Co-op in Review: August 15, 2013

This week, our Tapestry classes started our study of World War I, known at the time as the Great War.  This week, we learned about the tensions in Europe that led to war.  The war erupted one year into Woodrow Wilson's first term as President, and he and most Americans agree that this is Europe's war and Wilson declared America to be neutral.  But as Germany started sinking American ships, Americans started to become more and more angry with the Central Powers and started urging Wilson to join the Allies.   The Dialectic class will spend the next three weeks in a unit on World War I.  This week, they picked their roles for a peace talk simulation that will take place later in the study.  They also made awesome penny whistler planes out of clothes pins and craft sticks.  Both of the Grammar classes learned about the start of World War, and they learned about some of the new technological advances that were taking place at this time.  One of these advances was the use periscopes.  They could be used to see out of submarines or out of trenches.  The kids loved making their own periscopes out of quart sized containers and mirrors.  The Five in a Row class read the classic book, "Peter Rabbit."  Naughty Peter narrowly escapes from Mr. McGreggor's garden and hopefully learns a lesson about obeying his mother!  The kids made adorable sponge painted vests and tissue paper flowers.