TEST: Africa Political Map

Today Wednesday 23rd February we took our test on the political map of Africa. Students who missed today will need to arrange a time after school, during 7th period (if their teacher will let them, or TA to come in and make it up.

Students who scored 43 or less on the test are also more than welcome to schedule a redo and make up their grade to a B max.

Thanks.

Culture Contact - Video

Today Tuesday 22 February we watched a video on the cultures and lifestyles of Africa. Most classes choose to watch "Voices of the Forest" which focused on the Pygmies of Cameroon and the people of Ghana. Some classes choose to watch the"Leopards of Zanzibar" which focused on the lifestyles of the island of Zanzibar off the coast of Tanzania.

Thanks.

Africa Mapping Day #4

Today Thursday 17th Thursday we spent the day singing, mapping and listening to African music. Most students are well into having drawn the actual countries of Africa and many are labeling them. We will work on the map again tomorrow and then students will take the map home and have it ready on Tuesday.

Thanks.

Africa Mapping Day #3

Today Wednesday 16th February we worked on our maps of Africa. Most students completed the outline and were well into drawing the countries.

Thanks

Africa mapping Day #2

Today Tuesday 15th February we actually got onto the grid and started mapping out the continent of Africa. We spent a few minutes going over capital cities and singing the country song for Africa.

Thanks.

Africa Mapping Day #1

Today Monday 14th Monday we began our Africa unit by discussing capital cities and learning a song that is intended for the students to help them memorize the 54 countries of this amazing continent.

We also graded last week's test and collected the notes and review crossowrds from our culture unit.

Thanks.

Friday - Culture Test

On Friday 11th February we took our test on culture. Other than that it was a short day and we did nothing else. We will be collecting the review crossword and the notes for the culture unit on Monday.

Thanks.

Library Research Day - Africa Day #2

Today Thursday 10th February we spent the day in the library using the internet to research our countries for our Africa Country Presentation project. The students were taught how to use and access a website called Culturegrams. Each student was given instructions on how to use this website at home, as they will need a username and password.

Thanks.

Culture Review

Today Wednesday 9th February we spent the day reviewing for our test on culture. Students completed a crossword review and collected their three note sheets for the unit. These note sheets will be collected for points on Friday before the test.

The note sheets are:
1) Culture and Cultural Expressions
2) Language Families, Dialects, and Linguistics
3) The World's Five Main Religions

Thanks

Africa Research Project

Today Tuesday 8th February we assigned partners and countries for our Africa Research Project. Students were allowed to choose their partners and one country of the 54 from Africa. Students will create a 3 page typed report along with a poster board presentation for their country. These projects are worth 150 points and will be due on the Wednesday 23rd February.

After countries were chosen, students spent the rest of the day working with their partners researching their country.

Thanks.

World Religions Day #2

Today Monday 7th February we spent more time looking at the unique characteristics of the different world religions. We also looked at religion distribution in the United States. We also discussed why people had religions and how like other aspects of culture, how religions represented difference and unique characteristics of people all over the world. We also looked at some of the positive and negative impacts religions has had on people in general terms.

Thanks.

Friday - Presenting Culture Posters

On Friday 4th February we presented our culture posters to the class. Several students were given the opportunity to share their personal posters with the class. Students discussed their favorite music, holidays, foods and things that defined them as an individual.

After culture poster presentations we corrected a worksheet we completed on cultural geography and discussed the differences between innovation and diffusion as it relates to cultural change. Innovation is something new within the culture itself and diffusion is something new that has come from somewhere else. We also talked about globalization and traditionalism as it relates to changes today. Globalization is the connection of people in ever closer ways today and that culture is becoming more alike. Traditionalism is the desire to keep to the old ways and resist change and connections.

Thanks.

World Religions

Today Thursday 3rd February we discussed the five major world religions: Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, and Buddhism. We discussed the basic structure, location, and vocabulary for each religion. We then finished our assignment from yesterday and began a small assignment on religion.

Thanks.

Wednesday - World Languages

On Wednesday 2nd February we spent the day discussing language as a part of culture and learning the difference between a dialect and a language. We also discussed language families and what ideograms are. The assignment we did was an inc lass assignment that will require the student to come in during TA, 7th period, or after school to make up.

We also did a grade check with all students.

Thanks.

Culture Unit Introduction

Today Tuesday 1st February we continued on our opening assignment by working on our culture posters. This assignment will be due on Thursday of this week and needs to be in full color. Also there is a small writing portion that is needed which can be done on the back of the poster.

Thanks.