simon Bolivar in Plaza de Bolivar.

Originally, these were the seven:
Great Pyramid of Giza
Hanging Gardens of Babylon
Statue of Zeus at Olympia
Lighthouse in Alexandria
Temple of Artemis at Ephesus
Mausoleum of Halicarnassus
Colossus of Rhodes

For homework today, you need to read and listen to an article about the Seven Wonders of the World. To do this homework, you will have to go to a DIFFERENT website.

Here is the website: http://esllisten.blogspot.com/2009/05/seven-wonders-of-world.html

Or you can click here: Seven Wonders of the World.

You should read the WHOLE article, but while you are reading it, you need to LISTEN to it, too. To listen, you should press the play button (little triangle) at the top of the page.

When you are finished reading, you need to answer the questions below. You should turn your answers in on a piece of lined paper. (Don't do this in your notebook!)

1. Why aren't any of the original seven wonders of the world in South America?

2. Why wasn't the Great Wall of China one of the seven wonders of the world?

3. What is the only original wonder that we can still see today?

4. What happened to the Hanging Gardens of Babylon?

5. What was the lighthouse in Alexandria used for?

Okay, please answer these questions! Good luck!

Social Studies Homework

In social studies class we are going to learn the countries in North America and Central America.

There are three main countries in "North America." They are Canada, the United States of America, and Mexico. See the map below.

There are three important bodies of water: the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Gulf of Mexico. The Caribbean Sea is also very important. It is part of the Gulf of Mexico.

Central America is between North America and South America. There are also many islands in the Caribbean Sea. We will learn those later.


Homework... Answer the questions below.
1. What is the capital of the USA?
2. What is the capital of Canada?
3. What is the capital of Mexico?
4. What large island country in the Caribbean Sea is south of Florida?
5. What country in Central America borders Colombia?
6. What countries border Mexico?
7. Which countries in North and Central America touch both the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean?
8. Which country only touches the Pacific Ocean?

Please write these answers down in your social studies notebook and bring them to class tomorrow.

Cells and Cell Structure

In science we are going to start learning about biology. In biology, we will study types of cells, plants, and ecosystems.

This blog post is about cells. Cells are the basic unit of life. They are the smallest living thing. Sometimes cells are called "the building blocks of life" because all living things are made of cells. Some things, like bacteria, are only made of one cell. People are made of many, many, many cells.

These are building blocks:


Cells work like these building blocks: they combine and join each other to make bigger things. They can make plants, flowers, trees, grass, dogs, cats, people, snakes, elephants--anything! Fruit is made of cells, so when you drink a class of lulo, you are DRINKING CELLS! So WEIRD!

There are two main types of cells: plant cells and animal cells. Plant cells can be different types and animal cells can be different types. For example, skin cells, bone cells, and blood cells are all different types of animal cells.

Please watch this video about cells:


This cell is an ANIMAL cell. Animal cells have a "membrane", or a very thin skin, that surrounds them. They do not have a "wall" like plant cells, because animals have a spine. (Do you know what a spine is? See below...)


This is a plant cell. Plant cells have an outside wall because plants do not have a spine.


*Hint: This is a spine:

OKAY: For homework, please tell me 3 things that are the same about plant cells and animal cells and two things that are different. Use the pictures, the information in the blog, and what you see in the video. Write your answers in your science notebook.