Gabe: Civil War

The Civil War unit has been really, really fun.  We do a lot of stuff like drilling and marching. We also have combat cards. Today on combat cards we did weapons. We also did destiny dice where we roll a die and see if we get or don't get points.  Today we lost 20 points and they got 120 points.  Here are some pics of drills and marching.

Kiki: Word Challange

The butterfly is very flaccid because it is skinny.
My forte is crafts because I like them.
The water foundered in to the dirt.

Kiki: Civil War Journal

     It was the middle of the bull run battle. People where dieing everywhere and I had to take care of them. I am getting scared because a lot of people are dieing and I don't want to.  It is cool because I can watch the battle form the side.  There is a lot of noise because people are yelling and shooting there guns.  Its weird having to be one of the only girls in the civil war.  I am happy I am not in the CSA because I do not want slaves.
July 22 1861
Loretta Boyd

Connor: Civil War Journal: From The Desk Of Walter Wigfall

I just fought in my first battle, it was exceedingly creepy.  We thought that everything would be fine, both sides did.  I knew we'd be fighting the Johny Rebs, but I didn't think anyone would die.  After the first of our soldiers got shot I went into a panic.  I thought I'd die next so I kept shooting.  That fear of being shot and killed is what kept me alive throughout the battle.  This is what the men are calling the Battle Of Bull Run.  Everything was working out in our favor until Thomas Jackson's troops started to stand like a stone wall.  Then we were the ones on the defensive.  Those of us who survived retreated to D.C.  I saw many a man get shot in the back as we ran.  I was terrified and furious, those rebels were shooting at us and they stole my lunch, luckily it was just some lousy hardtack anyway.  I hope he bit it so hard his teeth fell out.  I felt like I had been lied to and wondered why the people who out ranked me hadn't told me anything about what war is truly like.  I think they might have just wanted people to voluntarily join the army.  I watched as my only friend in the regiment deserted without telling anyone, I was the only one who knew.  I didn't rat him out to the higher ups, but I thought about it.  I started paying more attention to the drills and stayed in the army.  Although I could have left and no-one would know the difference, I had to free the slaves and if no-one else here thinks that is important then I'll do it myself!
Signed,
Walter Wigfall
July 22, 1861

Gabe: Civil War Journal

     I thought at the beginning that we were going to make them leave and I was going to eat a picnic with the other people.  But I was right behind the flag man so I would right away start fighting.  I got out and I shot two people but then I had to reload. When I had to reload my best friend got shot. I got scared so I shut my eyes and started hitting people with my gun. When I opened my eyes almost all of my people left so I followed.
July 22, 1861
Melvin Thomas

Marney: Word Challenge

flaccid
The noodles were all flaccid after they got boiled.
forte
Meyie was counting rectangles so she divided 99 by 200 because she her forte was math.
founder
I foundered into the grass when I tripped on a stick.

Gabe: Word Challenge

His leg was very flaccid after surgery.
My forte is grammar because I love it.
Angel foundered to the bottom of the sea because he was in a lead coffin.

Mommio: Word Challenge

Write a sentence for each word.  

Anyone who can come up with a complete sentence that makes sense for each word gets a dollar!

flaccid- (adjective) limp, flabby, weak

The woman jiggled her flaccid arms in disgust, resolving to begin lifting weights as soon as possible.
forte- (noun) strong point, something a person does well

Since math was Dan's forte, his friends always asked him to calculate the bill whenever they went out to dinner together.

founder- (verb) to fall helplessly, to sink

After colliding with the jagged rock, the ship foundered, forcing the crew to abandon it.

*all words, definitions and sentences are from the Kaplan SAT Vocabulary Prep Level 1

Mommio: Civil War Journals

The date is July 22nd, 1861.  Your soldier is one of the very lucky survivors of the first major battle of the American Civil War.  The Battle of Bull Run (also known as Manassas) ended yesterday in Manassas Junction, Virginia with a bloody Union defeat.   There were thousands of casualties on both sides and the Confederates came away from the battle with a war hero, General Thomas Jackson- from now on known as Stonewall Jackson.  This is the first experience your soldier has had in the battlefield and he has a lot to say about it.  Today you will write a journal entry from one of your soldiers detailing their experience at Bull Run.  If you need help remembering the details of the battle read this webpage.  Use all of your senses to describe what it felt like for your soldier to be in the midst of a bloody battle-lots of details!

