Foundations Overview: August 15 - 19, 2011

Foundations Training, August 15 - August 19, 2011

Day 1:  I was excited to begin the Foundations training this week!  Sharon was a great presenter and I really enjoyed learning more about farming and trade in Virginia and the Caribbean.  In hind sight it is interesting how important the Caribbean Islands were after the French and Indian War when France not only needed to give back their land in North America, but also their land in the Caribbean.  What a great thing to learn about the different attitudes people had towards their place in society based on God's plan (Chain).

I really enjoyed doing the comparison between DeTocqueville and Watson.  I liked then looking at his perspective after he wrote about America.  The activity of comparing different sets of documents and people's perspective is so rich and usable in the classroom.  You can even do this with art.

Day 2: 

Political Transformations in the 18th Century.  Such great information on the religion in the colonies and in Europe. 

I LOVED doing the runaway slave ads chart!  The kids are going to really enjoy doing this.  One thing that I forget to do is bring in the slave ads from the other regions in the 13 Colonies, instead of just focusing on slavery in the south.  Use this one next year as a wrap up activity.  Make sure to first have the kids read the ads and then guess what region in the colonies they are from.

Day 3: 

Making Sense of the 18th Century Empire - The French and Indian War

I really enjoyed Sharon's presentations today on the road to the Revolutionary War.  This alternate perspective is something that I leave out far too much when I'm teaching the colonies, and acts.  Be sure to have the kids read "Duel in the Wilderness" and also some things from Washington's journal. 

DON'T FORGET OUR WRAP UP PROJECT:

Wrapping up Anthony's presentations we decided to do an activity with "What's my address?" for the Native American regions.  We would first do a SPEC on the Native American Regions as a summary to what we had already learned throughout the lesson.  Each region will have their address, but have it be done to focus on each part of that region. One region will have an address hitting on the geography, the food, homes, important people, religion or government.  Then we will have the students write them out and present them to the other groups.  They are to guess what region is spoken about and what area is addressed in the region (geography, religion, etc.).