8th Grade Snow Day Assignments- Diedrich (Social Studies)

Introduction: You have decided to travel to the New World and create your very own colony! You will face a variety of challenges along the way, but your journey will be worth it.

Day 1: Journal entry (min. 2 paragraphs): Address the following: Why did you leave your original home? Who is with you? What did you bring? Where in the New World are you traveling to (be specific)? Provide any other details about the beginning of your journey that you can.

Day 2: Journal entry (min. 2 paragraphs): Address the following: Describe the condition of the ship. Describe how you are feeling about your journey so far (anxious, regret, excitement). What skills do you possess that will help you survive when you get there? Provide any other details about your time at sea that you can.

Day 3: Journal entry (min. 2 paragraphs): Address the following: You have landed! Describe in detail the land around you (rivers, valleys, mountains…). Have you had any encounters with the Native Americans? If so, are they friendly or hostile? If not, how do you expect them to react to seeing you? Why is this an ideal place to build a colony? Provide any additional information about your surroundings that you can.

Day 4: Draw a map of the land where you have arrived. Make sure to include physical geography (mountains, hills, rivers, streams, lakes, bays, capes, volcanoes, deserts, forests, etc); you should notate any native or other settlements on your map that you have discovered; you will also include your own settlement. You should use one sheet of white paper to draw and color a map of the land you have found. You should include a compass rose, a title, a legend and a scale.

Day 5: Decide the focus of your settlement. What do you and your colonist believe? What are your core values? Create a flag that represents your colony. Use one sheet of white paper, make sure you include color and symbols that represent your beliefs. This needs to be an original design and not a copy of an existing flag.

Day 6: Housing Blue Prints - Design the construction of the first community shelters and village. You should consider the size of population and stockades for defense. You may want to examine other early colonies such as Jamestown, Virginia and other historical colonial designs. Create “blueprints” of your shelters AND village.

Day 7: Develop a document that will help your colony govern and protect your colonist’s rights. Include what form of governmentis going to exist and include at least 5laws that will help protect the rights of the people.

Day 8:What are the resources in your colony? Are there any mines on your map for resources (coal, iron ore, gold, silver, copper, salt, etc.)? Are there large schools of fish or whales in the ocean or rivers? Is there any arable land to grow crops (wheat, corn, tobacco, rice, cotton, cattle, sheep, etc.)? Are there any forests for a lumber industry? Choose 4-5resources. Do you have any trade in your colony? Do you have any industry in your colony? What do you make to sell? What are the imports and exports?Write a paragraph explaining each of your resources AND how you use those to benefit your colony. For example, do you make fabric and export it, do you sell cash crops, do you use iron ore for weapons and tools for export?

Day 9: Advertisement – Create a poster that advertises your colony with at least two reasons why your colony is the place to be. Your target audience should be where most of your colonist were originally from.

Day 10: Reflection: Please answer the following questions to the best of your ability using content gained from units this year.

  1. What did you enjoy about this project? What would you change?
  2. How did you decide what resources you would use to help ensure you colony was successful?
  3. How did your new colony meet your needs? Keep in mind the reason you left your original home in the first place!
  4. As knowledge and technology became available, do you think your colony would have survived? Why or why not?
  5. What physical features provided advantages for you as you settled your colony? Did any provide disadvantages or difficulties?

Standards Addressed:

SS-08-2.1.1

Students will explain how elements of culture (e.g., language, the arts, customs, beliefs, literature) defined specific groups in the United States prior to Reconstruction and resulted in unique perspectives.

SS-08-3.1.1

Students will explain and give examples of how scarcity required individuals, groups and the government in the United States prior to Reconstruction to make decisions about how productive resources (natural resources, human resources, capital goods) were used.

SS-08-4.3.1

Students will describe patterns of human settlement in the United States prior to Reconstruction and explain how these patterns were influenced by human needs

SS-08-4.2.2

Students will describe how places and regions in United States history prior to Reconstruction changed over time as technologies, resources and knowledge became available.

SS-08-4.2.1

Students will describe how regions in the U.S. prior to Reconstruction

were made distinctive by human characteristics (e.g., dams, roads, urban centers) and physical characteristics (e.g., mountains, bodies of water) that created advantages and disadvantages for human activities (e.g., exploration, migration, trade, settlement)

Rubric

Below / Meets / Exceeds
0-66% / 66%-85% / 86%-100%
Day 1-3 / Students include little to no detail that answer the questions/criteria for each paragraph. / Students include broad details that answer the questions/criteria for each paragraphs. / Students include specific details about their colony that answer each question for the four paragraphs.
Day 4 / Fails to meet written criteria; no map key; outline of state not provided. / Meets written criteria; map key missing or outline of state missing. / Exceeds written criteria; student shows initiative and imagination. Creates extraordinary poster, model or 3D effect layout.
Day 5-9 / Students’ illustrations for their colony include little to no detail that support the criteria for each day of the project. / Students’ illustrations for their colony include some detail that supports the criteria for each day of the project. This could be justified by using enough detail to complete the task, but not providing all criteria in their illustrations. / Students’ illustrations for their colony include specific details that develop a well-illustrated colony that has lively artifacts, governmental structures, and diverse, creative culture.
Day 10 / Students include little to no effort or detail while completing the reflection part of the assignment. / Students use some specific detail while completing the reflection, but lack meaning thought while doing so. / Students include specific insight to reflecting on their experiences while creating their colony and thought process behind their colony.