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Dear Families,
It was great to see all the students dressed up as their favorite Saint. There is such creativity amongst the students and families!
We began class with a bit of review! Recalling the French Explorers that helped mold New France, the religious figures that helped spread the faith and lay the groundwork for missionaries. As I shared the story of Saint Isaac Jogues life, students worked on a fill-in-the-blank notes sheet. Focusing on Saint Isaac’s life, work with the Hurons, virtues he displayed and the GOOD that came from his life. As a class we read The Answered Prayer by Sister Mary Henry. It was a great way to visualize more of Saint Isaac Jogues life.
Homework:
Complete notes sheet (if not completed in class)
Challenge work:
Read Knowest Thy Isaac Jogues?
Write an Acrostic poem using a significant word from Saint Isaac’s name or life (ex: Jogues, Saint, Martyr)
God Bless,
Olivia Crum
Dear Families,
Welcome back to class, I hope your fall break was well spent! Mine was filled with a little R and R.
Today in class we covered the Missionaries of New France. We discussed Blessed Bishop Laval. Being the first Bishop of Quebec, he humbly shared our faith with the Indians traveling by foot and canoes. He fostered many devotions among his people; a devotion to the Immaculate Conception, St. Anne, the Holy Angels and the Holy Family.
We then read about St. Marie of New France, an Ursuline Sister. She arrived in 1639 and organized a school for both Indian and French girls. Bringing her talents to New France, she cared for the sick and created many resources to share the faith in multiple Indian languages.
To review our new learnings, we completed a note sheet together. This allowed us to reflect on the key parts of our discussion and fill in the correlating blanks.
Homework:
(Optional) *Madeline Takes Command by Ethel C. Brill would be a great family read aloud about early French settlers.
Challenge work:
Read pages 33-35 in American Studies Supplement and create a notecard for each missionary. Include important areas, goals and accomplishments.
God Bless,
Olivia Crum
Dear Families,
Today's class was focused on the French Contribution in the discovery of the New World. We dove into the story of two great Explorers: Jacques Cartier and Samuel Champlain.
Jacques Cartier requested he be sent to the New World to explore and continue looking for a Northwest passage. Cartier made three voyages and his explorations allowed France to lay claim to Canada. During his 1st voyage he discovered a large gulf on the feast of St. Lawrence, he accordingly named it after the saint. On his next voyage he sailed up the broad river that emptied into the Gulf if St. Lawrence, the St. Lawrence river. While sailing up the river he passed a cliff which would become the citadel of Quebec and further up he passed a large hill, which he called "Mount Royal," now Montreal. On his third voyage Cartier tried to establish a settlement, but over half of those who came along (convicts given the choice between settlement or death) died during the harsh winter and the survivors refused to stay the following spring. Cartier was unsuccessful in finding a passage and establishing a settlement, but he had paved the way for Samuel Champlain who would start the first permanent settlement at Quebec 75 years later. Cartier also modeled a peaceful and loving way of dealing with the Indians that those after him would follow. He was very friendly with the majority of the Indian tribes, who actually asked him to pray over their sick.
Champlain, who is known as the Father of New France made 22 voyages in his lifetime back and forth between the New World and France. He first set sail in 1603. The King had named him the "royal geographer" and he traveled up and down the St. Lawrence river and many others establishing trade with the Indians, looking for good places to establish settlements, writing descriptions of the country and its inhabitants and drawing maps to send back to France and the king. Champlain was the 1st man to explore and map the great lakes! As mentioned Champlain also help found the first permanent settlements in New France, the chiefest of which was Quebec. Champlain like Cartier was very friendly with the Indians and treated them with great respect. The only tribes he had trouble with were the Iroquois, who would become mortal enemies to the French.
We talked about how these two explorers paved the way for Jesuit missionaries to spread the faith to all Indian tribes. Together we read the story of Saint Isaac Jougues, a brave Jesuit priest who gave his life all in the Glory of God.
To end class, we shared our “Mini posters” on the life of Christopher Columbus. Amazing work! I loved seeing the students drawings, beautiful print outs and hearing what facts really stuck with the students.
Homework:
Worksheet - provided in class
Enjoy fall break!
