Field Trip to Gettysburg

Next Friday, the class will be taking a trip to Gettysburg. I've had a few parents volunteer already, but we could still use two more parents to come along. If you would like to chaperone, please send Miss Giunta or I an email at sgmk@hpsd.k12.pa.us. We will be departing at 8:00 a.m. so students and parents should arrive at the school no later than 7:45. We will be returning at approximately 4:45 p.m.



On the field trip, students will be given a tour from a Gettysburg tour guide and will be able to explore important areas of the battlefield such as Devil's Den, Pickett's Charge, Big/Little Round Top, Culp's Hill, and many more locations. At each site, students will be asked to tour the area and take notes about facts they heard from the tour guide or saw on the information board posted at each location.



After exploring the important areas on the battlefield, the class will be shuttled to the Information Center where they will be able to look at and research clothing, objects, writing, cannons, etc. while completing an activity sheet. This will be a great opportunity for students to see real life artifacts dating back to the Civil War. This trip is an absolute wonderful experience for the students, and I'm sure they will have a fun and rewarding time at Gettysburg!

Union or Confederate- What Side Are You?

A few weeks ago, students drew from a bucket a position in which they would be fighting. They could have been a Union or Confederate soldier battling it out in the great Civil War. Today, depending on their position, students were asked to research information of why they were fighting for their cause. Besides researching information, students were also asked to find and print out pictures of soldiers or objects pertaining to their side. After completing both tasks, students created a brochure to try and persuade towns' people to join and fight for their cause. The brochures will be arriving home at the end of the week. Take a look at these persuasive brochures which included pictures from Flickr or Picassa. Underneath each picture, you will read some facts about when and where it was taken and what the picture illustrated! Once again, the class did a terrific job! Parents should be really proud!

Abraham Lincoln!

Did you know Abraham Lincoln had a good sense of humor and liked to make jokes?

See the "business card" below that he created as a joke:

Today in class we learned more about Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States and an influential man during the Civil War. To learn more about one of our most famous presidents, the students went on a web quest to search for information. We explored http://www.americaslibrary.gov/aa/lincoln/aa_lincoln_subj.html to learn more about Lincoln as our president and his entire life.

Check out some of these informative sites to learn more about Lincoln:

http://www.historyplace.com/lincoln/index.html

http://millercenter.org/academic/americanpresident/lincoln

http://www.alplm.org/

http://sc94.ameslab.gov/tour/alincoln.html

We Made a Timeline!

Today in class, we discussed how understanding the timeline of the Civil War can help us to understand the outcome and impact on our country. We also learned how to use a new online resource, a social bookmarking site called http://delicious.com/. Ask your student to show you how it works, it's a great way to look-up information on almost any topic!

Instead of having every student complete their own timeline, we worked together in pairs to complete a class timeline. Each pair researched a time period and provided the class with information, images, and sources on our class document. We use Google Docs in class frequently so that everyone can work together on one document. Once we were all finished, the students went through the timeline briefly explaining their events in history and how they impacted our country. I think this activity was an important one in our unit on the Civil War. Learning about events in history has a greater meaning if they are in proper context.

Hear Ye Hear Ye! Lincoln Gives the Gettysburg Address

Today in class, we discussed the "Gettysburg Address," given by Abraham Lincoln in 1863. In order to make this an interactive experience for everyone, students were asked to draw a piece of paper from a bucket containing the name and position of a person living in that time period. Whoever the student drew (union soldier, confederate soldier, or towns person), the student would become that character for the lesson. Then, the class was split up into groups of two and were asked to research using Wiki sites some information that could be asked in interview questions related to the Gettysburg Address. A sample question could have been, "What do you think of the Gettysburg Address? Do you think Abraham Lincoln will keep his promise of freedom?" After students came up with questions that they wanted to ask each others' character, students conducted interviews while using the flip cameras. I will be posting some of the interviews that were done in class. It's amazing the differences of opinions between the students!

Hello comrades!

Today in class we learned about some of the terminology used by both the Confederate and Union soldiers during the Civil War era. We had the opportunity to use our computerized clicker system to learn many different slang terms from that era. Some of the words we learned were "Smoked Yanks," "Gallinippers," "Company Q," "Mule," "Greenhorn," "Jawning," "Fit to be tied," "Fit as a fiddle," "Bread basket," and "Seeing the elephant." Ask your student what these terms mean - it's really cool to be able to talk in period!

Some of the questions we also discussed were:

*What do you think it was like to be a soldier during the Civil War?

