Happy Monday!!
My plan is for our last day of school to be May 20th, so we have less than a month to go!
Thank you for all of your help this weekend. I really appreciated it!
On to History! This week we'll be starting our last unit and moving into the Twentieth Century (however we are actually 21st Century now). Before the end of the year we'll discuss WWI, The Great Depression, WWII, Vietnam, and a bunch of other stuff!
Monday: Define these words: Spanish-American War, Rough Riders, Battle of San Juan Hill, armistice, Polynesians, King Kamehameha I, Queen Liliuokalani,
Read pages 435-440 and answer the questions on p. 440.
Tuesday: Define these words: isthmus, Progressives, regulate, tuberculosis, Panama Canal
Read pages 441-444 and answer the questions on p. 444.
Wednesday: Define these words: glider, assembly line, suburbs, suffrage, Nineteenth Amendment, Orville and Wilbur Wright, Henry Ford, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Kitty Hawk (place)
Read pages 445-448 as well as 449. Do the questions on p. 448.
Also, watch this video:
Thursday: Define these words: Allied Powers, Allies, Central Powers, no-man's-land, League of Nations, Woodrow Wilson
Read pages 452-454 and answer the questions on page 454.
Watch this video also:
Friday: For the next week or so we will be studying World War I, or the Great War. We will be watching a series on Netflix called "The Great War Diary". I've saved it on my list. I think its pretty interesting. They have taken actual diaries of people who lived then and reenacted the events, with a little explanation thrown in as well. Watch Episode 1 today.
In Science this week we'll be discussing the Excretory system.
Monday: Read the lesson on Excretion and do the practice.
Tuesday: Read the lesson on the Urinary System and do the practice.
Wednesday: Read the lesson on Excretory System Problems and do the practice.
Thursday: Read the lesson on Kidneys and do the practice.
Friday: Today we're going to dig deeper into how the kidneys function. Use this TedEd lesson. On the right side of the page you'll see some words "Watch, Think, Dig Deeper, and Discuss." Each of them are links to a seperate activity. Do each of the activities.
In Reading we'll be continuing with poetry for one more week.
Monday: Read "Nothing Gold Can Stay" by Robert Frost on page 1 of your notebook. Its a short poem, but very meaningful. There is a lot of figurative language, and I would like for us to discuss it together. You'll also see a lot of alliteration.
Tuesday: Today we're going to read a poem by King David from the Bible. The book of Psalms is pretty much a collection of songs and poems. He wrote most of them. Today we're going to read one of Miss Alli's favorites, Psalm 121. Its not in your notebook, so I'll just stick it here for you:
I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
where does my help come from?
2 My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
3 He will not let your foot slip—
he who watches over you will not slumber;
4 indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The Lord watches over you—
the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
6 the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.
7 The Lord will keep you from all harm—
he will watch over your life;
8 the Lord will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.
Read this commentary for Psalm 121 to help you understand the context of what the Hebrews were singing about.
Do you have a favorite Psalm? Mine is Psalm 91. If you don't have a favorite, look thought the book of Psalms and see if you can find one that touches you especially. Amy's favorite is 40 and another of Alli's is 30. She also loves 139.
Check out this video that goes along with Psalm 121. I really love it!
Wednesday: Read this poem "Still I Rise" by Maya Angelou. I don't think its in your notebook, so I'll put it here:
Still I Rise
Maya Angelou, 1928 - 2014
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.
Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.
Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I’ll rise.
Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops,
Weakened by my soulful cries?
Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don’t you take it awful hard
‘Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines
Diggin’ in my own backyard.
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.
Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I’ve got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?
Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.
Watch this video of Maya Angelou reading this poem and talking about it:
Read this biography of Maya Angelou and write about what you think this poem means. Take it line by line (or every couple of lines.)
Thursday: Read this poem "So you want to be a writer?"so you want to be a writer?
Charles Bukowski, 1920 - 1994
if it doesn’t come bursting out of you
in spite of everything,
don’t do it.
unless it comes unasked out of your
heart and your mind and your mouth
and your gut,
don’t do it.
if you have to sit for hours
staring at your computer screen
or hunched over your
typewriter
searching for words,
don’t do it.
if you’re doing it for money or
fame,
don’t do it.
if you’re doing it because you want
women in your bed,
don’t do it.
if you have to sit there and
rewrite it again and again,
don’t do it.
if it’s hard work just thinking about doing it,
don’t do it.
if you’re trying to write like somebody
else,
forget about it.
if you have to wait for it to roar out of
you,
then wait patiently.
if it never does roar out of you,
do something else.
if you first have to read it to your wife
or your girlfriend or your boyfriend
or your parents or to anybody at all,
you’re not ready.
don’t be like so many writers,
don’t be like so many thousands of
people who call themselves writers,
don’t be dull and boring and
pretentious, don’t be consumed with self-
love.
the libraries of the world have
yawned themselves to
sleep
over your kind.
don’t add to that.
don’t do it.
unless it comes out of
your soul like a rocket,
unless being still would
drive you to madness or
suicide or murder,
don’t do it.
unless the sun inside you is
burning your gut,
don’t do it.
when it is truly time,
and if you have been chosen,
it will do it by
itself and it will keep on doing it
until you die or it dies in you.
there is no other way.
and there never was.
Do you agree with the author? Tell me your thoughts!
Friday: Poetry Slam!!
"For Teenage Girls" by Clementine von Radics
For Writing I will be giving you some topics that go along with our poetry.
Monday: Write about something you thought would never change but did, in fact, change. Was it a change for the better? Or did it make you feel sad, angry, and betrayed?
Tuesday: How does Psalm 121 make you feel? Imagine you were one of the Hebrews climbing the hills to Jerusalem to worship. what might you be feeling? Write a story from the point of view of a young Hebrew girl traveling with her family to Jerusalem through the dangerous hills.
or
Try writing your own Psalm. A Psalm can be about anything-Praising God, asking him for help-even asking him why he isn't helping you right now. It doesn't have to rhyme.
Wednesday-Friday: Try writing your own poem. It doesn't have to rhyme, it doesn't have to be too long, but it does have to show that you have made an effort to produce a quality poem.
We won't be doing Spelling this week.
That's it baby girl! I love you dearly and I want you to always remember:
Just sayin'.
