Hello!
A few items of business:
1) Please remember to check your child's midterm grades over Thanksgiving Break.
2) Please remember to send a signed permission slip for pen-pals from Thailand; I will accept notice via email. We will begin writing after Thanksgiving.
This week in 8th grade Social Studies, we finished watching the movie Gandhi, and looked at my photographs of India from my trip there over Fall Break; when we get back from Thanksgiving Break we will discuss South Africa's Apartheid system, and Nelson Mandela as a leader; then we will move on to a more in-depth study of the Cold War; we will begin reading the Core Knowledge novel, Animal Farm, by George Orwell!
7th graders began working on a (hopefully) fun project as we study WW1-- they will be practicing and performing (live or recorded versions) of songs from the WW1 era!
Students can choose to work alone, in pairs, or in small groups; groups of more than two students are required to perform one song for every two people in a group (e.g. 1 student= 1 song, 2 students= 1 song, 3 students= 1 song, 4 students =2 songs, 5 students= 2 songs, 6 students= 3 songs...) Students may choose to perform more than the required number of songs, if they want to!
WW1 sheet music can be found at the following site:
http://dl.lib.brown.edu/sheetmusic/ww1/
(If you have trouble accessing this website, just do a Google search for "WW1 Sheet Music", and it should be the first link that the search produces. Also, students have information about how to access our class gmail (email) account, and the link can be found in our collective Inbox, as well.)
Students can perform the song live in class, or record a version at home to play for us in class; some ideas have been to make a music video, video record yourself while singing/playing the song, record your performance onto your computer/laptop and upload it onto your iPod to play in class, etc.
Students can perform a vocal rendition of the tune, an instrumental version, or a combination of the two; it is acceptable for one student to sing while the other plays an instrument.
This will be due at the end of Q2.
On the Legislative Draft front, all 7th and 8th graders should begin searching for legislative committees that focus on the environment, and recording the names of the legislators that comprise those committees. We will attempt to contact relevant legislators when we return next week from break. Some states are still in the process of forming committees, so depending on the states your child is following, s/he may or may not be able to find this information.
Have a nice Thanksgiving!
Leah Hood
