Monday, December 30, 2013

8th Grade History Objectives for Chapter 14


8th Grade History Objectives
January 6th – January 15th

Chapter 14 Section 1

1)        Describe the differing economies and lifestyles of the North and the South

2)       Explain the differing political views of the North and the South, especially their different interpretations of the roles of the federal and state governments

Chapter 14 Section 2

1)       Explain how slavery in America was different from slavery in other countries

2)       Describe the Middle Passage and life on a Southern plantation, including how slaves were treated

3)       Distinguish between the gang system and the task system

4)       Explain the role of the Bible in the slavery debate

5)       Describe some of the black reactions to slavery, including escape on Underground Railroad, and their significance to the slavery controversy

6)       Identify key leaders in the abolition movement

7)       Contrast the Northern and the Southern views of slavery

Chapter 14 Section 3

1)       Describe the effect of Uncle Tom’s Cabin on the nation

2)       Explain the Kansas-Nebraska Act and its effect in Kansas

3)       Name the political party that grew out of antislavery views

4)       Explain the Dred Scott decision and its effect on the nation

5)       Describe John Brown and his activities

Chapter 14 Section 4

1)       Describe the men involved in the 1860 election and their positions

2)       Identify factors leading to Lincoln’s victory in 1860

3)       Describe the formation of the Confederacy

Chapter 14 Section 5

1)       Describe the situation that led to the firing on Fort Sumter

2)       Explain the way the border states were kept in the Union

3)       List the North’s advantages as it entered the war

4)       List the South’s advantages as it entered the war

Thursday, November 21, 2013

From the 8th Grade History Worktext

“We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it.  We have staked the future of all political institutions…upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.” 
James Madison

Sunday, November 17, 2013

Cell Model

The 5th grade girls did a great job of creating their own animal cell out of playdough.  I quizzed them after they were finished and was VERY impressed on their i.d. of the organelles and their "jobs".  Great crew to teach!

Lesson Plans for November 18-22

Lesson Plans for 11/18

Saturday, November 2, 2013

Where the Truth is Taught

I am so blessed to work in a school where I am able to share the truth with my students especially when it comes to our founding as a country.  We are finishing up the American Revolution in 8th grade history and I was able to share these videos with my students.  I first saw these videos a couple years ago on the Fox News Channel and they opened my eyes.  After watching them I felt cheated in my instruction on American history.  Please take a moment to watch them and know our founders were true Christian patriots.  Many did give up their lives and fortune so I may be free today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uODn4bRvI4g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwYUvz3YppQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OauNPiyzUjE

BTW...The book mentioned, Lives of the Signers, is currently being read in my 8th grade classroom.

Lesson Plans for 11/4 - 11/8

Lesson Plans for 11/4 - 11/8

Odds and Ends

 
Sorry for the delay in posting for awhile.  It has been busy in and out of the classroom.  Our Egg-ceptional Experiment ended last week with some colorful eggs.  We soaked them in water dyed red which turned the eggs red and then turned around and placed these red eggs into clear water...the result is in the picture above.  Great, great experiment for learning about osmosis.  BTW...we started with 5 eggs and finished with 3.  Thankfully they broke on the table!

 
 
Our praying mantis passed away.  The kids were shocked that I just threw it in the trash...I think they were wanting a funeral with burial.  Well, the mantis left us with a gift...an egg casing (ootheca).  We researched that we could be expecting babies at the end of March.  I've also read that it might be empty if there was no mate.  Wait and see I guess.  

 
The 5th and 6th graders finished the day on Thursday by making elephant's toothpaste.  It was a reaction involving hydrogen peroxide, yeast, dish soap, and food coloring.  The 5th graders are learning about physical changes and chemical changes.

 

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Egg-ceptional Experiment this Week


 
The 6th graders are learning about cells.  We are in the middle of an egg experiment.  Yesterday, we soaked the eggs in vinegar for 24 hours.  Today they are soaking in water for 24 hours.  Each day we measure the circumference of the egg and record other observations.  Hmmm...what will tomorrow's egg look like after a 24 soak in water?

Cell Video for the 6th Graders ~ Enjoy!

Cell Video

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Making Money With Minerals

 
The 8th graders had a great lab on Thursday dealing with the mining of minerals vs. cost of waste.  The 8th graders were given 5 minutes to pick out the "minerals" (colored beads, sunflowers) from a birdseed mixture.  Here's the catch - along with the "minerals" came "waste" in the form of millet seed.  At the end of 5 minutes the "minerals" were added up and represented a profit.  The millet seeds were also added up and was their cost.  Plus, any millet seed dropped on the floor, on the desk, etc. represented environmental clean-up.  They didn't do too well as business owners ~ they lost about $1,000.  They learned that a few gold nuggets = a lot of waste & it is more profitable to go after minerals abundant in the Earth's crust.

