The Latest Craze: Ping Pong 

Rules of Play: How is the game is played? 

Everybody & Anybody:What do you need to play?

Ping Pong Tournament

The Game:  Some winning strategies………….

Making a Ping pong set at home 

 

 

Ping Pong in Style

The Ping Pong song ::

Select five adjectives to write your own song

An afternoon of Ping Pong:

How is Ping Pong different from Tennis?

Do you know what the Festival of Lupercalia is?

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Who was St. Valentine?

Designing cards and lace by hand, the Baird who writes comic valentines! Take a look for yourself at the preparations for Valentine’s Day in 1903. Who says the saint is neglected! click

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Thoughts to ponder ::

How is Valentine’s Day the same today?

How is it different ?

On January 1, 1776, the Continental Army  under George Washington’s control layed siege to Boston which had been taken over by the British Army. The Grand Union flag was hoisted above the base at Prospect Hill. It had 13 alternate red and white stripes and the British Union Jack in the upper left-hand corner (the canton). Highlights of its unique past are,

Betsy Ross and her three assistants, directed by Washington, made the first flag

• June 14, 1777, to establish an official flag for the new nation, the Continental Congress passed the first Flag Act: the flag of the United States  made of thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new Constellation.”
• Between 1777 and 1960, Congress passed several acts that changed the shape, design and arrangement of the flag and allowed for additional stars and stripes to be added to reflect the admission of each new state.
• Act of January 13, 1794 – provided for 15 stripes and 15 stars after May 1795.
• Act of April 4, 1818 – provided for 13 stripes and one star for each state, to be added to the flag on the 4th of July following the admission of each new state, signed by President Monroe.
• Executive Order of President Taft  June 24, 1912 – established proportions of the flag and provided for arrangement of the stars in six horizontal rows of eight each, a single point of each star to be upward.
• Executive Order of President Eisenhower dated January 3, 1959 – provided for the arrangement of the stars in seven rows of seven stars each, staggered horizontally and vertically.
• Executive Order of President Eisenhower dated August 21, 1959 – provided for the arrangement of the stars in nine rows of stars staggered horizontally and eleven rows of stars staggered vertically.

Today the flag consists of thirteen horizontal stripes, seven red alternating with 6 white. The stripes represent the original 13 colonies, the stars represent the 50 states of the Union. Stars and Stripes or old glory. Flag day is celebrated in on June 14.

Click on the newspaper pictures to access the embedded links to read more about it:

Online Research::

The colors of the flag are symbolic:

Find the attributes that each color represents.

Red symbolizes _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ and _ _ _ _ _ ___

White symbolizes _ _ _ _ _ _ and _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Blue represents _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ , _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ and _ _ _ _ _ _ _ .

Dallas Morning News in 1917

“Now remembered as Women’s Equality Day, this day marks the further enshrinement of the concepts of liberty and equality for which this great nation stands….

Margaret Bell Houston. 1st president of the Dallas Equal Suffrage Association.

The 72-year struggle of suffragists, from the First Women’s Rights Convention in July 1848 to the passage of the 19th amendment on August 26, 1920, bears witness to the sacrifice and dedication of the leaders of the early Women’s Rights Movement….

Description of the woman suffrage campaign in 1913

Today, we stand on the shoulders of the leaders of this movement such as Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, and the other courageous women who organized the First Women’s Rights Convention in nearby Seneca Falls….

Nona Boren Mahoney was the 1st president of the League of Women Voters in Dallas (1918-1920).

The “Declaration of Sentiments” speech that Mrs. Stanton delivered at the July convention called for “all men and women” to be recognized as created equal under the law….

Hortense Ward, chief justice of the 1925 all-female Texas Supreme Court.

In Congress, we elected our first female Speaker, my friend Nancy Pelosi in 2006. When she took the speaker’s gavel, surrounded by her grandchildren, she said we had finally broken the marble ceiling….

A portrait of Miss Lavinia Engle

And just this month the Supreme Court received its 3rd female justice when Elena Kagan joined fellow New Yorkers Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Sonya Sotomoyer. Today more women sit on the bench than at any other time in our nation’s history….

Born just outside Palestine in 1866, Mary Kate Hunter played a significant role in recording, promoting and preserving the history of Palestine and Anderson County. A supporter of voting rights for women, Mary Kate Hunter organized and was first President of the Palestine Equal Suffrage Association, and held statewide office in the Texas Equal Suffrage Association in 1915-16. In Addition to her civic Duties, Hunter also was a published poet, Editor of a local society journal and board member of the Texas State Library.

As the first act of this Congress and the first law signed by President Obama on January 29, 2009, The Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act helps victims of discrimination in the workplace right the wrongs done to them and paved the way towards greater fairness….

But today’s working women across America still only earn 78 cents for every dollar earned by men….

Women today make up only 17% of the 111th Congress, with only 17 women in the U.S. Senate and only 75 women in the House of Representatives….

Thinking of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Lucretia Mott reminds us to be relentless in seeking women’s equality.

The fight for women’s equality did not end in 1920, and we must continue to break ceilings and barriers for our future, and for the future of our children.

Sincerely,

Congresswoman Louise M. Slaughter

(Representing the People of New York’s 28th District)

Online Research :::

How many women are in congress today?  Search this database and find out which congresswomen are in office.  Choose one congresswoman and look at her website.  Tell your classmates something interesting you learned through your research.

Rethinking ::

Rewrite the above advertisement for Joe in your own words. What are there differences in language between 1837 and today?

On August 26, 1837, the Telegraph and Texas Register, from Houston, Texas, stopped running the above advertisement.  This marked the day that Joe no longer had a price on his capture and could begin living as a free man.

Why do you think William B. Travis wanted to find Joe?

Telegraph and Texas Register (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 2, No. 24, Ed. 1, Saturday, July 1, 1837

How did Joe survive the Alamo? He claimed that as the famous battle began he armed himself and followed Travis into the fray. After the battle the Mexican troops searched the buildings and called for any blacks to reveal themselves. Joe responded and was struck by a pistol shot and bayonet thrust before a Mexican captain intervened. Joe was taken to Bexar, where he was detained and interrogated by Santa Anna about Texas and its army.

Do you think it would have been better to be detained and questioned by the Mexican army or the Texan army? Why?

What happened after the Alamo? He somehow made his way to Sam Houston’s camp at Gonzales. He was questioned at Groce’s Retreat about the events at the Alamo.  He was then returned to Travis’ estate.

How did Joe escape? On the anniversary of the battle of San Jacinto he and an unidentified Mexican man escaped. A notice offering a fifty-dollar reward for his return was published in the Telegraph and Texas Register for three months and discontinued on August 26, 1837. Joe was last reported in Austin in August 1875.

Math Problem::

If Joe escaped Travis’ estate on the anniversary of the Battle of San Jacinto and the advertisement for his capture expired on August 26, 1837, how many days did Travis look for him?

Why do you think Joe and the unidentified Mexican man escaped on the anniversary of the Battle of San Jacinto?

reference used: Handbook of Texas Online