1. D O N OW Come in quietly and clear EVERYTHING off your desk. I will give you a pencil, paper, and your test. Just relax!!

2. T ODAY ’ S A GENDA !! Benchmark Two Early Finisher Activity

3. B ENCHMARK T WO Your Benchmark exam has only 22 questions; however, I need you to take your time!! These questions may seem tricky, but you know all of the answers. Read through the questions carefully and figure out what they are asking you. Then, read the answers carefully. When you are finished, you may take a break, and I will give you a piece of paper. Please check your answers on this paper. I will not collect the test until you have thoroughly completed it!!

4. E ARLY F INISHERS If you finish the exam early, you will have the opportunity to write in a “daily journal.” Pretend you are an important person in Ancient Egypt or for the Hebrews. You are going to write FIVE journal entries as though you are this person. Make these entries complete and thoughtful. Each one should be AT LEAST five sentences. The people you may choose from are: Hatshepsut Ramses II An embalmer Moses David Solomon Let me show you an example… If you want to get creative and make it into a real looking journal, I have construction paper for you!!

5. Dear Journal, I cannot believe the day I just had! I am trying to build this amazing temple for my people, the Hebrews, and they are acting so ungrateful. Just because I am making so many people help out, does not mean they should get mad at me. After all, this temple is for them! I cannot build a temple on my own. I want the Hebrews to have a place to worship God and feel united, but they are complaining too much. I even heard that some of them want to break apart and create different groups of Hebrews. Can you believe it? From, King Solomon

6. T HE L AST O LYMPIAN If you finish the journal entries, you may pick up a copy of The Last Olympian. This is a fictional novel about Greek gods, and their adventures. It will allow you to get a good idea of Greek mythology and the stories of Greek gods, which we will focus on in our next unit!!

7. D O N OW January 28 is the birthday of Sesame Street character, Ernie's birthday. If you could create a television show for kids, what type of a show would it be? What is its name? What type of information would it contain?

8. T ODAY ’ S A GENDA !! Ancient Hebrews Travel Magazine!!

9. A NCIENT H EBREWS T RAVEL M AGAZINE !! Today, you are going to make a travel magazine to show people how neat it would be to travel back to the time of Ancient Hebrews. Each section will represent a different page in your magazine. I will show you an example, but please feel free to make these as creative as you would like!! Make them colorful and interesting!!

11. D O N OW Please sit quietly in Scholar- Ready position, so we can get started!!

12. T ODAY ’ S A GENDA !! Be a Newscaster from Ancient Egypt!! (Group Work)

13. N EWSCASTER A CTIVITY !! You are going to be in a group of four. Each group is going to receive a news story about Ancient Egypt. In your groups, you will have 20 minutes to plan your skit. One person will be the newscaster in the station. One person will be the newscaster in Egypt. Two people will be acting out the news story. Let me show you an example of a news report…

14. E XAMPLE

15. You have 1 minute to get into a group of 4. When you are sitting quietly in Scholar-Ready position, I will give you an index card with your news story. You will have 20 minutes to practice!!