Ancient Civ

This week:  Students prepared for their vocabulary and BIG ideas quiz. These grades should be posted today.

In class students discussed symbols which represent our culture, and our government. Students then began to research How the Egyptians set up the worlds first Unified government.

Vulture goddess and Cobra Goddess

         A war led to the Unification of the two lands

They discovered that there were actually two Egypt's,  Upper and Lower each with its own special symbols and kings.

Up-Coming Events: 

Students will be creating posters in class explaining what  role their government played in creating one of the worlds most advanced and stable civilizations in human history.

What's Happening In Interdisciplinary?

Mr. Vogel's Corner:

 SUPPORT THE BYRAM TOWNSHIP EDUCATION FOUNDATION TRICKY TRAY

  This great (adult) event will be held Saturday, March 12, 2016 

The best part is the homeroom with the 

Biggest & Bestest Basket 

will receive a prize!!!

Mr. Vogel's Theme is 
fun in the kitchen

(kitchen goodies)

IS THERE A TIME FOR EXTRA HELP?
When possible, the fifth grade staff has made our rooms available to students looking for an opportunity to work on assignments during our shared lunch period. Students can find Mr. Vogel in his room on most B days.

Ancient Civ

After a five day mid winter break, we all came back rested and  ready to get back to school!  

The two days last week provided the perfect opportunity to recognize African American History month. Students read an article about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X .  No one had ever heard of Malcolm X, so this was a great opportunity to have the students compare and contrast these two important African Americans. This type of factual writing is a challenging part of fifth grade, Our fifth graders are learning how to identify different perspectives and provide supporting details from the text. 

Up-Coming Events: 

There was a lot of excitement as students kicked off our unit on Egypt! 

Students began by learning about the regions geography, and how Egypt became the "Gift of the Nile". Since predicting the Nile's flood was so important to Egyptian society, students had the opportunity to get hands on with some of the time keeping devices at learning stations set up around the classroom: water clocks, giant obelisks, and hand held merkhets. The only prediction device I couldn't figure out how to replicate in the classroom was the Nilometer! 

By the end of this week, the plan is to schedule time so everyone will have a go at another station. I will attempt to take some pictures of this activity to share with you!

USGS

THEN...                                          NOW....

This week we will be exploring how Egyptians set up the worlds first Unified government and what  role the government played in creating one of the worlds most advanced civilizations.

Quiz on Egyptian, Phoenician, and Lydian vocabulary / big ideas  is scheduled for Thursday and Friday. 

                                    

What's Happening In Interdisciplinary?

Genius Hour Presentations are scheduled for Monday and Tuesday! 

Students will be presenting their research to their classmates. Look forward to pictures from that event.

Mr. Vogel's Corner:

 SUPPORT THE BYRAM TOWNSHIP EDUCATION FOUNDATION TRICKY TRAY

  This great (adult) event will be held Saturday, March 12, 2016 

The best part is the homeroom with the 

Biggest & Bestest Basket 

will receive a prize!!!

Mr. Vogel's Theme is 
fun in the kitchen

(kitchen goodies)

IS THERE A TIME FOR EXTRA HELP?
When possible, the fifth grade staff has made our rooms available to students looking for an opportunity to work on assignments during our shared lunch period. Students can find Mr. Vogel in his room on most B days.

February 5, 2016

This Week:

Students were extremely proud of their newspapers!  All of my bulletin boards displayed examples of their creativity and knowledge!  

This activity was challenging.  providing students with opportunities to present information on topics which they have researched. The fifth grade really stepped up, finding information supporting their ideas and presenting their thoughts in an interesting way to their audience. This will be the first grade of the third marking period and should be appearing in Parent Portal Monday night!

Nicole Miller reported...

The lydians were the first ones to use coined money.

Before coined money the traders had to rely on barter, the exchange of one good for another. The use of money made it so that traders could set prices for different kinds of goods and services. Societies could then develop a money economy. Money economies are economic systems that are based on the use of money rather than barter.

