Various Zany Approaches to A Christmas Carol - Less Zany Approaches to Spanish Texas

Today students:

• Discussed some of their questions over Stave One of A Christmas Carol - View them here and here.
• Acted out key words describing Scrooge, particularly this passage: "Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice." Things got a little zany indeed, but no one complained.
• Examined the mystery of the origins of the word humbug
• Began writing A Christmas Carol about A Christmas Carol
• We brainstormed various Christmas carols.
• Students chose one and then began writing their own carol based on what happened in Stave One.
• They will keep adding stanzas as we read each Stave.
• Things got a little zany during this activity as well. Indeed.

• Read one another's Essay Ranking Spanish Explorers. They can be read here and here. (You will need to select the second one by hovering and clicking, as it seems to be written in black. It can be read, though!)
• Examined and analyzed two sets of maps showing the competition between European powers to build colonial empires in the Americas
• Began examining a rather complex Chronology of Spanish Texas to note how Spain's interest in settling Texas waned and waxed as French threats to Texas waned and waxed.

Assignment: A Christmas Carol

1. Read Stave Two.
2. Write discussion questions, post them at your blog, add picture(s).
3. Write Verse 2 of your Christmas Carol, based on what happens in Stave Two.
4. Vocabulary help for Stave Two can be found here.