Friday, October 18, 2013

Animal Cells

 


The sixth graders had fun while learning on Wednesday.  They made a replica of an animal cell creating the organelles out of play dough, pipe cleaners, jellybeans and peanut butter.  Some jellybeans were leftover for a treat.

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Mineral Properties

The 8th graders are busy learning about minerals.  This lab had them determining minerals by their properties.  In the picture they are calculating the volume of the mineral to then figure density.

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

The Best Lessons Are Not Always Planned ~ Praying Mantis

One of our MVCA students brought a praying mantis to school.  It was given to him by his grandmother who was blessed with it from a neighbor.  It was found in a raspberry patch near Avon, SD.  The whole school gathered at the end of the day to watch it eat a grasshopper.  It took awhile, but he finally decided to take a bite!  The video is below.  What a great impromptu lesson for the day!
 



Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Proving 1cm Cubed = 1 mL


The 5th graders created a tin foil box, measured it to find its volume in cubic centimeters, and then filled it with water measured by milliliters.  Does 1cm cubed = 1mL?  Yep!

And, The Worms Ate...

The 6th graders finished their "wormy" experiment yesterday by weighing the mass of the food scraps they put into the jars a couple of weeks ago.  The first number indicates the amount put in and the second number represents what was left.

grapefruit - 14.1g --> 11g;      8.6g --> 0g
apple -          5.2g --> 4g;        5.5g --> 2.7g
banana -     11.2g --> 10.8g; 11.5g --> 0g
kiwi -           5.1g --> 0;          5.1g --> 2.4g
orange -                                  4.5g --> 0g

Reasons given by the 6th graders as to why the first group did not have a substantial decrease...they must be dead!

Well, the first group had small, not too excited earthworms in their jar while the second group has some pretty big, active night crawlers.

All the students agreed...it was a FUN experiment!

Munching on Water

This is what you do when you eat celery according to the 5th graders' latest science experiment.  They determined that celery is 95.6% water!  This is based upon their findings.  They cut up a celery stalk, placed the pieces in a beaker, placed it in a sunny classroom window, and waited.  Here is the final result...
Not "munch" left!

Friday, October 4, 2013

Kingdom Protista Anyone?

The 6th graders got some great shots of the critters found in water from our local bodies of water...Marne Creek and Missouri River.


 
 
Thanks Mr. DeRoos for your GREAT microscope tutorial.
 
 


Saturday, September 28, 2013

Friday Funny

In 8th grade history we have been tracking the days of the voyage of the Mayflower from its original departure on September 6th.  Each day we add one more (or three on Monday) to our number in the center of our whiteboard.  Friday was "Day 21".  As the one student changed the number from 20 to 21 she commented, "I would have been dead by now!"  All of us laughed.  It really does make you think about what these people of faith endured to be able to freely live their faith here in the New World.

Friday, September 27, 2013

See You At The Pole

 
 

Huge THANKS to our most senior students for their organization and leadership of MVCA's "See You At The Pole".  It was a great morning for singing, prayer, and fellowship.

Proper Nutrition at MVCA

 
The 5th grade students are completing their unit on nutrition in science.  One activity was to make a food pyramid poster from local grocery ads and present information they learned in this unit to their fellow MVCA students.  The ladies did a GREAT job and their work WILL help us make good choices when selecting foods for our meals.  Two thumbs up, gals!!

Friday, September 20, 2013

Busy End of the Week

 
The fifth grade girls were busy finishing their food pyramid.  They plan on displaying it in the lunch room and talking to the students about a healthy diet..

 
The 5th and 6th graders are busy researching their Egypt topic.  We are learning how to identify credible websites that can be used as the foundation for our papers.



 
It was a "wormy" Friday in 6th grade science.  Our lab had us making habitats for earthworms including soil, peelings and dry leaves.  We will observe them for two weeks, weighing the peelings every 3 days, and then determining how much the worms "digested".  Fun way to end the week!


Monday, September 16, 2013

"How Do You Like Teaching Again?"

In this past month quite a few have asked me, “How do you like teaching again?”

My response, with a grin, is, “I am the happiest teacher around,” and how could I not!

First, I get the opportunity to teach about the Creator via the amazing world He created.  Did you know the chickadee loses and gains 10% of its body weight each day, fish scales have rings much like the rings of a tree trunk, and termites are a great source of protein and taste like pineapple?

Second, I get the opportunity to share THE TRUTH about this country’s founding.  The text of our eighth grade history book is saturated with God and His hand in the formation of this great nation and clearly points to Him as the sustainer of it.

“Consequently, these Englishmen looked on the New World as a haven where they could freely worship God.  This reason for settlement distinguished the colonial heritage of the United States from that of other European colonies.”  From The American Republic by BJU Press.

