7th Grade U.S. History

The students are taking notes on WWI for an essay test. The students are responsible for two of the three following questions. 1)Tell in detail what led Europeans to WWI; 2) Name and explain the use of any new weapons used in WWI. Make sure you tell which side used these weapons. 3)

Tell what factors led to the U.S. entering the war.

The earliest this test will be is Oct. 22.

8th Grade Geography

The students have been studying Illinois Government for the past month. Quiz #4 was today and the last quiz before the test will be next week. The 8th graders will take the IL government test the last week of October.

7th Grade U.S. History

The 7th graders have been working on their Journals which are due May 7. The students are either traveling to Oregon in their journal or to the California Gold Rush.

The rest of the year will be spent on the Civil War time period. We will be covering the causes of the war, the war itself and then the reconstruction of our country.

8th Grade Geography

The 8th graders just finished a unit on Australia and enjoyed Australian food last Friday.

They will be working in groups to create their own country for the next 3 weeks. At the beginning they have to decide where their country is going to be, how big is it and what kind of climate are they going to have.They will soon be deciding what kind of landforms they are going to have, the natural resources their county will have and if they are mainly farming or an industrialized country. Other decisions to make will be what type of government they will have, what types of foods they eat in their country and how they take care of their environment.

7TH GRADE

My U.S. History classes have been working on Nuclear War Projects for the last two weeks. The students were assigned a topic to look up and were told to make a poster of what they found out. Most of the projects have been completed and they can be seen in the school library once they have been graded. The students who are done have done a great job on them. Here is a short list of some of the topics chosen for their projects: Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, Project Blue Book, Area 51, Mount Pony, Mount Weather, Cheyenne Mountain, White Sands Missile Range, Manhattan and the Green River Missile Launch Complex.

Within the next two weeks the 7th graders will be using the front of their history book and begin learning about the thirteen original colonies.

8TH GRADE

The 8th graders did a fantastic job on their IL Constitution Test with only one person failing the test. Since then we have spent a week and a half covering the holocaust. Assignments during the week and a half: a worksheet;bar graph & map; survivor assignment; doctor of Auschwitz assignment and a vocabulary worksheet dealing with prejudice, racism, stereotype, etc.

The students will have four tests coming up:

Nov. 18 (Wednesday) State Location Test

Nov. 25 (Wednesday) State & Capital Test

Dec. 4 (Friday) State Abbreviation Test

Dec. 9 (Wednesday) 25 Largest U.S. Cities Map Test

I gave the students a packet which included information for all four tests last week. They also have a map in their planner on page 135 that can help them study for their state location test. On page 134 of the planner their is a list of abbreviations and state and capitals of the U.S. Also, at the beginning of the year I gave the students a sticker to put in the back of their planner with the state abbreviations and state and capitals on it.

In class for the next couple of weeks we will be working on packets that deal with state location, state abbreviations and state and capitals.

Vietnam Veteran Visit

Here are some great photos of our visit from Mr. Rice. Thanks for taking time out to talk to us about the Vietnam War.

8th Grade Geography

Today the students will be taking Quiz #4 dealing with the Executive Branch. On Wednesday, Oct. 21 - the students will be taking Quiz #5 dealing with the Judicial Branch. The IL Government Test is set for Oct. 26-27.

Next - Tie in what we study in Geography with the books being Mrs. Rhoades is having her students read in her class - "Devil's Arithmetic" & "Night" both dealing with the Holocaust during WWII.

7th Grade U.S. History

The students have continued to learn about the Cold War. We have recently covered the Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba as well as the Cuban missile crisis and about the wall that was put up between East & West Germany. In class we have just begun covering the Vietnam War. Charlie Rice, who served in the Navy during the war has been in to talk to them about the war.

Next on the agenda is to tie in the reading book in Mr. Berry's room "The City of Embers" dealing with an underground city caused by a nuclear war to my history class and the Cold War.

7th Grade U.S. History

This year I decided to do things different in U.S. History. I am beginning with Chapter 27 which is called The Cold War and the American Dream. This chapter covers the time span from 1945-1960 and is usually not covered before the school year is out.

This chapter covers the origins of the Cold War, Berlin Airlift, containment, Korean War, McCarthyism, arms race, space race, u-2 incident. The last 2 days have been used showing the classes what living in the 50's was like by using YouTube and finding movies, television shows, cartoons, commercials & music from that decade.

The students have had three assignments so far. The first assignment was filling in a map of Europe during the Cold War. The 2nd assignment was a book assignment p. 855 #4 & 5 and the 3rd assignment was a worksheet dealing with a speech by Margaret Chase Smith. The 4th assignment will be a worksheet dealing with the last lesson in Ch. 27 on one side and will have a graph on the other.

This week we will begin Chapter 28 which is called The Civil Rights Era

8th Grade Geography

The 8th graders began the year working with IL Highway Maps. They have been working with finding population, counties and cities. They have learned 3 ways to do mileage on the map as well as finding highways, rivers and recreation areas.

The 8th graders will have their first test this week dealing with a highway map. The first page is memory work from worksheet #1 and the rest of the test will deal with working with a highway map.