Clink here to access the 6th grade summer assignment and reading list.

The first 3 paragraphs of your hero essay are DUE TUESDAY. They need to be typed and saved on the g5 server. The guidelines are below. If you need to see the CNN hero videos again, go to the Heroes post and view.

Hero Essay Structure

Paragraph 1 – Define what a hero is (include hero qualities and be specific)

Paragraph 2 –  Is Ulysses a hero? – show evidence for or against

Paragraph 3 – Modern hero – show evidence (CNN hero or other hero you read about)

Paragraph 4 – Optional  (My Personal hero – show evidence)

Paragraph 5 – Conclusion  – what can I do?  How can I be a hero?

Paragraph Structure

–      Topic Sentence

–      Supporting sentence

–      Evidence (from the book or other example)

–      Clarifying Sentence (explain the evidence)

–      Transition/ Concluding sentence

Example Paragraph for Ulysses (He is not a hero)

While Ulysses does perform some heroic acts in the book The Adventures of Ulysses, by Evslin, overall Ulysses’ hero qualities fall short.  Ulysses shows determination and focus but his many acts of hubris are not heroic.  Ulysses shows excessive pride after blinding the Cyclops, Polyphemus.  “ . . . If anyone asks you, it is not Nobody but Ulysses who has done this to you.”  Ulysses taunts Polyphemus after he has injured him and causes Poseidon to punish Ulysses and his sailors for this act.  A true hero would have tried to defend himself and save his sailors but not shown excessive arrogance and boasted about a savage act.

This homework is due Monday:

1. Find at least 3 new hero nominees that you like. Be prepared to discuss them in class.

2. Share at least 3 of your favorite hero videos with a parent. Ask parents who their favorites are and why.

Click here to go to main page of CNN website.

Click here to view 2009 videos Heather’s class saw this afternoon.

Class favorites from 2009 you may want to share with a parent:

– Brad Blauser (Helping Iraqi children with disabilities)

– Flavia Canto (Judo champion helping children in Brazil)

– Jorge Munoz (Bus driver in Queens who feeds hungry New Yorkers)

– Dr. Carnell Cooper (Surgeon who started an organization to prevent gang violence)

– Roy Foster (Veteran who provides support for other veterans)

– Lidia Shaefer (Built school in Ethiopia)

– Shin Fuijiyama (College students helping children in Honduras)

Thesis – Even though Parvana is not allowed to attend school, she has many great “teachers” who help her learn about life and the world.

Introduce with topic sentence – Parvana learns a lesson from an unlikely teacher, a young Taliban solider in the market who cannot read.

Expand – Parvana is dressed as a boy and working in the market to support her family after her father has been taken to prison. She sells small items and reads letters for people.

Introduce quote from book – One day, a Taliban soldier asks her to read a letter that was written to his wife. Parvana sees him cry and learns his wife has died.

Quote – “Up until then, she had seen Talibs only as men who beat women and arrested her father. Could they have feelings of sorrow, like other human beings?” p. 80

Explain how quote connects to thesis – Parvana learns that people are more complicated than they seem. Even people who seem bad have families they care for, have feelings and are going through difficult times. Parvana realizes that people can learn meaningful life lessons from unlikely sources.

Ancient Egyptian Artifact

We have been hard at work on our tomb preparations. All of the fifth graders are doing research, creating artifacts and preparing for a role as a tour guide. One of the artifacts will be created at home. Students have a project planning sheets and most of them have directions for completing the artifact. The artifact is due Tuesday, March 8th. Students made a plan in their calendar for completing the project on time. The amount of time spent on this project will vary; some of the projects may need adult assistance.

Below is more information about the day of the tomb. Your child will bring home the sign-up sheet today.

Dear Families,

You are cordially invited to our Ancient Egyptian tomb Thursday, March 17th.

• Tours will be given between 8:30-9:30 and 12:00-12:45.

A tour of both classrooms (tomb in W5, crafts in H5) will take about 30-35 min.

• Costume – If s/he would like, your child can come to school with a costume.

Sandals/flip-flops and white sheets converted into tunics will work as Egyptian garb- Khakis and white shirts can serve as archaeologist gear.

• Flashlight -All students are asked to bring in a working flashlight with batteries

(Label with your child’s name).

• Arrival– Students must arrive at school on Thursday by 8:10.

Also, students do not need to bring backpacks on this day.

• Helpers – We need helpers for set-up on Wednesday after school, Thursday at 2:15 and to assist with makeup Thursday morning at 8:00.

Reminders:

1. Costume
2. Flashlight
3. No backpacks

Thanks so much!

-Heather & Wendy

For next week, I’ve asked each of you to create a brief one-minute Animoto (click this for an overview about Animoto) video that connects to one or more of the learnings from our BARNGA experiment.

Here is the list:

• Don’t get mad if someone else sees something a different way.
• Poor communication can lead to conflict.
• Be patient and really listen to what others are trying to say.
• Be more flexible when dealing with others.
• Speak up when something doesn’t seem right.
• Try to work through misunderstandings.
• When people have different ideas in their heads, things can get confusing.
• Different people can have different ideas about things and both can be correct.
• To communicate well, you have to be sensitive and observant.
• Don’t assume that others have the same opinion or ideas that you do.
• It can be hard to work with someone with different views if you aren’t willing to listen to each other.
• When you don’t realize that you and another person are looking at things differently, it can create real problems.
• You shouldn’t assume that people see things the way you do.
• Your assumptions about things can often turn out not to be true.
• It can be hard to see things from another person’s point of view.
• We often spend too much time trying to convince others that our way of seeing things is the right way to see them.
• Don’t jump to conclusions when you don’t understand what someone else is doing.
• Sometimes you need to change what you are doing to work with others.
• You can sometimes learn more by going with the flow than with fighting it.
• Just because something looks the same doesn’t mean that it is.
• If you allow yourself to listen or look for the other side of the story you might learn something important.
• Communication tends to break down when you get angry.
• Always try to listen to what other people have to say.
• Thinking that you are always right can be a trap.
• Before you can really say something about someone you need to try and understand her/him.
• It helps to try to identify what the real problem is.
• Don’t always expect to be right.
• Respect the idea that the “same” experience can be different for each person involved.

