Halloween, also known as All Hallows’ Eve, is celebrated all around the world on October 31. It has its roots in an ancient Celtic festival called Samhain. In simple terms, Samhain was a fun festival that celebrated the changing seasons from light to dark, or in other words, from summer to winter. Today, Halloween is a time for kids to dress up in silly costumes, carve pumpkins into funny faces, and go trick-or-treating for candy! It’s all about having a spooky good time and enjoying the thrill of the season!

Spark your thinking!

1. Set up your social studies mini spark recording page: #31: Halloween History

2. Read this short article about the history of Halloween. On your recording page, explain the origin of the jack-o-lantern.

3. Read this article about the history of costumes.  Why did people start wearing costumes? Starting with the 1930s record a sentence or two explaining what the costumes were like for each of the decades that are listed.

4. Study this graphic organizer from Visual Capitalist. What are some possible reasons for trends or popular costume choices? Use information from this image to support your idea.

5. Pumpkins are a favorite at Halloween time. Watch this short clip and write 3 sentences  about how the characters are able to express emotions without any words.

6. Watch this newscast about a pumpkin that holds the world record for size.  What types of preparation do the farmers need to do to grow these giant pumpkins.

7. Share your social studies mini spark recording page with your teacher/EY coordinator.

We’ve all heard the legend of Betsy Ross. But, who created and designed our current American flag?

Believe it or not, the designer was a 17-year-old boy from Lancaster, Ohio, who did it for a school assignment!

Yep, the year was 1958, and at that time, there were only 48 states. Robert G. Heft was riding the bus home from school one day that year. He was thinking about the assignment his history teacher, Mr. Pratt, had given the class—a project that demonstrated their interest in history. Something visual. Something original. By Monday.

As Robert rode through downtown Lancaster, he saw the flag on top of Lancaster city hall. “That’s what convinced me,” he said. “I would design a new flag.”

Robert was interested in politics. He knew that Alaska was likely to soon become the 49th state. “But I knew that Alaska was heavily Democrat,” he says. “The Senate would have to approve the addition, and it was dominated by Republicans at the time. Everyone was saying that they would be adding another state to balance it out.” He had a hunch that then-Republican Hawaii would soon become the 50th state.

At home that night he sketched out a grid for 50 stars. “I couldn’t just throw them in anywhere.” So he came up with a design. Five rows of six stars with four alternating rows of five stars. He even went so far as to sew a flag with the new design!

You would think he earned an “A”!  “Not on your life,” he said. “My teacher, Mr. Pratt, was a taskmaster. He looked at what I’d done and said it wasn’t the real flag. Not with 50 stars. I explained my reasoning, and he still just barely gave me a passing grade, so for the first time I really spoke out. I told him I deserved better. I had a friend who’d done a collage of leaves and got an A. What I’d done showed a lot more imagination. Mr. Pratt looked at me coolly and declared, ‘If you don’t like the grade, go get the flag accepted in Washington!'”

And that’s exactly what Robert Heft set out to do. He biked over to the home of his congressman, Walter Moeller, knocked on the door, gave him the flag and explained what it was for.

“I asked him if he would take my flag to Washington, and if there were ever a contest to determine the design for a 50-star flag, would he present mine? He was so bowled over that he agreed, probably just to get rid of me.”

Two years went by. In January 1959 President Eisenhower signed a proclamation announcing the admission of Alaska as the 49th state. As with all new states, the star would be added on the following July 4th.

That 49-star flag—seven rows of seven stars—was almost immediately obsolete. Because in August 1959, just as Robert had expected, Hawaii became the 50th state.

He’d already graduated from high school by then, the woeful grade still in Mr. Pratt’s book. Robert was working as a draftsman for an industrial firm and going to college at night. Whatever happened to my flag design? he wondered.

He’d heard that thousands of new designs had been submitted. A special commission of congressmen was screening them and choosing five for submission to President Eisenhower.

In early June, Congressman Moeller called Robert and said,  “Son, I’m proud to tell you that President Eisenhower has selected your design for our nation’s new flag. Congratulations.”

Robert flew to Washington to see his flag flown over the Capitol for the first time. Thousands of others had submitted the same design, but Robert Heft’s had been the first. Moreover it wasn’t just a sketch. It was an actual flag. That was a big plus.

What did his high school teacher, Mr. Pratt, think? “The day I returned from Washington, Mr. Pratt changed my grade. But you know,” Robert mused, “if I hadn’t gotten that bad grade in the first place I wouldn’t have given the flag to Congressman Moeller. And if I hadn’t done that, I never would have gone to Washington….”

For more than 40 years, longer than any other, his design has been the one we know. “But I’ve got a good design for fifty-one,” he said, “in case we add another.”

It’s good to be reminded that Old Glory is a work-in-progress. Always has been, I guess. From the 13 original Stars and Stripes to the star-spangled banner of today, long may it wave.

