Finally Done with FCAT!

Back to Australia!

After a week of FCAT testing, World Cultures finally got back to work! As a review on Monday, the students represented what we learned about the climate, geography, and animals of Australia and New Zealand in a drawing. The kiwi bird seemed to be the star of most drawings (check out Jose's kiwi below!)


Here are some great examples from the boys in 1st period:

   

 Vanessa and Jose show off their drawings during 4th period:

Vocabulary

We also added 8 more vocabulary words to our word wall on Monday. On Thursday and Friday all classes will receive a vocabulary practice for homework, and our vocabulary quiz will be Thursday, May 3 (for 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 7th periods) and Friday, May 4 (for 4th and 8th periods).

In the meantime, here are the 16 vocabulary words we've learned so far:

1. marsupial: an animal, such as a kangaroo, that carries its young in a body patch

2. tectonic plate: a huge slab of rock that moves slowly over a softer layer beneath the surface of Earth's crust 

3. geyser: a hot spring that shoots a jet of water and steam into the air

4. fiord: a long, narrow inlet or arm of the sea bordered by steep slopes created by glaciers

5. unique: one of a kind, different

6. isolate: to keep separate

7. ample: more than enough, abundant

8. major: greater in size or importance

9. impress: to have a strong effect, to amaze

10. adapt: to adjust, change, or alter

11. possession: ownership

12. rapidly: marked by a fast rate of activity, quickly

13. Maori: a native of New Zealand whose ancestors first traveled from Asia to Polynesia and later to New Zealand

14. Aborigine: a member of the earliest people of Australia who probably came from Asia

15. penal colony: a place where people convicted of crimes are sent

16. station: in Australia, a large ranch for raising livestock

Happy studying :)

More on the Aborigines and the Maori people in the next post...

Australia! 

Last Thursday we started our unit on Australia and New Zealand. The students seemed pretty excited to move on to a continent of kangaroos, wombats, and dingos. Australia and New Zealand are so different from the rest of the world, so it's no surprise our unit essential question would focus on why the region is so different. 

Our unit essential question:

I usually begin a unit using a KWL Chart, which is a chart that asks students what they already know about a subject, what they want to learn about a subject, and, at the end of the unit, what they learned about the subject. Often I ask the class to raise their hands and provide answers, but I thought letting the students work on their own KWLs would be fun. The students worked in groups to fill in a "Know" and "Want to know" column. 

A blank chart:

I played music (Michael Jackson, anyone?), and when the music stopped each group stood up from their desks and moved to the next group. There they decided on the best response in that group's K or W column and they recorded it on their "master" copy. By the end, everyone in the class had read everyone else's chart and had a great time doing it. 

Here is an excellent KWL chart from a group in 4th period:

After the KWLS, we moved on to the animals, climate, and geography of Australia. I think the students especially liked the dingos. More on that later! 

Welcome to our classroom blog!

Welcome to our classroom blog! 

I'm so excited to start sharing the work the 6th grade students are doing in our World Cultures class. I'll be posting the best work of the week here, as well as homework assignments, weekly vocabulary lists, quiz dates, and unit/lesson essential questions. 

For the first post, I'll start by giving you an update of where we've been and provide some photos of the fantastic work the students have done so far this year! 

Southeast Asia

Before the FCAT began this week we wrapped up a unit on Southeast Asia, my favorite unit so far. I think the students really enjoyed it as well! We learned about the climate, culture, and history of this diverse region of islands and peninsulas. 

My students learned about the Vietnam War through videos, photographs, and various texts. We watched clips from the television show "The Wonder Years," the documentary Dear America, Letters from Vietnam, and clips from the movie Across the Universe. We used cause and effect and sequencing to understand this important event. 

7th Period's "Before, During, and After" Drawings:

We also watched portions of a documentary Scream Bloody Murder to learn about the Cambodian genocide in the mid-1970s by the Khmer Rouge. The students created posters to hang on the door in the style of "Kony 2012" posters; instead of Kony, though, we focused on Pol Pot, the leader of the Khmer Rouge. 

My 4th period class did a great job brainstorming and creating posters:

At the end of the unit, students compared and contrasted the countries of Southeast Asia and then chose one country they would visit. Then they created a travel brochure about that country to try to convince ME to visit! 

Alani's travel brochure stood out from the crowd--she did a fantastic job!

Thanks for reading!

Next Post: Australia!