Chinese dynasties visual

An excellent visual of the geographical territories of the Chinese dynasties

This colorful visual rolls through the dynasties and gives the viewer a sense of their vastness and changes.

The Importance of Outlining

For an excellent article on why outlining is important, read the entire entry through this link.

The first paragraph:

Generating an outline before working is not just a good idea, it is essential. Most of the thinking that goes into an essay should be done by the time the outline is written, so that when you actually sit down to write your essay from the outline, your writing is not a matter of formulating ideas in your mind but merely a matter of presenting those ideas in a coherent and persuasive manner.

Useless words

May 1, 2011

Today is the 160th celebration of the first World's Fair known as The Great Exhibition of 1851 held in London, England during the reign of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

In Google's tradition, the anniversary was recognized by using the artful decoration over its search bar. When moused-over, a magnifying glass appears and enlarges the art underneath. Details are seen as the fountain flows with water.

To learn more about The Great Exhibition, read a short summary here or read The World for a Shilling (Leapman). Or, work The Crystal Palace 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle!

Decorah Eagle Cam

Visit the Decorah Eagle Cam!

Two cameras are placed in different locations about five feet away. The cameras are equipped with an infrared lenses so that the birds can be viewed during the night.

The House by the Side of the Road (Sam Foss)

Enjoy listening to these readings of "The House by the Side of the Road" by Sam Foss.

Kipling's "If" by Middlers

Monday night, all middle-schoolers will give a recitation of Rudyard Kipling's "If" from memory. They know it well and can be very exuberant in their presentation. I look forward to it and hope parents are pleased!

Check out "If" in song to the tune is Pachelbel's Canon with guitar. The words follow.

If
by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

Patrick Henry's "Give me Liberty or give me Death" speech

Ron Paul enacts Patrick Henry's famous speech and only misses one line right at the end.

Follow along in your handout or go here to see the written speech.

Diagram it!

For those of you who have trouble with diagramming sentences, refer to this page for some visual help.

Check out this teacher who has a YouTube channel on diagramming sentences. He even has Competitive Sentence Diagramming! Mmmmm, I'm thinking.........

Summer Reading

Students, don’t forget to read!

Mr. Andrews says that

one week without reading

makes one weak. :)

Your lists are linked here:

6^th grade

7^th grade

8^th grade

I’m reading an 800+ page book. Wonder if I’ll finish it before August 19?

Middle School Catechism Songs

Shorter Catechism Question 1:
What is the chief end of man?
Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.




Shorter Catechism Question 4
What is God?
God is a spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.


The four CDs are available for purchase through Reformed Music.

CHA Middle School Recitation of "If"

Great job!

Anne of Green Gables

What do you know about Anne of Green Gables?

What do you remember?

Have some fun practicing these 10-15 question quizzes on the book.

Quiz 1

Quiz 2

Quiz 3

Quiz 4

Quiz 5

Quiz 6

Intriguing Travels

Don't these pictures intrigue you?

Aren't you curious to find out what these doors are?

Do they lead anywhere?

What if you could travel to another place through one of those doors?

Students, have you planned your summer travel reading list?

I know, you're rolling your eyes and thinking, "Who makes a reading list?"

Well, just think of all the time you will have this summer! What a great time to spend in leisure traveling all over the world, and even into some imaginary worlds, through a good story.

Start thinking about a few books you should read for pleasure. Here are three to get you thinking: 100 Cupboards, Dandelion Fire, and The Chestnut King.

The first one is really good, the second better, and the third best.



Here's a video of author Nate Wilson on the Today Show.

"Reading is the basic tool of the good life." ~ Adler

Play and Learn

As an American citizen, you need to know what your rights are. Play this game to help you learn portions of the Bill of Rights in the United States Constitution.

Middle school fieldtrip

Merry Christmas to a great group of kids!

IRA Biographical Interpretation

IRA = Individual Reading Assignment

This assignment was a biography. After reading the book, the student had to make a lapbook of the person's life and then present the lapbook to the class dressed in character of the person.

Here are some lapbooks (front and inside) and some students dressed in character.

Lapbooks

So that you don't get lost in your travels to the links below, keep this page open when you go to the links by right clicking on the bold-faced link. In the little box that opens, left click on Open in New Tab.

Here are some lapbook links that will help you get some ideas for your own lapbook.

Read about what lapbooks are and how to make them at this link. This page is full of other specific links.

Planning a lapbook is like writing an outline. First you must decide on the topic. Then you break that topic down into different main topics, each with subtopics and points. This link will help you understand how to plan a lapbook.

A nice overview of lapbooks is found here. It is a pdf and takes a minute to load; be patient!

Don't try to plan your entire lapbook at first. The best thing is to start making several mini-books and store them in a ziplock bag. Keep them until you have several, and then you can begin to build your lapbook.

Pictures and descriptions of minibooks

Another link for pictures of minibooks These use scraps from leftover wallpaper books.

YouTube videos on how to make lapbooks

Next IRA project -- November 23

©Mental Multivitamin

Mrs. Dye goes to Venice, Italy

Link to Venice pictures.

This link is not active from the school computer lab, so if you want to see these pictures, you will need to link to them from somewhere other than the computer lab.

Eighth graders, notice that St. Mark's Square is where one fight took place in the 1848 Italian Revolution between Mazzini's Young Italy, or Carbonaria, and the Austrians. That's history-alive! Also notice the name of the street in the street sign.

Enjoy!

Photos of Paris, Switzerland, Pisa, and Florence

Addendum:

Students, or parents, or teachers.....

You will not be able to view these pictures in the computer lab. These pictures are stored on a Facebook account, and Facebook is not accessible in the lab. But, you can access it from anywhere else. :)

If you would like to see all of my photos from my trip to Paris, Switzerland, and Pisa and Florence, Italy, click the links below. I will add more places as I get the photos ready.

Enjoy!

Paris, France

Lucerne, Switzerland

Pisa, Italy

Florence, Italy