We began our lesson on Martin Luther King Jr. by watching a short video about the famous "I Have a Dream" speech. Next, Jayne read about the importance of Martin Luther King Jr. in the Read Works story "An American Leader: The Story of Martin Luther King Jr." We discussed the vocabulary words: unfair and equality. We then reviewed fact and fiction in terms of how to identify a story that is true verses a story that is fiction. She was able to correctly identify texts that were fact and fiction. She then listed 3 key facts from the information she learned today. She did a great job finding key facts in the reading.

Charlie was absent today.

Craig was absent today.

Today we began with a Florida Studies Weekly reader about fact or fiction. We read about fiction fairy tales and facts with examples about Martin Luther King Jr. and Abraham Lincoln. Danny was encouraged to work independently through the packet related activities. He had to label pictures fact or fiction, label non-fiction and fiction books based on their titles (this was a little tricky for him), identify pictures of items that help us with history, and tell why Martin Luther King worked to change laws. We continued learning about the past with the nonfiction book, School Then and Now, by Robin Nelson. This book series provides great black and white as well as color photographs to offer helpful visuals to build knowledge in these concepts. We saw how kids walked a long way to school and now they use a car or bus. Their schools had one room, while now we have many rooms. Students used to share one desk and now they have their own. Students used to write on slates with chalk vs. today’s use of paper and pencil. Finally, the kids long ago studied reading, writing, and arithmetic, while today we study reading, writing, math, science, and social studies. We then compared clothing of long ago and today for Danny’s interactive notebook. For the flip picture of long ago, Danny copied the sentence: Girls wore dresses and aprons. Boys wore long pants and boots. For today, Danny copied: Kids wear short pants, t-shirts, and tennis shoes. Finally, we began our next Magic Tree House book (book #3), Mummies in the Morning by Mary Pope Osborne. We reviewed highlights from the previous two books and Danny remembered some key items. We then read about how the kids picked out a picture of ancient Egypt as the location for their next adventure. They saw a pyramid with a long parade. We looked on a real map of Pennsylvania (where the kids live), Florida, and found Egypt. Throughout the process we discussed fact or fiction.

Craig and I explored World War I today, looking at video, images and the text to understand more about causes, effects, and alliances. We discussed Woodrow Wilson's 14 Points and the Treaty of Versaille as well.

Henry read an article and watched a video on Ferdinand Magellan. He learned that Magellan was the first to circumnavigate the globe and proved that the world was round. He also learned that he found and named the Pacific Ocean.

Craig and I discussed Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and a Newsela article which discussed his letter from Birmingham jail. Craig answered questions and contributed what he knew.

Charlie and I discussed Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and a Newsela article which discussed his letter from Birmingham jail. Charlie answered questions and contributed what he knew. He said that his Grandma required that he read about this over the weekend.

Arianna completed her "I Have a Dream" mobile and we hung it in the school. She had great dreams! We read "Harriet Tubman" by Wil Mara and by Robin S. Doak, two biographies, and "If a Bus Could Talk: The Story of Rosa Parks" by Faith Ringgold. Arianna answered questions about the reading and we read a poem and sang a song about Harriet Tubman. Arianna and I discussed the words: biography, hero, and slave.

Charlie decided he wanted to do another origami project to represent his study of ancient Japan. He completed a dragon head. We continued reading and learning about Barbarians with Studies Weekly. We went to a separate website to see Charlie's name in Runes. We continued with African Kingdoms, learning more about the Sahara desert, the Kush empire, and the trade of gold and salt. We watched short videos about these topics as well. Charlie turned in homework and did a great job at completing it.