Finally, I get the opportunity to share the Creator via the orderliness of mathematics.  Two plus two, two squared, and the square root of sixteen all equal four because an awesome, never-changing God created and sustains all things. Math is a testimony to God’s faithfulness, consistency, trustworthiness, and power.

I know the tremendous responsibility teaching here at MVCA and it is a task I do not take lightly.  As parents who have entrusted your children to me I will do my very best to give them the best Christian education possible with God’s help and guidance.
PS…Rest assured there has been no “sampling” of termites during a Friday lab.  The book gave us this tidbit about termites and their taste.   

Tiny Bubbles

The eighth graders are having fun getting their experiment ready ~ the "old" saltwater, alligator clips, 9-v battery, pencils, and a little tape.  Worked out perfectly with wonderful bubbles forming on the lead of the pencils in the water.  Great job, ladies! 

Saturday, September 14, 2013

Element Powerpoints

The 8th graders had to pick an element and research.  A PowerPoint presentation was the assigned method of sharing their new knowledge with the class.  Here are their presentations...

Argon PowerPoint

Beryllium PowerPoint

Friday, September 13, 2013

Friday the 13th Labs


 
The 6th graders spent their hour after lunch looking at fish scales.  They were busy sketching and taking notes from 3 different species.  After the journaling was complete we talked about what they saw and then viewed the following video...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nOoFkS5qA0 which further explained what we saw.
 
Did you know the rings on fish scale are similar to rings in a tree?

 
The 5th graders were busy with our science volunteer testing different foods for starch.  Here is the wide array of food used for their experiment.  Some did, some didn't, and a few took a bit of work to come up with a result.

Prairie Racerunner

 
The 6th graders are studying about organisms in the chordate phylum.  Mrs. Nelson along with two friends were able to capture a prairie racerunner at a local shooting range.  It was a guest in the classroom for a few days while the students observed it.  We were unsure of its identification until we posted a photo of it on a website called iNaturalist.org.  Someone responded with the name and link to further our study of it.  We are sad to have to release it back into the wild, but very thankful to have a few days with it.  And, thankful to God for creating such wonderful, amazing creatures for us to enjoy and wonder about!! 

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Binomial Nomenclature Anyone?

The 6th graders are learning about the scientific naming of organisms using the genus and species.  The students researched the scientific names of their favorite animal and fruit.  Can you give the common names for the follow?

Update:  The answers have been provided on 9/14.

1.  Lampropeltis getula is a KING SNAKE.

2.  Vitis vinifera are GRAPES.

3.  Acinonyx jubatus is a CHEETAH.

4.  Fragaria ananassa are STRAWBERRIES.

5.  Felis catus is a CAT.

6.  Hexanchus griseus is a BLUNTNOSE SIXGILL SHARK.

7.  Citrullus lanatus is WATERMELON.


Saturday, September 7, 2013

Lab Day

 
Fridays are a busy day in science because it is "lab day".  The 5th grade girls went with a volunteer to complete an experiment dealing with how our body breaks down protein.  Supplies for this trial included pepsin powder, gelatin, and hydrochloric acid.   


The 6th graders spent their "lab day" looking at leaf specimens taken from a variety tress/plants in the Yankton area.  Their task was to determine a classification system for these leaves.  All were successful in that goal.  As a side note, the 6th graders thought they would try to guess the origins of each leaf ~ not too successful on that endeavor.  A couple really stumped them! 

Protons, Electrons, Neutrons & the Periodic Table

 
Yes, rubbing a balloon on your head helps you learn about electrons!

 
A former chemistry teacher told me recently, "Kids just don't know their periodic table!"  We are trying to combat that here at MVCA.  The eighth graders are reconstructing the periodic table given only clues about the atomic structure, mass, and # of each element.

Saturday, August 31, 2013

Signature Seals





The 5th and 6th graders have been learning about the Sumerian civilization which was located in what is now present day Iraq.  On Monday the kids made signature seals or cylinder seals.  On Friday they got to role them in clay to see if they would indeed leave their "signature". 

I've included a link below for further information...
http://www.crystalinks.com/sumercylinderseals.html

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Scientific Minds

 
 
Great time in science class today!  Experiments keep us busy...we learned about safety and different equipment that can be used.



Algebra I for the 8th Graders



Today the 8th graders completed their "homework" on-line.  Yesterday they spent the class period watching a video and taking notes.  Last night was dedicated to studying the textbook and answering practice problems.  Today they completed the cycle by answering and entering their homework.  Technology has sure turned the traditional classroom upside down! The flexibility of on-line classes allows for personalized lessons and the ability for students to work at their own pace.  Individual students are able to move into more advanced math classes when they are ready without waiting for others.  Pre-tests, videos, tutorials, practice tests make it an almost impossible task to fail.  Our students will be able to take a test in the spring and with a passing grade (80%) they will receive high school credit.