No school Friday

There is no school and no dance tonight due to the weather.

Have a good day!

Test your knowledge of European Countries..

I found a website that will really help your mapping skills to learn the countries of Europe. Click here to go to the site. I recommend going to the section under "Countries" and picking Level 1-Beginner. There is also a version for dial-up users. After you get really good at this level, and I mean at a level where you know them all then you might want to move to Level 2. On the left side of the web page, you can click on any European country and learn a lot about it. The capitals game and landforms game is also really great. I think anything on the page is going to help you learn more about Europe for sure, but the Level 1 Countries game is probably the most useful right now for you.

Now, to see some different comments from you guys and gals, I'd like to you to go to the site and read about one country we haven't talked about in class. Reply with a comment telling a couple of things you learned about the country you decided to read about. I'll post a sample for you.

http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/European_Geography.htm



UPDATE (5:45 Wed): Since we talked about Darfur today I decided to add two videos I found on it. The first one was created by a middle school student for a school project! The second is a music video and song telling about Darfur. Remember the middle school dance on Friday is a Diversity Club dance, and they are trying to raise some money to send to Darfur.

France!

Want to learn a little more about France? Click on the word France and you'll get to check out a site with some information about the country. Remember tonight's homework is to read pg. 300-304, then answer 2, 3, 4, and 6 on pg 304.

Now for tonight's fun video, I decided to pick something that art students and technology students might really find interesting. A guy posted this video using Microsoft Paint to re-create the Mona Lisa, which is an extremely famous piece of artwork created by Leonardo da Vinci. Using Paint, this guy was able to make his own version of the painting in about 2 and a half hours. Try to use Paint sometime to draw something, and you will see that this would be EXTREMELY difficult to do. Using time lapse (basically like fast forwarding), he took the video from 2.5 hours to under 5 minutes. You can comment and tell me how you think this guy's picture turned out. I was amazed by how good the guy is....

Congrats to NBC sports teams + Ireland!

In the last several nights we have had some really great things happen. Both basketball teams defeated good Tussey Mountain teams (the girls won on Thursday and the boys won Friday night). The girls are the top seed in the district right now and the boys knocked off a Tussey team that only had one loss before the game Friday night. We also have a couple of guys in Saturday's semifinals at the Thomas Tournament in Bedford. T. Chesney and B. Sollenberger will wrestle in the morning. A win means a chance at a gold medal in one of the best tournaments in the state. Good luck guys!

For your viewing pleasure this weekend, we have a travel type of video that is super neat. It feels like you are flying over the country. I think you will be able to tell why they call it the Emerald Isle. Look at all that green! The second video of the weekend shows some great Irish dancing. In this type of dancing the focus is on rapid leg movements while the body and arms remain nearly motionless. The dancers in this video are IMPRESSIVE!

Have a wonderful weekend...

Some math games and London, England

I found some neat math games today during my planning period that I thought you might want to check out. Spend a few minutes and play these things! Don't forget to check out the videos from yesterday for parts of speech.

Egg Catch- In this game, you practice the times tables by catching eggs in a basket!

Times Tables- This is a flash card game. See how fast you can type in the correct answer.
Division Facts- This is a matching game for division problems. How fast can you get through each round?
Math Vocabulary- How about a little bit of PSSA Math vocabulary? You have to be able to talk to the talk to understand math. This should help you learn some words!

Click this video to take a ride on the London Eye!

This is the world's largest ferris wheel and looks over London, England. Click here to go to the London Eye website.

The start of a 3 day week...

Today we started our unit on Europe. Over the next several class periods we will start with the countries of western Europe. We will also watch Discovery Atlas: Italy Revealed in this unit. I really think you will enjoy this. My favorite part of the video is about a horse race called the Palio.

Since we'll learn about Spain in this section, I thought you might like this Spanish #'s game. There are numbers from 1-100 listed. You might learn a few numbers just for the fun of it doing this... http://www.quia.com/mc/65552.html

Here is another Spanish game for you where you try to learn the months in Spanish. This is easier since there are only 12. http://www.quia.com/pp/2088.html

Have a good night everyone. If you are going to the wrestling match versus Bellwood at home tonight have some fun rooting for our guys to win! The junior high match could be one of the best ones of the year and it starts at 6.

