This week in History we went back to France to visit our friends there. If you'll remember the last time we were there just a few weeks ago, France dethroned their king during the French Revolution. We discussed this week that it was difficult for France during this time as they were trying to establish a government while all the countries surrounding it wanted to go to war with them to protect their own thrones and take advantage of a weak France. We met a not so nice little man named Napoleon Bonaparte. He was able to take advatage of the oligarchy goverenment established and crowned himself the Emperor of France. We shared how he used lies and deception to conquer a lot of territory. But we also discussed how he lost two battles, the Battle of Nile and the Battle of Tralfalgar, to the stronger British Navy. Napoleon was never able to conquer Great Britain. We discussed the characteristics of the brave Admiral Horatio Nelson, from the British Navy, compared to the coward characteristics of Napoleon. We also jumped over the Atlantic Ocean to discuss that Napoleon needed money for his war with Great Britain, so he sold the Louisiana Territory to the United States, under the command of Thomas Jefferson in 1809, for 15 million dollars. This Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the United States in one day. Our activity today was making Sailor Biscuits. The Navy would have had these biscuits to eat while at sea for long periods of time. These biscuits of just WATER and FLOUR (yes just those 2 ingredients) are almost rock hard and would take a LONG time before they would grow mold. We discussed that the sailors would have soaked the biscuits in some sort of broth, perhaps a fish stock. Since that didn't sound appealing to most, we settled for dipping them in hot chocolate. We also cracked the code in a Rosetta Stone activity. Some classes didn't get to finish, they can finish for fun at home.
Next week is a test week over chapters 28-29. Same proceedure as usual. We will go over the review on Monday and then Wed. will be the test. Purple folders will come home the next 2 Mon., to be returned the next 2 Wednesdays empty.