We have a new navigation system for sailors on the deep seas! If you're trying to find the right direction, then follow the Phoenician star. Also known as, the Polaris. It directs to the north, so you know where every other direction is. You can look at the star, and then know where east, south and west is. The Phoenician star is found and lies, in the Ursa Minor constellation. We always wanted to stay in sight of our land so we don't get lost when sailing. But when they do go into deep seas, they can always look at the north star so they don't get themselves lost.

Hanna Reardon reported....

OPINION: IS PURPLE DYE GOOD FOR EVERYONE?

I set out today to interview two people, the mayor of Phoenicia and a middle class citizen of Phoenicia who owns a murex snail. I interviewed the Mayor first:

Me: Hi Mayor! I came to talk to you today about your opinion on this new fad- purple dye made from murex snails.

Mayor: Hi! I think this purple dye is a great thing! I mean it looks AMAZING on me!! It is only for the King and nobles. It is such a royal color! Maybe if we can find enough murex snails, the Middle Class will get some purple sleeping robes!

Me: Thank you Mayor. I have taken up enough of your time today. Thanks again!

Mayor: Bye!

Now on to Suzanne’s house- a Middle Class citizen and owner of a murex snail

Me: Hi Suzanne! I came to talk to you today about your opinion on the purple dye made from murex snails.

Suzanne: I HATE Phoenician Purple. It’s the worst thing that has  ever happened in Phoenicia. Me and my friends all have murex snails. My friends have one to two and I have 3. I love murex snails! They are our pets not our clothing! Did you know it takes 12,000 snails to make 1.4 grams of dye!

Me: Thank you Suzanne. You will be in the newspaper tomorrow. Bye!

Suzanne: Bye! Thank you!

Casey Gilbert and Grace Gile reported ...

The Phoenicians are Learning the Alphabet

Back to kindergarten! The Phoenicians made a new alphabet with 22 letters. The alphabet has two vowels and twenty consonants. There are 22 symbols. One for each letter. People are now learning to read and write. All though that is good news for us, it isn't for scribes. Scribes are losing their jobs now that everyone can write. On the other hand you have good news for businesses. Now that people in business can read and write, they can also put bills in writing all by themselves! They can also document trade agreements on their own without a scribe! I bet your can learn the alphabet too!  

Marc Fodor reported...

Ships in Phoenicia are EXTREMELY

IMPORTANT!

Without Phoenician ships, we could not find new land. Our greatest resource is Cedar trees! ....due to the lack of farmland, we made ships to find the most important resource of all, new land. So all we need was more exploration.   

We made the ship with a keeled hull so we could sail in open seas and get to trade

Up-Coming Events: There was a lot of excitement as students kicked off our unit on Egypt !  Students shared with the class What they Knew about ancient Egypt, and then after a class discussion, What they wanted to Know .  These were shared with the class using our smart board!

   

Who wants to share their ideas?

Add caption

Just getting started!

Troy is the geography king!

Lots of ideas!

Students shared an impressive amount of interest!                                                                                                                                                                               

 We had to keep scrolling the page to get everyone in!

                                       

They don't tire

What's Happening In Interdisciplinary?

Genius Hour That's What! 

Due Wednesday:

• 6 items on resource tracker (2 can be video)
• KWH sections of the KWHLAQ

• If they are done with these, they should be finding and gathering research to become a genius (info that they can put into their written piece)
• These SHOULD NOT be turned in yet.

• By Friday: 3 paragraphs answering your question USING your research.  This will be put into GC next week.

Vogel's Corner:

 SUPPORT THE BYRAM TOWNSHIP EDUCATION FOUNDATION TRICKY TRAY

  This great (adult) event will be held Saturday, March 12, 2016 

The best part is the homeroom with the 

Biggest & Bestest Basket 

will receive a prize!!!

Mr. Vogel's Theme is 
fun in the kitchen

(kitchen goodies)

IS THERE A TIME FOR EXTRA HELP?
When possible, the fifth grade staff has made our rooms available to students looking for an opportunity to work on assignments during our shared lunch period. Students can find Mr. Vogel in his room on most B days.