God Bless,
Olivia Crum
Dear families,
The focus of today's class was Spanish expansion in New Spain with particular emphasis on Cortes and the conquest of the Aztec Empire. The Aztecs and "American Indians" were briefly contrasted and the Aztec society and its bloodthirsty gods were discussed before we moved into an account of Cortes campaign. Cortes' great faith was discussed and compared with Columbus'. Both men had a great devotion to Mary (Cortes' banner was an image of Mary) and a desire to spread the faith. Cortes' task was more difficult in a sense though as he had to overcome the religion of the demon gods of the Aztecs before he was able to spread the faith.
Francisco Pizarro and his conquest of the Inca empire was also covered. We noted that Pizarro was unfortunately a greedy man whose sole motive was material gain. This resulted in bad treatment of the Incas and consequently a bad relationship for at least a time between the Incas and the Spanish. It was noted that throughout New Spain that there was a mixture of good men such as Cortes and Columbus who truly cared about the faith and the natives and men who were only out for personal gain or glory who tended to see the natives as useful only as a means of gain.
The explorations of Ponce de Leon, Ferdinand de Soto, and Francisco Coronado were also briefly touched upon. After going through these we sketched an approximation of these advances on a blank map in order to see just how much of North and South America the Spanish controlled at one time. Around this time period they controlled almost all of South America, Central America, and about half of what is now the United States!
This information led us to discussing “Saints for S.A.” We talked about the stories and lives of a few influential Saints in South America; Saint Martin De Porres, Saint Rose of Lima. As well as Saint Peter Claver who was a devout example to native Columbians.
The second half of class we wrapped up our discussions on Meet Christopher Columbus. I was delighted to hear everyone is either finished or very close to done reading. Learning about the details of his travels tied in very nicely with the content we covered in the past few weeks. Students were assigned a summative task on this biography. I look forward to what the students come up with, and recall from the readings.
Homework:
Summative task on “Meet Christopher Columbus” - Worksheet
God Bless,
Olivia Crum
Dear Families,
It was a great afternoon spent with your children! Thank you for your part in preparing them for class. Everyone was excited to share their knowledge on both of today's topics.
Before lunch, we covered the discovery of Mexico, guided by our history text book. We read about Hernan Cortes and his part in the civilization of Mexico, as well as his passion in sharing the faith with the Aztecs; a ruthless society. Because not all of the Spanish treated the Aztecs well, but some instead took advantage of them, many of the Aztecs were distrustful of the Spanish religion and thought they were unloved by the "God" of the Spaniards. That all changed with the appearance of Our Lady of Guadalupe in 1531. After Our Lady appeared as an Aztec Princess, 9 million Aztecs entered the church in 8 years! We talked about her visitation, St. Juan Diego and the events that took place. We updated our timeline and notecards to reflect our new knowledge.
Following lunch, we continued our discussion on Christopher Coloumbus. We reviewed the important components of a biography and touched on the details we read in the story. Continue reading on, students seem to be enjoying it!
Homework: Finish reading Meet Christopher Columbus
Additional Resources:FSSS p. 25-36, FSSS p. 49-56
God Bless,
Olivia Crum
Dear Families,
It was great seeing the whole school together for pictures, everyone looked great!
We accomplished so much today, including the preparation of our timelines and notecards for the semester.
We continued our studies on Christopher Columbus. We focused on his reasons for exploration, who funded his voyages and the stories related to that. For many students this was a review and they were able to boldly share their thoughts about the topic. Bravo!
Following lunch, we discussed our readings in Meet Christopher Columbus and worked in pairs to end the class with a word scramble.
Homework:
Continue reading Meet Christopher Columbus (approx chp 5-10)
Feel free to reach out with any questions or concerns!
God Bless,
Olivia Crum
Dear Families,
It was wonderful to be back in the classroom, welcomed by warm smiles and new faces. I am looking forward to being with your students this year.
Each student was given a hard copy of this semester's syllabus.
We started class discussing expectations, along with brainstorming things we hope to learn about and accomplish. This led us nicely into our discussion on St. Brendan. We reflected on his bravery and openness to God’s plans for him. The devout monks of his order were tasked with illustrating the Bible. We focused on their beautiful works of illuminated manuscripts, and then colored/created our own!
Following lunch, we dove into the life of Christopher Columbus. Touching on his upbringing, his accomplishments and character. We focused on how he spread the Faith, particularly in the way he erected crosses and named his findings.
Homework:
Begin reading the biography on Christopher Columbus (4-5 chapters per week, aprox 15 pgs)
Items needed for next class:
History 3 textbook
Note cards and a safe place to store them
God Bless,
Olivia Crum
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