Your task: There has long been talk of adding another state – Puerto Rico.

Draw a design for an American flag that would include Puerto Rico with 51 stars.

Take a picture of your design and email it, or turn it into your EY teacher.

Source: https://www.guideposts.org/better-living/positive-living/inspired-to-create-a-grand-new-flag

NEW Wonders of the World? Does that mean they were built in the last few years? NO! It just means they’re different from the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World. The new Wonders could be anything built before the year 2000!

Spark your thinking!

1. Set up your social studies mini spark recording page: #29: The NEW Seven Wonders of the World

2. What ARE the NEW Wonders of the World? WONDEROPOLIS knows! Read this article.  Test your knowledge by taking the test your knowledge and the wonder word challenge. Record your score for both on your recording page.

3. Research each wonder at Britannica. For each wonder make a bullet list with at least 5 details.

4. Look over the list of all of the places in the world that were considered to be the NEW wonders of the world. Choose one of the places to learn more about. Click on it and read the fact page. Write about the wonder runner up you picked and include 3-4 details about why it would be a good 8th wonder.

Check out the 7 wonders badge at the EY webpage.

Source:  http://mentalfloss.com/article/58705/11-ways-school-was-different-1800s

Summer break is coming up for most students in the United States, but did you ever wonder what summer break looked like for kids in the 1800s?  There are so many differences between school now and school in the 1800s! This blog post will explore those differences, and it may just convince you how much tougher it could be – and just how good you’ve got it!

• In the 19th and early 20th centuries, one room schoolhouses were the norm in rural areas. A single teacher taught grades one through eight together. The youngest students—called Abecedarians, because they would learn their ABCs—sat in the front, while the oldest sat in the back. The room was heated by a single wood stove.
• Most of the time, there was no transportation to get to school. Most schoolhouses were built to serve students living within 4 or 5 miles, which was considered close enough for them to walk. So when your Grandpa says, “I used to walk 5 miles to school”, he might not be exaggerating.
• The school year was much shorter back then! When the Department of Education first began gathering data on the subject in the 1869-70 school year, students attended school for about 132 days (the standard school year these days is 180) depending on when they were needed to help their families harvest crops. Attendance was just 59 percent. School days typically started at 9am and wrapped up at 2pm or 4pm, depending on the area; there was one hour for recess and lunch, which was called“nooning.”
• Forget iPads and gel pens—there were no fancy school supplies in the 19th and early-20th centuries. Students made do with just a slate and some chalk.
• Lessons were quite different than they are today. Teachers taught subjects including reading, writing, arithmetic, history, grammar, rhetoric, and geography. Students would memorize their lessons, and the teacher would bring them to the front of the room as a class to recite what they’d learned—so the teacher could correct them on things like pronunciation on the spot—while the other students continued to work behind them.
• Teachers sometimes lived with their students’ families. According to Michael Day at the Country School Association of America, this practice was called “boarding round,” and it often involved the teacher moving from one students’ house to the next as often as every week. One Wisconsin teacher wrote of boarding with families in 1851, “I found it very unpleasant, especially during the winter and spring terms, for one week I would board where I would have a comfortable room; the next week my room would be so open that the snow would blow in, and sometimes I would find it on my bed, and also in it. A part of the places where I boarded I had flannel sheets to sleep in; and the others cotton. But the most unpleasant part was being obliged to walk through the snow and water. I suffered much from colds and a cough.”
• Discipline was very strict. Sure, stepping out of line in the 1800s and early 1900s could result in detention, suspension, or expulsion, but it could also result in a lashing. According to a document outlining student and teacher rules created by the Board of Education in Franklin, Ohio, from 1883, “Pupils may be detained at any recess or not exceeding fifteen minutes after the hour for closing the afternoon session, when the teacher deems such detention necessary, for the commitment of lessons or for the enforcement of discipline. … Whenever it shall become necessary for teachers to resort to corporal punishment, the same shall not be inflicted upon head or hands of the pupil.” Not all places had such a rule, though; in other areas, teachers could use a ruler or pointer to lash a student’s knuckles or palms. Other punishments included holding a heavy book for more than an hour and writing “I will not…” do a certain activity on the blackboard 100 times.
• No lunch was provided by the school, even if families had the money for it; kids brought their lunches to school in metal pails. Every student drank water from a bucket filled by the older boys using the same tin cup.  GROSS!!
• For many, education ended after just eighth grade; in order to graduate, students would have to pass a final exam. You can see a sample of a typical 8th grade exam in Nebraska circa 1895 in this PDF. It includes questions like “Name the parts of speech and define those that have no modifications,” “A wagon box is 2 ft. deep, 10 feet long, and 3 ft. wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold?,” and “What are elementary sounds? How classified?”

Try the test yourself and let us know how you did in the comments!