Finally, I decided a short clip on pronouns would be appropriate to add for English class. This is from an old show called "Grammar Rock" that was really popular back in the day for learning language arts. I know it is a little corny, but it might make you laugh while you learn a little something about pronouns. Just click on the video below to watch it.

and for the fun of it... Why not watch a similar video on verbs?

MLK Day!

I hope you are all enjoying your long weekend. I'll see you again on Wednesday. Today we did not have school because of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Hopefully, you will check out this link to learn more about this man who worked hard for change.

http://www.usemb.se/Holidays/celebrate/mlk.html

You really should scroll about halfway down that page and read the "I Have a Dream" speech if nothing else. If you want any help understanding it, you can bring your questions to me when you get back from your time off. Have a great day on Tuesday!



Click on this video to watch Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech!

If you want to watch a good movie on your day off, consider "Remember the Titans" because it is a good fit for MLK Day.

A snowy Thursday... Jan 17, 2K8

We just finished our unit on South America, and now we will be starting our unit on Europe.


http://www.lonelyplanet.com/worldguide/europe/


That link will allow you to look at the countries of Europe. You will also be able to find all sorts of information about each country as you just follow the links through new material.


In English, we started on pronouns this week. Here are some great links to games and quizzes you might want to check out:

http://www.quia.com/quiz/1148330.html?AP_rand=1659775610

http://www.quia.com/pop/35480.html

http://www.quia.com/pop/108109.html

http://www.quia.com/cb/84201.html

Enjoy the snow tonight!!!

If it keeps up over night and schools start delaying, you can check updates here:

http://www.wjactv.com/ or http://www.wearecentralpa.com/

The weekend...

Well gang, the weekend is upon us....

The geography quizzes went really well! I am extremely pleased with what each of you learned about Brazil this week. I hope you thought it was interesting.

Movie recommendation for the weekend: Ice Age (It is going to be cold out, so this is my choice for the weekend if you want to watch a movie.)

If you want something to do this weekend that is geography related, you can do a webquest on Brazil. Just follow the directions from the website and work at it. Now, this isn't something I am assigning or grading so you can pick and choose the parts of it you would like to do. Make a log of what you do and show me early next week and we'll discuss some BONUS POINTS! Click here to find the webquest-
http://www.teachnet.ie/stpats/2003/discover_brazil/introduction.html

To do the webquest you start at the introduction, then the task, then process, and so on. Have fun! Some of the links aren't working so like I said, try to do what you can. I did not create the webquest so there may be links that don't work or directions to do things that you can not do (you might not have the program it says to use).

Topic for next week: The Andes Mountains
Link for some information on the Andes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andes

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!

Some things to know...

10 things to know for Friday's quiz:

1. Who was the first group of Europeans to discover Brazil?


2. What is the estimated population of Brazil? 100 million, 200 million, or 300 million


3. What is the world's largest festival/parade called?


4. What is the largest city in Brazil? Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador


5. In that city, what is a fast growing form of transportation?


6. What long river is a major part of Brazil?


7. What is the most popular sport in the country?


8. In terms of size, Brazil ranks ____ in the world.


9. Brazil is the world's leading producer of what meat?


10. Brazil is the world's leading producer of _____________ which is used to make a drink.





Answers: 1. Portuguese 2. 200 million 3. Carnival 4. Sao Paulo, 5. helicopters 6. Amazon 7. soccer 8. 5th 9. beef 10. coffee

Link for the day: http://www.braziltourism.org/

Also, Kaitlyn C. is moving to Florida. If you want to check out where she is moving to you can go to http://maps.google.com/ and search for La Belle, FL.

Finally, congratulations to Sienna B. for being the Student of the Month!!

January 9, 2008

Geography: In geography, we are currently finishing up Discovery Atlas: Brazil Revealed. This is an outstanding program created to teach about Brazil through the lives of seven people. You can find out more about the program here: http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/atlas/brazil/brazil.html


We will discuss the video and more on Brazil from the textbook tomorrow, and there will be a quiz on Friday.


English: We are working on limericks. A limerick is a 5 line poem that is meant to be funny. Lines 1,2, and 5 rhyme and match syllables and lines 3 and 4 rhyme and match syllables.
What is a limerick? Find out more here: http://www.gigglepoetry.com/poetryclass/limerickcontesthelp.html

Spelling: This week is a review unit (18). The test is 50 words. On Thursday our homework is due and that is as follows: 1-25 (sentences), 26-50 (5x each), and pages 86-89 proofreading.