Grade 7: American Revolution

What really happened when Washington crossed the Delaware on Christmas night, 1776?

Emmanuel Leutze (American, born Germany, 1816)

Washington Crossing the Delaware, 1851

OR

John B. Cameron (American, born Scotland, c.1828)

Washington Crossing the Delaware: on the evening of Dec 25th, 1776, previous to the battle of Trenton, 1876 (published by Currier & Ives after the Cameron painting)

Students examine the two images, Washington's recollections, an excerpt from the Journals of the Continental Congress, and soldiers' diaries, to determine the events that preceded the surprise attack on the morning of December 26 that led to an important Patriot victory. Go Patriots!

8th Grade Begins the Year with Westward Expansion

Together, we viewed and discussed Thomas Moran's 1872 Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, painted in a Newark, NJ studio after Moran returned from the American West. He had been out West as a member of Ferdinand Hayden's 1871 Geological Survey of the West, a government-funded expedition to discover the geological characteristics of what would become 

Yellowstone National Park.

Next we viewed a photograph of the same scene, taken by another member of the expedition, William Henry Jackson, and discussed why a geological expedition in 1871 might include both a photographer and an artist among its team of scientists.

Finally, we examined a recent photograph taken from the same point in Yellowstone National Park, and discussed the three images' similarities and differences.

We will examine other methods used by the  US government and businesses to encourage Americans to explore, settle, and develop the West, and displace the Native Americans.

#Enough 

Civic Rights and Responsibilities

= 8th Grade = Action =

On March 14, in solidarity with the nationwide #Enough gun reform movement, 8th grade students wrote to their elected officials. As they voiced their demands for gun control legislation, they reminded politicians that they will be a power in the voting booth in four short years. 

8th Grade

Postcards Home From the Great Migration:

Beginning in 1917, African Americans moved to industrial cities in the North to take jobs left vacant by American soldiers. Students interpreted this experience after examining paintings in the Great Migration Series, by Jacob Lawrence.