 ARW5
Katherine
Coco
Justin
Lily
Austin
Claire
Siena
Kellin
Kiyomi
Rose
Renzo
Campbell
Finn
Daniela
Maxine
Clara
Jared
Caleb
Kai
Emma
Jason

ACH5
Celia
Justin
Dove
Jane
Brianna
Liam
Nico
Wilder
Miles
Florence
Ava
Jacob
Zoe
Kate
Monica
Zeb
Cooper
Katie
Nina
Jackson
Ella

 

To get started, your will need to create an account on the Animoto site. To do this, you should go to https://animoto.com/sign_up. Talk with your parents before you create the account. Enter the promotional code “a4esilb5ac293.”

You  should be able to complete this project in 30-45 minutes. Feel free to work with your parents if you want. If they are going to work independently, please make sure that they have these instructions. As this project will require you to search for images related to one or more of the statements in the above list, you may want to make sure that there is some filtering in place for their search (talk with your parents about this). If you are using Google to search, click on the “Settings” link in the upper right-hand corner of the page and select “Search Settings.”

Scroll down to the “SafeSearch Filtering” section and choose the level of filtering (if any) that you want.
Using Animoto:
Once your account is created and you are logged in, click on the  button in the upper right-hand corner of the page.

This will take you to the “Pick a Video Style” page. You can preview the various styles. When you find the style that you think will best suit your project, click the “create” link under the picture of the style. Now the fun begins.


You can either use photos that animoto has collected “Select” or upload photos from your own computer. The “Upload” selection is your better bet as the animoto collection is pretty limited. Use upload after you have found the images you want to use and have saved them to a folder on your computer’s desktop. You can save an image that you find when using Google image search by right-clicking on it.
When you are looking for images, you should think of key words or ideas (e.g., conflict, communication, etc.) that are related to the statement(s) you are using from the BARNGA list.

Once you’ve uploaded all of your images to animoto, you’ll be taken to a screen that will allow you to order the images and add text (this is where you can add any of the statements from the list to your video).

When you have the images and text that you want, click done. You’ll then be asked to choose a sound file for your video. When you get to the “Finalize” section and you don’t want to make any more changes, click “Continue.” At the next screen, you can give your video a title and an optional description and then send it for processing. While animoto is working, you’ll see this screen:

When the video is done been processed, you’ll be taken to a screen where you can view the video. If you are not happy with it you can select “remix” from the tool bar (this will just make new slide transitions). If you want to change the images or add new text, click on the “My Videos” link at the top of the page.

Your last task it to send me a link to the video. You can do this two ways. Each time you make a video, an email gets sent to the email account associated with your animoto account. You can forward this email to me at msilberberg@lrei.org. You can also send the link to me by clicking the “Share” button and then selecting “Email the link.” Type “msilberberg@lrei.org” in the “To” field and then click “Share Video.”

Here’s an example video that I showed today:
http://animoto.com/play/WoBEigUvvzWF7Ru9XUh2IQ#

1. If you haven’t yet, finish making labels (titles or main ideas) for each paragraph, like we did in class.

2. Choose one sentence from the reading that is an interesting fact (not from the Chew on This excerpt.) Write it at the top of the next available page of the social studies section of your Learning Log. Write 1-2 paragraphs about this fact. It can be opinions, thoughts, questions, etc. 

This is another quick like, just as we did in school on Friday. 

3. Proofread carefully

DUE TUESDAY

After spending the last few months exploring the ancient beginnings of food production during the Civilization Simulation, we are starting our unit on modern food. The assignment this week is for students to interview a grandparent or someone the age of a grandparent (great-aunt, neighbor, family friend, etc.) Students have in their homework folders a series of interview questions about food.

Please help your child decide on a person to interview and set up a time to conduct the interview. It can be over the phone, in person, via skype, etc. It might be helpful to record the interview to be able to write down the answers. It’s also fine to jot down notes during and write in complete sentences afterwards.

We would like to collect and share the answers on Friday. If your child needs the weekend to conduct the interview, she or he should speak to us tomorrow.

Chiefdoms and States that have minerals or metals are now discovering how to use them.  If you have any minerals or metals on your resource card and you would like to use them, answer the following questions:

1. What is iron?

2. How is iron made?

3. What can iron / steel be used for?

Click here for a resource that can help you.

4. What is smelting?

5. What is an alloy?

Click here for a resource that will help you.

EXTRA CREDIT:

Why wouldn’t someone in Papua New Guinea be able to make steel even if they did have access to these  materials?

Click here to find your answer.

Please check your piece using the following checklist:

__  Double-space your piece

__  Add a title and center it

__  Font should be Helvetica or Times New Roman

__  Font should be 12 point

__  Add in the changes you made to your piece today in class

__  Make any other changes that would make your piece SPECTACULAR.

Due Wednesday in AM homeroom. Piece must be printed out by homeroom.