Great Depression Act-it-Out

New Blogs!!

I have decided that it will be easier if each class has it's own individual blog. 

This site: www.npsocialstudies.blogspot.com, will now be used only for 8th grade Social Studies classes.

7th grade classes will use:  http://www.np7socialstudies.blogspot.com/

6th grade classes will use:  http://www.np6ss.blogspot.com/

Images from the Great Depression

Crash!!

To help us better understand how America went from the "Roaring Twenties" to the Great Depression, 8th graders participated in a historical simulation of the stock market crash of 1929.

Taxation Without Representation (7th Grade)

7th Grade students participated in a history simulation in which most of them played the role of colonists being taxed by the "King" and "Parliament". The "Colonists" were taxed on things such as hair color, clothing, and accesories. The "Colonists" had no say in the taxes and, though they were not happy about it, the "King" and "Parliament" kept demanding more money.

"Charleston Party" (8th Grade

Since we are currently learning about the 1920's in 8th Grade Social Studies, we decided to learn the popular dance from that decade, the Charleston!  Here are some highlights:

Artifact Inquiry (6th Grade)

In 6th grade Social Studies we began our study of culture by learning how historians and archaeologists find out information about people who lived long before us.  Students examined "artifacts" and took descriptive notes, in order to try and figure out what each objects purpose could have been.  They will be putting all of this information together to try and make some conclusions about the culture from which these "artifacts" came.

Doing the Charleston (8th Grade)

In our 8th grade classes we compared the two songs Charleston Party (which characterized the mood of the 1920's) and Brother Can You Spare a Dime (which characterized the mood of the 1930's).


The instructional videos below explain how to do the Charleston, the most popular dance of the 1920's. Learn how to do this dance and we will perform it in class later this week. Anyone who participates in the dance (no matter how good you are at it) will earn extra credit.


 

A Great Start to the New Year!

The new school year is off to a great start! In Social Studies, we spent the first couple of weeks getting to know each other, learning about what it takes to be successful in class, developing our cooperative skills, learning about the curriculum, and of course, singin songs. Here are some pictures from the first two weeks: