This week I showed the class a couple of National History Day websites. You can see them too. The links are at the bottom right of this page.

I also showed a bunch of photographs of exhibits from the National History Day I took students to in 2008. 

Then I helped students plan out how to design either an exhibit, if that's what they wanted to do, or a website, if that's what they wanted to do. About a third of the class is planning to make exhibits and the rest are making websites.

The students are busy turning their notes into paragraphs.

Parents, you are allowed to read the paragraphs and make suggestions for how your child might revise or edit their work!

We are also working on making proper "Lists of Works Consulted," following MLA format.

We are continuing to work on the social studies Classroom Based Assessments (CBAs). If you go to Elementary Stuff and look under social studies, you will find LOTS of materials for the CBAs.

​By now everyone should have all their resources and all their notes. Next week we will work on writing the text of the CBAs. 

I've updated the calendar with individual due dates for oral and CBAs. You can access it on the Elementary Stuff page. I have ordered PRINTS of the February and March pages for everyone. I should have those by Monday.

We reviewed the elements of literature, which are a part of the oral book reports. At the same time we used those elements to discuss tips for writing our own short stories. Students are going to write historic fiction pieces set in colonial America.

They have read about the different types of colonies: New England, Middle, and Southern, so they can choose the type of colony they want for their setting.

BEFORE they start actually writing, they want to come up with a plan: an inciting incident, a problem/conflict, a climax, and a resolution. they want an idea of their characters. What is their theme?

The fun part is they can choose the genre of writing!