Mommio: Civil War Unit Study

The Civil War is underway in the Jones house!  We are a couple of weeks in to our unit using the Interactive Simulations lesson plans and things are going great.

Our Confederate regiment, the Swartsburgers, has enlisted six soldiers (each kid plays the role of two soldiers in the field and their loved ones at home).  They have created headbands, a flag and a motto- Just Keep Fighting!

The Union regiment, the Freedomators, has enlisted five soldiers and one army field nurse.  They created their own name badges, a flag and a motto- Fight 4 Freedom!

The kids and I are all really enjoying this unit.  Our regular meeting goes a little like this:

*Ken Burns movie The Civil War- watch 20 minutes and discuss

 *Roll call- I call the soldiers by name and if they respond they get points for their team

*Vocabulary- five new Civil War words each day and a chance to earn points by giving definitions

*Readings- we read passages from the student guide for the unit study and a chapter each day from Soldier's Heart by Gary Paulsen.

*Dispatches- each day the soldiers receive a news dispatch, one team member takes notes and reports back to their team, then another team member reports back to me- each item they get correct earns them points

*Mapping- we are working on mapping out the Civil War, states first then battles later

*Destiny Dice- each team rolls a dice and the number corresponds to a list of points earned or lost, then we tally the points, each time a team earns 100 points they get Civil War era money to post on their board

There are lots of fun extras too like reader's theater of soldier interviews, learning how to drill and march, playing Combat Cards (which is like the card game War but teaches the kids the ranks of the army, the unit sizes and the weapons used) and each soldier has been assigned a special project to present to the family on New Year's Day that will include models, food and Civil War photographs.  Exciting! 

Mommio: Art Class- Impressionists- Rodin

through me you enter into the city of woes
through me you enter into eternal pain,
through me you enter the population of loss.
. . .
abandon all hope, you who enter here.

-Dante's Inferno

Today we continued our study of French Impressionist sculptor August Rodin by taking a closer look at one of his most famous pieces, The Thinker.

We learned that The Thinker was not originally an individual sculpture, instead it was the centerpiece in a much larger work Rodin spent many years on, The Gates of Hell.   

 The Gates of Hell was based on the scene in Dante's Inferno when Dante and Virgil approach the Gate to Hell.  The original Thinker was actually a representation of Dante looking down on the view of Hell that he had created in his famous epic poem, The Divine Comedy (1308).  We watched this movie looking at the creation of Rodin's version of The Gates of Hell and how he was influenced by the poem itself and well as by other artist's interpretation of the characters in Dante's work.

After that serious look at the subject we had a little fun and talked about what we thought The Thinker might actually be thinking. Here's what the kids came up with:

 For today's project we made wire hand sculptures based on a lesson we found here.  First the kids each traced one hand on construction paper to make a pattern.

 Next they chose a color of beading wire, straightened it out and used it to outline their pattern on the paper.

 They got to practice using craft wire cutters to cut off the excess wire.  At this point they each had a basic hand shaped wire.

 To add interest to their sculpture they chose other colors of wire to wrap and decorate the hand.  Making sure to firmly connect the wires to each other by wrapping the ends tightly.

 When they were happy with the sculpture we added a straight wire at the bottom of each hand so that we could poke it into a foam base (which we had already spray painted black).

Here are the kids with their hands!

Gabe: Word Challenge

The deer was unable to Extricate from the glue.
The man was Fastidious with his art.
The dog was Feted because he got muddy.

Mommio: Word Challenge

Write a sentence for each word.  

Anyone who can come up with a complete sentence that makes sense for each word gets a dollar!

extricate- (verb) to free from, disentangle

The fly was unable to extricate itself from the flypaper.
fastidious- (adjective) careful with details

Brett was normally so fastidious that Rachel was astonished to find his desk littered with clutter.

fetid- (adjective) foul-smelling, putrid

The fetid stench from the outhouse caused Laura to wrinkle her nose in disgust.

*all words, definitions and sentences are from the Kaplan SAT Vocabulary Prep Level 1

Phineas and Ferb: Mt. Rushmore

 In the next episode of Phineas and Ferb, Candace Loses Her Head, the family travels to Mt. Rushmore and the boys decide to do something nice for their big sister Candace's 15th birthday...

put her own face on the mountain!