*How do you think Civil War soldiers spoke?

*What does slang mean?

*What slang words or terms do we use today?

After we discussed many slang terms, students chose a photograph of Union or Confederate soldiers and created a postcard. The postcards were written to fellow soldiers and used different terminology of the period. Check back on our blog soon to see them posted!

For more information about Civil War Slang, check out these informative websites:

http://www.nps.gov/archive/gett/gettkidz/soldslang.htm

http://score.rims.k12.ca.us/activity/manswar/pages/slang.html

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~poindexterfamily/CivilWar.html

Underground Railroad- Would you Stay or Flee?

The confederate army was on the move, leaving students the decision to stay or go. In order to figure out their best chances of survival, students were given the opportunity to research on wiki sites the experiences of slaves during the underground railroad. Then, as a class, they were asked to help fill out a chart of the risks and benefits of staying or leaving on the smartboard. After deciding that the class would flee, using Google Maps, students plotted out their escape route. Following the activity, students were asked to complete a narrative answering the following questions:

1. What do you bring and why?

2. What do you have to leave behind?

3. Would you ever return to Gettysburg? Why or Why not?

4. If so, when would you go back?

5. If you stay behind in Gettysburg, how will you hide? Where will you go? Whom do you trust and why?

Morse Code!

Today in class we learned all about Morse code and how it was used during the Civil War to send messages and news of the war quickly. We all had the opportunity to send and translate messages to each other. I think today's lesson was really cool because we were able to be participating in one of the activities soldiers in the Civil War did everyday while on the battlefields. Check out the short video we watched to hear how each of the letters sound in Morse code. Your student was also given a handout with the description of all the letters in Morse code, here's a copy of the handout if you'd like an extra one. Finally, I used this online Morse code translator in class to introduce Morse code, and it's a great website if you'd like to learn more about Morse code or want to practice translating into Morse code.

I hope you encourage your student to share with you what he/she learned in class today - it's pretty neat!

Civil War Songs

To further our understanding of the Civil War era, we will be exploring music from that time period. As a class we will discuss music that was written and listened to during that time period, as well as exploring specific music written during the Civil War from both sides. Check out this website to listen to some tradition music during that era. http://www.civilwarpoetry.org/music/index.html

The students will also complete an in-class project presenting a traditional Civil War era song. Students will work in groups of five to research a song, read the lyrics for historical context, get a feeling for the emotions it stirs up, and record themselves performing it. Check back later to see the videos once they're uploaded on the blog!

North vs South, Brother against Brother

In order for students to understand the conflict that soldiers had to deal with when forced to fight between their family and friends, students will be broken up into Union and Confederate soldiers and asked to research and persuade others to fight for their cause. Students will not be given a choice as to what side that they will be on, so they may be fighting for a different reason then some of their friends.

Students will draw from a bucket their side and position in which they will be fighting for. Then, as a group, students will use the computers to research their positions to help them create their presentations. The student who was assigned as a general will be giving the speech in front of the class. The major and lieutenant will be using the computers to research information regarding their position. The corporals will create recruitment posters, and the citizens will find and locate what their flag looks like in order to draw it. The citizens will also be asked to research what their flags stand for.

As a follow up to their presentations, students will be writing a persuasive letter home to you as if they were a soldier fighting in the Civil War. They will be asked to describe to you their position as they try to persuade you to help fight for their cause. Look for their letters to be arriving in the mail in the next week or so. I hope you enjoy them!

Hello fifth grade parents! Welcome to our new blog, which will serve as a resource to keep everyone updated on the exciting things we will be doing in class. At the end of the month we will be starting a new unit on the Civil War. Since we are located so close to Gettysburg, an important location to the war, we have some great opportunities for hands-on lea

rning. During our study, we will be engaging in a lot of fun activities that will help the students understand our country’s War Between the States. Some of these lessons will include the students researching the flags of the Union and Confederacy and creating their own, analyzing photographs and writing stories about them, writing articles or journals from the perspective of those present for the war, and learning about Civil War Era music from both sides.

One of the biggest and most exciting parts of our unit of study will be our fieldtrip to Gettysburg. We will be able to walk where the war’s turning point at the Battle of Gettysburg took place. Permission slips will be sent home shortly for you to fill out, as well as more information about our trip plans. We are also looking for volunteer chaperone to accompany us on our trip – if this appeals to you send a note in to either of us of your interest.

We look forward to this exciting unit and hope your students will enjoy it as much as we do!

Miss Giunta and Miss Moose