Five Themes of Geography

When we were assigned this project, our assignment was to take photos that we had from a vacation, and turn them into a power point, depicting the 5 themes of geography.  I had to get creative because I haven't been on a vacation since the creation of digital photography.  I asked if it would be o.k.to do my project on my hometown of Syracuse, Indiana.  I am glad that I had the opportunity to wander around my hometown, with camera in hand, and view it from a different perspective than a resident.  I actually was able to see my town for the unique and special place it is by focusing on the geography of it.

Trade Fair

We did a trade fair today in class.  We all brought handmade or store bought items to trade with our classmates.  Each person decided what to bring to trade or barter with each other.  This activity was to similate what the pioneers had to do when they came to America.  There was not a monetary system in place and the settlers wanted and needed goods that others had.  They had to trade or barter their goods for the goods of others. 

                                            My contribution to the trade fair..

                                                                                                                      Hand made bookmarks.

We each brought goods to sell, but the quantity of goods we brought was up to us.  Some students brought enough for each person in the class to trade with, others only brought a few goods.  Each student had to free will to trade with whoever they wanted goods from, or to refuse a trade based upon their wants and needs.  Each students walked away from the trade fair with different goods, but some walked away with a lot more than others did.  Some students chose to trade for an even 1 for 1 trade, while others felt their goods were worth more than others had to offer.  This is exactly what difficulties were presented in the time of the settlers.  This was a great activity for presenting to students how pioneers were able to get what they needed without the use of money.  This activity would be very engaging for students, and hopefully get them interested in learning as much as they could about this time period.

                                      



Items I traded for my bookmarks.

Shoebox Project/Artifacts

Using only a shoebox, grab anything that I might want to take with me if I had 5 minutes to leave my home.  This project was particularly difficult for me. We were told that family and pets were automatically going with us.  This left me to stare at and think about all of the belongings that I have aquired throughout my life.  Could I part with them?  Were they necessary to my survival?  For the most part the answer was yes!  The way that I see it is all of my belongings can be replaced...with exception of my photos.  However, I have boxes upon boxes of photos.  I decided to choose 3 particular photos.  One of each of my children from their first day home from the hospital.  Why these 3?  I will always know what my children look like now, I don't ever want to forget what they looked like when they were first born.  So my photos went into the shoebox along with a wallet that I stuffed all birth certificates, ID cards and social security cards.  I packed a baby bottle to be able to feed my youngest, my cell phone to let family and friends know what has happened to us, a book that belongs to my mother, a head band because I ALWAYS wear head bands and my video recorder to record our future lives. 

We all did this, as a class, and brought our belongings to look at.  It was rather interesting that every person included their cell phone and/or some piece of technology in their belongings.  We did this project to have us determine what we could live without if we were had to leave our homes, and had very little or no room to store our belongings on the trip to wherever we were going like the people on the wagon trains had to.  This really made me think about what was actually important in my life.

Family Recipe

Finding a family recipe that was unique and a "signature" to my family was a rather tricky assignment to fulfill.  My grandmother is the "cook" in the family, and is always cooking everything for family functions, which happen rather frequently.  The rest of us, well that's another story.  After I thought about it for a while I decided to include a recipe that my mother makes for all major family get togethers.  Since my mom isn't much of a "chef", to say the least, I thought it would be rather appropriate to include possibly the only dish my mom is successful preparing! 

Recipe:

1 can cream of chicken soup

1-8 oz container of sour cream

1/2 cup butter, melted (1 stick)

1 bag (32 oz) frozen hashbrowns, thawed

1-8 oz package shredded cheddar cheese

1/2 cup crushed corn flakes

Salt and pepper to taste

1. In a large bowl, combine cream of chicken soup, sour cream and cheese.  Mix well.

2. Add potatoes to the mixture.  Mix well.

3.  Add mixture to a 3 quart shallow baking dish.

4.  Combine melted butter and crushed corn flakes for topping.

5.  Sprinkle the cornflake topping over the potatoes.

6.  Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

I sometimes make this "side dish" into a "main dish" by adding cubed ham or smoked sausage.  We also had a vegitarian in the family, and my mom would substitute the cream of chicken soup with cream of mushroom soup, which was still pretty tasty.  This is a very tasty and very easy recipe to make, so if you have time, or are having a food rut, try my "family recipe", you won't be dissappointed!