Snow Day 4Helen Keller: English

Chapter 15 – 18

1. What famous inventor did Helen meet?

2. What other languages was Helen learning?

3. What “outdoor” place in New York was Helen’s favorite to visit?

4. What college was Helen hoping to attend?

Snow Day 4Helen Keller: Computer Science/STEMLook up the vocabulary on a computer, if you do not have a computer use a dictionary.

1. Disquietude

2. Undaunted

3. Felinus

4. Gallic

5. Pitfalls

6. Unobtrusive

7. Impelled

8. Witticism

Snow Day 4Helen Keller: Math

Divide the fractions to the lowest common denominator. See the example for help.

1 1 9 7 9 2 18 92 ____ ÷ 3 _____ = ____ ÷ _____ = ____ x _____ = _____ = _____ 4 2 4 2 4 7 28 14

Multiply the bottom number with the whole Switch the top & Multiply. Reduce bynumber and add the top number to get a new bottom of the dividing.top number. Keep the bottom number the same. second fraction.

Snow Day 4Helen Keller: Health

Last snow day you learned about the outer parts of the eye. Label those parts below.

12

4 3

5

6

Snow Day 4Helen Keller: Social Studies

Laura Bridgman

Laura Dewey Bridgman, (born December 21, 1829, Hanover, New Hampshire, U.S.— died May 24, 1889, Boston, Massachusetts), the first blind and deaf person in the English-speaking world to learn to communicate using finger spelling and the written word. Predating Helen Keller by nearly two generations, Bridgman was well known for her ability to exchange conversation with teachers, family, peers, and a curious public.

At age two she contracted scarlet fever, which caused her to lose her senses of hearing, sight, smell, and taste. Despite her sensory deficits, she acquired a form of rudimentary gesturing that she used to communicate with her family. In 1837 Bridgman entered the New-England Institution for the Education of the Blind (later known as the Perkins School for the Blind) in Boston, Massachusetts, where she lived for the remainder of her life. Under the direction of American educator Samuel G. Howe, superintendent of the school, and several other teachers there, including Lydia Drew, Mary Swift (Lamson), and Sarah Wight, Bridgman mastered receptive and expressive language skills by using her fingers to recognize raised letters of the English alphabet and to receive and deliver tactile spelling of ordinary English words. She also learned to write by using a block-lettering device. With those skills in place, she acquired knowledge about the natural and human-made world through deliberate and sometimes unplanned tactile encounters with objects. By the time her formal education ended in 1850, she had acquired learning in history, literature, mathematics, and philosophy.

In 1841 Howe commissioned Sophia Peabody, who would soon marry writer Nathaniel Hawthorne, to sculpt a clay bust of Bridgman. Upon its completion, Howe had Peabody make several plaster casts of the bust that he took with him on an extended journey through the American South and Old Northwest (Northwest Territory). Advocating for the establishment of blind schools in those regions, Howe left Peabody’s busts of Bridgman with influential legislators, thus spreading the prominence of his blind and deaf student throughout the country.

Bridgman’s fame spread even further a year later. In January 1842, during his first visit to the United States, the novelist Charles Dickens met Bridgman, who was 12 years old, and on his return to England he devoted a chapter of his American Notes (1842) to the story of her “finger language” skills, her education, and her gregarious personality. Not long after, written letters and autographs from Bridgman became prized items throughout the English-speaking world.

Bridgman spent her adult years at the Perkins School, where an endowment on her behalf covered her room and board. Most of her days were spent doing needlework, writing letters, and reading the Bible and religious tracts. She enjoyed communicating with staff, visitors, and family members who could converse with her through finger spelling. She often visited her family in New Hampshire, usually during the summer months. Her thin stature and several periods in her life when she ate little caused her caregivers great concern, leading some contemporary scholars to suggest that Bridgman may have lived with anorexia nervosa.

1. What was Laura Bridgman the first blind and deaf person to do?

2. How did Bridgman lose her senses?

3. How did Howe promote schools for the blind?

4. What did Charles Dickens call Bridgman’s ability to communicate?

5. What disease (besides the blindness and deafness) do many scholars think Bridgman suffer from?

Snow Day 4Helen Keller: Science

Last week you learned about the parts of the external ear. This week please label them. Use the word bank to help you.

Anthelix Antitragus Concha External auditory meatus HelixLobe Navicular fossa Root of the helix Scapha Tragus

Snow Day 4Helen Keller: Art

Helen Keller was known for having impossible dreams that she followed. A dream catcher catches the bad dreams and let the good ones run free.Nearly every part of a dream catcher had a meaning.

Hoop:  The wooden hoop was either circular or teardrop shaped.  It served primarily as a frame for the web, but some believe it represents the circle of life.

Web:  The web, traditionally patterned after a spider’s web, was to catch bad dreams (good for Lakota) and keep them from entering the dreamer’s head.

Feathers :  Numerous purposes are assigned to feathers that hang from the hoop.  Many believe they provide a soft ladder for the good dream to glide down and gently enter into the dreamer’s mind.

Beads:  A single bead often represents the spider that made the web.  Many beads or hanging beads can represent good dreams that trapped during the night.

Gem Stones:  Because it is illegal for most people to possess certain types of feathers, gem stones are now used to replace the symbolism feathers once held.

Arrowheads:  For increased strength and protection, some makers add arrowheads.  For other, arrowheads point to the four corners of the earth, directions from which the wind blows.

Design your own dream catcher. You may either draw one or actually create one!

Snow Day 4Helen Keller: Theater

Helen Keller often had to use other things to be understood by those who did not know sign language. Use the items below and come up with a way to make a partner guess the word without using any noises or just pointing out the item. Write how you made yourself understood and have the partner sign that you did it.

Headache

Driving a bus

Finding stars

Doing homework

Partner Signature: _________________________________________________________

Snow Day 4Helen Keller: Yearbook

Yearbooks will sometimes have a section where they tell what is popular for the year like movies or books.

Think of the movies or books that you know of today. What would be a movie or book you think Helen would like and write at least 3 sentences on why.

Snow Day 4Helen Keller: Band

If you listen to the radio or Internet, there are songs about almost any topic you can imagine.

Choose a song about the following topic. Write the song title, artist, and how it relates to the story.

Writers