Henry found a current event on the coldest inhabited place on Earth. We read an article about a town in Siberia with a population of 500 where the temperature dropped to -88 degrees a few weeks ago. It is so cold in the town, they cannot grow vegetables or have indoor plumbing because the pipes would freeze. The people survive by eating frozen reindeer and frozen fish. He answered comprehension questions after we read the article.
Arianna and i continued learning about U.S. symbols, monuments and memorials. We reviewed by way of reading the booklet she put together, "Liberty!" She completed a word search about Yellowstone National Park. We read together "America: A Patriotic Primer" by Lynne Cheney. This is an alphabet book about all things American. We discussed equality, heroism, patriotism, and the Constitution. Finally, we discussed Arianna's long-term goals. We wrote them on cards and we will make a graphic organizer with them in our next class.
This afternoon Bobby and I examined two distinctive periods in the development of Indian culture- the Gupta and Maurya periods. The Gupta period in particular was known for the construction of elaborate temples which were adorned with both Buddhist and Hindu scriptures. Homework is to read pages 266-271 and complete #'s 1-3.
Arianna and I continued learning about landmarks, monuments, memorials and symbols of the U.S. We cut out pictures and added facts. Arianna made a booklet and titled it "Liberty!" We read about the Liberty Bell, Mount Rushmore, the Statue of Liberty, the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the U.S. flag, and the White House.
Henry and I began reading a book called "Around the World in 100 Years" about the early European explorers. We also read an article on and discussed the life and death of Magellan and watched a video on early explorers.
Arianna wrote three things she learned about Rosa Parks. She also built a 3D model of the Wasington Monument and we began learning about memorials, monuments and symbols of the United States - the bald eagle, the liberty bell, Mount Rushmore, the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, etc.
We began with a fun book, Going to Town, by Laura Ingalls Wilder. The publication on this book is in the 1930s, so provided us with some great visuals of the old days. Laura and her family live in a log home in the woods. They are very excited to take a trip into town. The girls did their hair and put on their fanciest dresses to head into town on their horse-drawn wagon. They had never been to the store or seen a town so big. Danny was very interested in the book and wanted to know all about the characters in the story. We talked about all the differences from how things are today, as well as they used a wagon vs. a car, drove on a dirt road vs. paved, and they talked about trading at the store. We discussed different ways Pa could trade at the store. We watched a Brain Pop Jr. learning video about homes. We saw various pictures about types of homes and compared them to how homes looked long ago. Danny completed his flip pictures for his interactive notebook. After discussion, we wrote for long ago (People lived in simple log homes.) and for today (People live in houses with many rooms.). We continued on with a nonfiction book, Communication: Then and Now by Robin Nelson. We saw comparisons such as hieroglyphics vs. words to tell stories, using a radio vs. television and computer to get the news, and use of the Pony Express to deliver important news. Danny completed his flip pictures for his interactive notebook writing that long-ago people wrote letters and today people send emails or texts.