Obviously we won't be traveling to Mt. Rushmore this week...OR carving any of our faces into the side of a mountain.  But, we will be putting our own faces on Mt. Rushmore through the magic of photo editing.  Today we used Printmaster to do this, it is a very easy program to use and a good introduction to playing around with photos, in fact a few of the kids are already very good with this so they will be helping to teach today too.  Later on we are all hoping to learn how to use some more complex photo editing programs.

Here are the steps the kids had to follow.  I walked them through the process one time and then left

 them to do it on their own.

1. Take a headshot photo of each other and load them all onto the computer desktop.

2. Find a good picture of Mt. Rushmore online and save it to the desktop.

3. Open Printmaster and create a new page.

4. Import the Mt. Rushmore photo and make it a full page.

5.  Import your own headshot.

6.  Crop your photo and edit the color, shape, size etc. until you are happy with how it looks.

7. Place your head on the mountain.

8. Save your picture as a jpeg on the desktop.
9. Put your picture onto this blog post.

Here they are on Mt. Rushmore!

Mason: Blog Of The Day

Uncle Daniel

Daniel is funny

I like it when he visits

He is very great

Have a good birthday

I am very excited

He lives in Houston

It will be so fun

When he comes to visit us

I am excited

Uncle Rob

Happy Birthday Rob

 I am very excited

 So have a great day

 I really love him

 I like him so very much
He is so awesome

Gabe: Blog of the day

Uncle Daniel

He lives in Houston

He likes eating broccoli

His name is Daniel.

He is really fun.

Because he comes on Christmas.

He has long long hair

He's thirty seven.

He was born in Korea

I like him a lot

He is really cool

Because he likes being cool.

 Have a good birthday.

Uncle Rob

I like Uncle Rob.

He lives in Arizona.

He is dad's cousin

Happy birthday Rob

It is almost his birthday

He has two daughters.

Marney: Blog Of The Day

Daniel

Daniel is awesome

He visits us and Nana

He lives in Houston

 He has long long hair

He stays for a few nights too

  He has brown eyes too

He looks very cool

He eats a feast at Christmas

He likes all us kids

He is super tall

Happy birthday to Daniel

He doesn't fart too

Rob

Rob is super fun

His real name is James also

 He has short short hair

He is cool also

He lives in Arizona

Happy birthday Rob

He used to drive here
But now he uses a plane
He gets here and talks

He came years ago

He gets here in the day time
He likes to come here

Avery: Blog Of The Day

DANIEL

I love his long hair

He keeps it braided all day

It goes to his back

He comes for Christmas

He drives for hours to come

He is in Houston

He was adopted

He was born in Korea

He is so much fun

Soon is his birthday

I hope he has lots of fun

We miss you Daniel!

ROB

He has twin daughters

They do not visit a lot

They are near Gabe's age

I don't know him much

We do not see him a lot

I miss Uncle Rob

He is Dad's cousin

He lived with dad for a while

When they were young boys

 He is so funny

Rob and Dad joke around lots

Happy Birthday Rob!

CHRIS

Chris is lots of fun

He went to a beach with us

But we all got stuck

Happy birthday Chris

Hope you had a great birthday

We miss him a lot!

Kiki: Blog Of The Day

Uncle Daniel

He is very nice

I like it when he comes here

He is so funny

Has very long hair

He is very tall to me

He lives in Houston

Uncle Rob

Who is Uncle Rob?

I have not ever seen him

He has twin daughters

He is dad's cousin

It is almost his birthday

Happy Birthday Rob

Daddio: 12/1/11 Blog of the Day

DECEMBER!  IT'S DECEMBER!  OH MY WORD!  IT'S THE GREATEST MONTH OF THE YEAR!

December is awesome because our family has five birthday's in December: Uncle Rob, Uncle Daniel, Nana, Mason and Mine!  And it has the greatest holiday in it ever-- Chirstmas!  And then it also has New Years Eve!  How AWESOME is this month?!?

Okay, so you've got a lot of poetry to write.  For today's blog of the day, we're going to focus on Uncle Rob and Uncle Daniel.  I want you to write two sets of haiku poems: one for Uncle Rob and the other for Uncle Daniel.  Each poem needs to be four verses of haiku poetry.  So that we're straight on this, you're going to write four haikus about Uncle Rob and four about Uncle Daniel.  Be nice, but also be funny.  Rob and Daniel are funny guys.