Vikings Ships Have Invaded Our Class!

 Viking Ships invaded our class today! Wow! I can't even express how impressed I was by the creativity of these ships. You all blew me away!

We all voted and declared 2 winners for the best Viking ship, but truly every ship was awesome!

Here is one of the winners-ship by Alexis

Here is the other winner created by the Steele Twins

We had so many awesome ships today!

What a wonderful time playing a Christmas trivia game, eating food, and opening gifts! You were all so thoughtful!

You are now officially on Christmas Break!!! Hooray! I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and enjoy the break from school work. You do need to read Unit 15, but no other homework is assigned for the break. Once we get back from break, we will be heading into my favorite part of history! I am so excited! Since this book is very incomplete in my opinion, there will be additional things to read and research, but I promise I won't go nuts! So enjoy this break before we are back to work.

The Fall of Rome

"The Holy Roman Empire is neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire."-Voltaire

The Roman empire was defeated for many reasons. They were in financial ruins from previous battles and an expensive army, they were attacked repeatedly, and they had division between the east and west to name a few. The barbarians and other invaders could not be stopped by the Romans as they descended upon the land. While the Romans had a large military, it came at the cost of the citizens. Taxes were high to sustain such an army and people could not afford to pay. Instead they died of starvation or had to sell their loved ones into slavery. The plague became a problem too. People were dying at the rate of 5,000 per day. That left very few to join the military. Rome was doomed. Other countries started attacking them and the rest is history.

What can we learn from the Romans? Does history repeat itself?


This last week before the Christmas break you will be learning about the Vikings. They were known as invaders, predators, and barbarians. The Vikings are often portrayed merely as one-dimensional warriors whose achievements include little more than plundering and raiding. But is that really the whole story? You will soon find out. You will also re-create a Viking ship. I can't wait to see what you come up with!

Homework:
1. Read Unit 14
2. Study for test on Units 10-14
3. Build or make your Viking ship (we will be judging it next week)
4. Don't forget your secret pal gift!

*next week we will have a little party so if there is a special food you want to bring, please do so. We will play a game too, so bring your game face! Feel free to dress festive too. Hats, ugly Christmas sweaters, whatever you can think of. I might have a prize for the most festive outfit too.