Conquest of the Maya - History A

In 1502 Columbus first made contact with the Mayan Indians.   By that point the great cities of the Mayan empire had already been abandoned.  The Maya were organized into a large number of independent states, which the conquistadors subdue one by one, a process which took 170 years.  

Particularly in the early stages, a prime motivating factor for the conquistadors was their interest in gold.  Since the Maya lands were poor in these resources, they held little initial interest for the Spanish, who moved on to other areas. However, with the prospects of new land grants and the acquisition of labor forces, they returned to the Maya region.  The Spanish did not ever fully eliminate the Mayan people.  Many cultural traditions still exist among descendants of the Mayan people today.  

In Class Activities 2/25/14

• Covered our sugar cube pyramids with "stucco," then added moss to make them look abandoned
• Painted Mayan soldier figurines
• Looked at images of the decline of the Mayans and the later Spanish Conquest
• Reviewed the timeline of Mayan events
• Discussed the intentions o the Spanish

Optional Lesson Extension Activities:

• Explore the life of the Maya at Ducksters
• Have your own Mayan feast.  

Assignment:

• Write a sentence or two finishing this sentence:  It took the Spanish ____ years to conquer the Maya because...  (Parents, read the introduction to your child only if they cannot answer on their own)
• Review your timeline

History Elective Period B, 2.27.2014

We reviewed how the Evangelicals turned England around from a godless to a god-fearing nation. We talked about the rules for making a board game. The kids choose which of two game designing teams they wished to work with and began the process of designing one of two versions of the game - How the Evangelicals Conquered England or some such thing:)

Homework: Work with other teammates to continue designing and refining their team's version of the game.

Music Elective Period A and Period B for 2/25/2014

Instruments: Percussion Part 2

How percussion instruments can be categorized:

Pitched vs Unpitched, and Membranaphone vs Idiophone

 The Origin, Material, and Usage/sound of various percussion instruments: Timpani, Cymbals, Gong, Castanet, Bells, Xylophone, Glockenspiel, Triangle, and more

 

Projects
Younger Class: Coloring sheet, Xylophone Creation and Experiment with Sound Making castanets Performance Songs

 Older Class: Categorizing percussion intsruments Xylophone/Chime creating and experimenting Water Glass: Xylophone style, tone pitching, and the Glass Harmonica


Assignments

 Younger Class:

Each student needs to bring in either a plastic cool whip/sherbet bowl with lid (if making a banjo) OR a large metal coffee can with lid (if making a Bass) to next class.

Practice singing and rhythm of performance songs- "I've been working on the railroad" and "Heaven is a wonderful place"

 Older Class:

Each student needs to bring in either a plastic cool whip/sherbet bowl with lid (if making a banjo) OR a large metal coffee can with lid (if making a Bass) to next class.

Listen to and play on personal instrument "Requiem for a Dream"

 

 

Art Elective Period B 2/25/2014

We did blind contour drawings of different animal figurines to put on the totem poles we started a few weeks ago.  These types of drawings are a great way to train the eye to draw what it really sees than what it thinks it sees.  When making a blind contour drawing, the eye is not watching the hand as it draws on the paper.  Our pictures came out pretty silly, but that’s okay, it’s a warm up exercise J

We finished our totems and some students still had some work to do on theirs, so I sent home some squares of precut paper for them to draw, color, cut, and glue their remaining animals on.

I forgot to bring back the framed reflection drawings, so there is something to look forward to next week. 

For those who were absent and everyone else who wants a little more of a look at contour drawings, please check out this link if you get the time. Click here for link.

If you like, you may draw the animals you wanted to have on your totem pole and we can glue them on next week.  

 

ASSIGNMENT:  Look in the mirror and do a blind contour drawing of self.  Try to add as much detail of self (eyes, nose, mouth, eyebrows, hair, anything really that you can see in the mirror.) Try to stay as still as possible and no peeking :)  Check out the link below of a blind contour tutorial.  *Instead of using the paper, they can use the mirror and draw themselves.  Have fun and bring to class with you next week.  There will be rewards for those who remember!

Drama Period A - video

This week we presented our visions for the segments we began to work on last week.  All groups came with some wonderful ideas and during class we began to flesh them out and began the details needed to bring them to life!

Bunker Hill group - has a chat planned for thursday morning at 10, please do your best to remember to log into gchat and make some great progress :)

Pilgrams - i believe you had a chat today, if you need more help please let me know!

Song - please continue to talk this week and keep up the steady progress (please remember to pass along to me any new decisions)

History Elective Period B

We discussed the homework questions and listened to a case study of the Evangelicals who turned England from a pagan to a Christian nation between 1800 and 1860.

Homework
Choose a group to convert to Christ.
Make a list of all obstacles you might encounter in helping them to convert to Christ
Brainstorm possible ways (methods) you can overcome the obstacles.
Make a list of results, changes in the peoples' lives if they convert.

Art Elective Period B

We discussed totem poles, specifically Western Native American. We began drawing our animal designs for poles and began construction of physical totem poles with paper towel and practiced drawing animals.

Assignment:
Practice drawing the animals you will use for totem poles. Also find three pictures of totem poles for reference ideas when drawing.