This is going to be a vent, so if you're not in the mood to "listen" to it, feel free to click back out of my blog. :)
I am SO overwhelmed looking at this final project. Having never done an interactive notebook before, I'm struggling with getting it started and adapting all my lessons from Social Studies to work with it. Since it won't be colonial America in nature - I don't get to that on our curriculum until wayyyy after Thanksgiving, I need to do it on the Spanish Explorers. That and my map skills unit are the only two units I am sure to finish in SS before T-giving. Science takes up the bulk of content area time because of teaching the scientific method to the kids so they can do a science fair project due just after the Winter Break.
There are SO FEW primary sources I can find from that time period. Most of the pictures I'm finding are interesting - but are secondary sources, having been painted in the 1800s.
The three primary source things we have to use are LOC, other online resources for Primary Sources, and Resources from PHMC and when I googled that, I got something about Health and Medicine. I did find a letter translated to English that Columbus had written after finding "India." However, the wording of it will be very hard for 4th graders to decipher. Ten primary sources in three focus lessons will be a LOT to find for this unit - judging by what I'm able to find so far.
I found some pictures of tools that were used for navigation back in the 1400s but they aren't really primary sources because they are either reproductions or modern drawings showing what they looked like.
I will figure it out, I'm sure, but right now I'm pulling my hair out. Thanks for listening. I hoped that putting it here some of you might be able to commiserate. Anyone starting to plan this yet and feeling like me?
Bridget,
ReplyDeleteThere might be some primary source materials available from Rhonda that might help you with your lessons on the Spanish explorers. During Year 1 of this project, we focused on the time prior to the discovery of the New World up to the PA Charter. The second year worked with information dealing from that time (early 1600s) through colonization. Rhonda supplied each of the participants with a CD containing photos of items from the Museum of tools, weapons, things pertaining to colonial life, etc. Perhaps you could use some of those for your primary sources. I will email Rhonda and see if she could mail you a CD, if not, I will mail you mine. Good Luck! Diane
OH, THANK YOU!!!!! Wow!!! I'm so glad I posted this, then.
ReplyDeleteI can so appreciate your feelings. As I have been attempting to work on our July/August assignment, I too, have had a journey of moans and groans. I have been reading The Shoemaker and The Tea Party. It has been a challenging book for me to read. The author's purpose and my desires for historical information were not a good match. Doing this assignment at home and then on vacation has been an opportunity to persevere rather than to shut down the computer! Progress is being made and I am sure you are going to have fortitude to continue on!
ReplyDeleteChris