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American History Briefing

February 3 - February 9, 2003



Noah Webster and the First American Dictionary

American History - the 1800's begin.

As the new Nation moved into the 19th Century many changes were to come.

It would not be until the War of 1812 that the Revolution was completed. We will study the amazing growth and changes which took place as the new Nation began to shape itself.

Native Americans at the turn of the Century - 1800

How did the needs of westware expansion, the new American politics and religion affect Native Americans as the 19th Century began? We will learn which Presidents worked for the benefit of Native Americans and read some interesting discussions by leaders from several Native American Communities during this time.

The First North American Colonies.

What was the culture and life of those very first colonists. What literature, writtings and diaries, did they leave for us to study? Goto: http://www.rain.org/campinternet/american-history/colonies Early Colonial Studies to begin.

The Pilgrims and the settlers in Virginia prepared the way for what became the "Original 13 Colonies". The Founding group that was to shape our Declaration of Independence and our new Constitution.

As we study the early Colonies in North American our goal is to understand how were the colonies were created? Were all the early colonies established by Kings or Traiding Companies or private investors? Was there any other source of funding for the first Colonies? What was the religion and political system used by the first Colonies? And how did all this lead to the creating of the "American Character"?


Classroom Activities:

2.) The Acorn - Classroom Activity

3.) American-History Timeline. Have you begun your class American History Timeline yet? If not get started and you will be able to enter the Timeline to GIS contest and win a new GPS unit for your class.

The Timeline your class creates will be used as part of a GIS Map of our history studies. We'll learn to use the remarkable data visualization tool that GIS technology provides to help us See the timeline of history as we unfold it during the year.

Look under "activities" on the top of the history homepage for your link to ongoing Timeline projects.



History

First Americans or First Nations are often best studied by looking at the "culture Areas" where the tribes lived.

A culture area is a region of the world in which people share similar cultural traits. Researchers may define a culture area by plotting the distribution of a single cultural trait, such as maize agriculture, and uniting all the communities that share this trait into a single cultural area. Alternatively, researchers sometimes choose to group communities into a culture area because the communities share several distinctive cultural traits, known as having a common cultural complex.

To help the study of Culture Areas come to life Camp Internet has created a GIS map listing North American Culture Areas with information on each.

Take your students on a tour of the American History GIS map this week. Goto: http://ims.rain.org/projects/warehouse/ and select the American History map



Literature - Reading

Literature continues this week with our study of American Transcendentalism.
Goto: http://www.rain.org/homeschool/history/transcendentalism-introduction-2002.html for your Introduction to American Writers such as Whitman, Thoreau and Emerson.