This week we have been very busy exploring our national symbols. We learned that these symbols represent our country. The national symbols study will help us to get ready to discuss what the president’s job entails, the three branches of government, and how voting works.

Our first national symbol that we studied this week is the Statue of Liberty. We learned that the Statue of Liberty was a gift from France in 1884. Lady Liberty is so large that the parts had to be shipped separately and assembled in America. An interesting fact about the Statue of Liberty is that her spine was designed by the same engineer that designed the Eiffel Tower. Additionally we learned about the bald eagle and the American Flag as national symbols.

In Math each student was given a sheet that had pictures of measurement towers on them. The students worked independently to grab and count a handful of unifix cubes. They then counted the cubes and connected them to create a measurement tower. Once the cubes were connected the students sat their tower next to one of the pictures of towers. They then used 1-1 correspondence to color in the matching number of cubes on their sheets. This process was repeated 3 more times. The next day we all looked at our measurement towers and decided to put them in order from the smallest number of cubes in the tower to the largest number of cubes in the tower.

During Reader’s Workshop we read a book called The First Pup. This story told the students about the first family’s dog, Bo. It introduced many facts to the students about the President’s job. It also was a great way of showing students some of the important buildings and structures in Washington, D.C.: the Washington Monument, the Capitol Building, The White House, and the Lincoln Memorial.

We started something completely new in Writer’s Workshop. The students are assigned writing partners. These partners are people we are going to discuss our work with. Before we start Writer’s Workshop we tell our partners what we are going to write about that day, give suggestions on how our partners can improve their work, and ask for tips on making our writing better. The students discussed that authors need to talk to other writers to learn how to improve writing or to get new ideas.

Monday is our Field Trip to Fisherman’s Folly Farm. This will be tying in to a lesson on nutrition. Please remember car seats on Monday, and please make sure your child is dressed for the weather. Boots are a necessity for this field trip!

Thank you to all the parents who volunteered their time to speak to us about their jobs! We really appreciate your help!

Have a great weekend!