Thursday, May 29, 2014

The Society for Creative Anachronism comes to FCCS



Wow, what a day today.  The 2nd and 6th graders were able to see some historical reenactments from the medieval period!  I have some wonderful pictures, although I suppose I need to get some photo releases to be able to post them on here.  Seeing Anna with a battle helmet and a long sword was quite scary though!

Thanks to the Society for Creative Anachronism for coming by.  If you are interested in working with them or learning more you can visit their website at SCA.org or email info@highland-foorde.atlantia.sca.org .














Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Tests and Quizzes

Homeroom has their Wordly Wise Test on Thursday, 5/29.

5th Grade has their Rome test on Friday, 5/30
Here is the study guide.


6th Grade has their Europe quiz on Friday, 5/30.  This quiz will cover the dark ages (Charlemagne, Vikings, etc...), Feudalism, and England (William, Henry II, and John II)

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Thank you!

Wow, I have never had such amazing teacher appreciate week.... in fact, in all my years I don't think I even realized it was more than one day!  Thank you, everyone, for all of the kind words, the goodies, the cards, and my awesome door decoration.  There hasn't been a day I have been so glad I made the choice to go to FCCS.  Thank you for your thoughtfulness and by raising such wonderful children.

Wreck found off Haiti could be Columbus’s ‘Santa Maria’

A shipwreck found off the north coast of Haiti could be the 500-year-old remains of theSanta Maria, which led Christopher Columbus’s famed voyage to the New World, according to a team of marine explorers.
“All the geographical, underwater topography and archaeological evidence strongly suggests that this wreck is Columbus’s famous flagship, the Santa Maria,” Massachusetts marine investigator Barry Clifford said in a press release on Tuesday.
“I am confident that a full excavation of the wreck will yield the first-ever detailed marine archaeological evidence of Columbus’s discovery of America,” he added.

Permanent exhibitionMr Clifford (68), who led a reconnaissance expedition to the site last month, was due to hold a press conference at the Explorers Club in New York to announce the discovery. He said he would like the ship to stay in Haiti as part of a permanent exhibition to help the country’s struggling tourism industry. But a Haitian official reacted with scepticism, saying it was unlikely that anything remains of the wreck.
“It’s a historical and scientific mistake to say that the Santa Maria could have been found under the sea,” said Erol Josué, director of Haiti’s national ethnology office, noting that its timbers were used by survivors to build a small fort, named La Navidad, considered the first European settlement in the New World.
The wreck was discovered in about three to 4.5m (10-15ft) of water near a reef, and matches the length of the Santa Maria’s 35m keel, according to the exploration team. Its geographical location coincides with Columbus’s description of where the Santa Maria sank, and stones found at the wreck site match a quarry in Spain that provided ballast for Columbus’s ships, the team said.
“The size of the wreck is consistent with the dimensions of the Santa Maria,” said Dirk Hoogstra, general manager of History, a cable TV channel that funded the latest expedition to the wreck site. “There’s not a whole lot of wood left after all these years,” he added, saying it’s unclear how much of the ship could be recovered.
The location of the Santa Maria, the La Navidad fort, and the fate of the shipwreck survivors have mystified scholars.

Shorter route to Asia
The Santa Maria was one of a fleet of three vessels that left Spain in 1492 to look for a shorter route to Asia. The ship, after arriving near the Bahamas, drifted onto a reef on Christmas Day and had to be abandoned. After the shipwreck, Columbus left behind 39 men and sailed back to Spain on the Niña. He returned a year later to find the fort destroyed and none of his crew alive.
Archaeologists from the University of Florida have been searching for the remains of La Navidad. Last year, they said they had found what could be the site of a nearby Arawak Indian village.
Mr Clifford has worked on numerous historic wrecks around the world, including Captain Kidd’s flagship off Madagascar. His team first discovered the wreck off Haiti in 2003, but it was unable to identify the ship. Yet the discovery of Columbus’s encampment on nearby Haiti and data from the explorer’s diary prove the heavily decayed vessel on the sea floor was the Santa Maria, he now believes.
A cannon was initially found as part of the wreck, but archaeologists at the time misidentified it as dating from a different historical period, Mr Clifford told CNN. After conducting further research on cannons from Columbus’s day, Mr Clifford concluded it could have come from the Santa Maria.
On last month’s reconnaissance trip, Mr Clifford’s team measured and photographed the ship. Some items, including the cannon, had been looted since his earlier visit. – (Reuters)

Monday, May 5, 2014

5th Grade Quiz Wednesday 6th Grade test Friday

Hello, as my parent email said:

5th graders will be having a quiz on Wednesday (5/7).  This quiz will be on the Roman Republic.  It will be five questions and worth 8 points.

6th graders will be having a test on Friday (5/9)  This test will cover our Asia unit.  It is a large unit covering chapters 17 and 18 of the test.  The study guide is found here.  Jeopardy is below!