The last two days in class we have talked about "yellow journalism". This was and still is a type of writing style. When newspapers were actually read they would have titles to a story  that would make you want to read the article. An example would be that a bride went missing. One  newspaper's title was BRIDE GONE MISSING!! Another would be BRIDE MISSING: GROOM'S FAMILY REPORTS SHE HAS A HISTORY OF MENTAL ILLNESS. Which one would you rather read? The first on is strait to the point. The other has a little bit of extra information in it. The only problem about the second title is that it is only reporting one side of the story the groom's family's side. In class we created our own titles to articles that we read and taped them all around the room. Today we walked around the classroom and read all of the classes and we decided on which one we thought were the best in groups of three. 

Oops!!! I forgot to blog Friday!!! Anyways, on Thursday we read about two very important Native American Chiefs. We talked about Red Cloud and Sitting Bull. We read about the important battles that they  lead against America. We also talked about the battle of Little Big Horn. I can't really remember what else we talked about because it was on Friday but we talked about some other stuff that they were involved in that was important. 

Hello there everyone!!!! I haven't blogged in a very long time mostly because I keep forgetting to which is really bad I know because you all want to read about what happens in my history class right? Hahaha any ways today we went to the computer lab and we worked on our 16%  projects which is just when we work on these projects and it is with the Smithsonian it was interesting to say the least. Anyways yesterday we worked on this other activity in which we were all in groups and then one person from each group was put into the middle of the room which was called "the fishbowl" and they had this discussion about weather or not this certain Native American tribe should have been forced to leave their homes. We came to the conclusion that no, it was not fair for them to be moved. We also talked about how the president, Andrew Jackson, should have been impeached because what he was doing was unconstitutional but he still went ahead knowing full well that what he was doing was unconstitutional. The reason that he was not impeached was because he had the support of the legislative branch and they were all on his side, because of this they never impeached him due to the fact that he was agreeing with what they wanted.    

Oregon Trail Game

     
Just a heads up this game is very simple. Also its easy to cheat so don't!!!!!! So It's not the best game just so everyone knows....

Today in class we learned about sod houses. We did three activities, the first one that my group did was we smelt what a sod house would smell like. Personally it didn't smell that bad and I'm sure that if you lived in these house you would get used to it over time. The second activity that we did was we went into a rectangle that was taped onto the floor and we had to determine where we would have the stove where we would eat and where the sleeping area was. This was difficult to figure out because it was a very small space and there were five people. There was just barely enough room for everything that was needed. In the winter it would not be fun because you would be stuck in this little house with nothing that fun to do. The next place we went was to the picture area where we took our picture but the problem was that we had to stay in place for one minute which was very hard to do when people are trying to make you laugh. The last thing we did was as a class. We turned the lights off and because they wouldn't have electricity there wouldn't be much to do. Then we had some pop corn which was yummy. Over all I feel like I would go out of my mind after about 5 seconds of living out on the prairie if I lived during that time I would probably be the person who abandoned ship to live in the city.

Hello again everyone. So today in class we talked about the manifest destiny. This is the belief that God wanted America to move westward. Our goal in class today was to answer some questions about a quote and then we had to create a skit answering some questions that were on the board for us to copy down. The skits were... interesting we only had about five minutes to put them together and even then most of us didn't finish them. Yesterday in class we got into groups of three and we read about the Erie Canal and what it was. Then we came back from lunch and we played this game which wasn't really a game it was more like a game that we didn't get to play instead we got to take notes on it! Yey! that's the best. Okay I'm being a Debbie Downer, it wasn't that bad it just consisted of me taking notes which is boring ha ha  Anyways I got over it So that was today and yesterday for history all wrapped up in a nut shell. 

So today in class we had a substitute and we had to read these sheets about the Oregon trail. I learned some things such as the fact that because there were not that many trees around and due to the increasing number of travelers on the Oregon Trail, what little wood was available was used up. Due to this they had to collect...buffalo dung. It sounds nasty right? Ya I would agree with you there. That wasn't the worst part though, the children would actually take pellets that they found and they would toss them around. I understand that it was a substitute to wood for a fire and it didn't stink but still...just gross...  I also learned that many children died because they got run over with a wagon wheel. Also, everyone wanted to leave at once and this caused congestion and traffic jams on the trail. Some who were on the trail didn't even know how to control the oxen because they never had to do it before. When it came to bedtime for them they often feel asleep on the ground because of how tired they were from the long journey. It was about 2000 miles long and many illnesses were a problem for the travelers. It seemed like a very long and painful journey to make I don't think that I would have survived that if I had to go on it.