Henry researched the internet for a current event. He found an article on a festival in Carefree, AZ called the Enchanted Pumpkin Garden. An artist named Ray Villafane carves amazing faces into pumpkins and puts them on display. People from all over come to see his pumpkins and watch him carve. After reading the article he answered questions about what he read and located Carefree, AZ on his map. He put a pin in his map and marked it the Enchanted Pumpkin.

Danny and I discussed the upcoming competition that the school will enter at the South Florida Fair. We discussed past and present and looked at a coloring book about Yesteryear Village at the South Florida Fair. We will visit this. Danny saw pictures of how pioneer families lived in the past and compared that to how we live now. We watched a BrainPopJr. video about Thanksgiving and then discussed a Venn diagram comparing and contrasting Pilgrims and new immigrants.

Arianna and I discussed the upcoming competition that the school will enter at the South Florida Fair. We discussed past and present and looked at a coloring book about Yesteryear Village at the South Florida Fair. We will visit this. Arianna saw pictures of how pioneer families lived in the past and compared that to how we live now. We watched a BrainPopJr. video about Thanksgiving and then discussed a Venn diagram comparing and contrasting Pilgrims and new immigrants.

Arianna was absent today.

Henry continued the lesson on US state and regions. We read an article in Studies Weekly called "Mapping the News". This discussed current events and finding articles on the internet. It discussed how after you read an article you can track where it happened by putting pins in a map. It not only helps see where the articles you read came from but also helps learn geography as you are searching for the location. Henry answered five comprehension questions after the article and got all five questions correct. We also began reading about the early border of the United States as well as the Louisiana Purchase.

Craig and I reviewed vocabulary and discussed the industrial revolution and the changes it brought about. We compared the Missouri Compromise of 1820 with the Great Compromise of 1850. We reviewed and discussed the Trail of Tears and Indian removal. We learned about the underground railroad and the role of Harriet Tubman in conjunction with the Fugitive Slave Act. We watched two videos from History.com about Harriet Tubman and the underground railroad.

Charlie finished the guided notes for the Power Point presentation on the six themes of geography. We looked to a TeachersPayTeachers lesson requiring Charlie to research and think about his own town and how he would look at it as a geographer in terms of the 6 themes of geography. We watched a short video on BrainPop about the themes of geography, which really helped to clarify for him what these themes are all about.

Today, Danny and I went outside together to practice using the ruler. Danny stood in the sun while I traced his shadow with chalk. Then, using the ruler, he practiced placing the ruler at 0 and marking the spot at the next starting point. After we wrote all of the measurements down, he helped me add the numbers together to get the total inches.

Henry began a new lesson on US states and regions. We read an article on push and pull factors and he answered comprehension questions about the article.

In continuing our studies of qualities that make a good citizen, Danny and I discussed sportsmanship. We read the book, You Can’t Win Them All, Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister. In this story, Rainbow Fish gets upset when he experiences some bad luck in a game of hide-and-seek. Rainbow Fish gets mad and quits the game, which left him upset as well as upsetting his friends. Danny and I discussed Rainbow Fish’s behavior, different ways to handle the situation, and the reminder that it's just a game. Next, we moved on to our studies of communities. We reviewed the three types, rural, suburban, and urban. In the story, The City Kid and The Suburb Kid, by Deb Pilutti, we read about two boys who spend the week in each other’s environment (city and suburb). While each boy was excited to visit the other, they realized they like their home best. We made comparisons using the pictures as to where the kids shopped, where they slept outside, and where they played in the water. Danny then added information about suburbs to his interactive notebook. We wrote that in the suburbs: there are community parks and fields, it’s near a city, and people live here and drive to the city for work. We added some color to the picture and discussed using the patterns to guide nice coloring and producing “quality work”, which shows that we care about what we do. Finally, we completed a picture sort to correctly identify the community type. Danny scored 8/9 on this task. Additionally, we reviewed our Florida Studies Weekly packet about history and completed the assessment in which Danny earned 5/5. For our final activity, we read a Time for Kids magazine about Falling for Fall. We saw that Fall is a season of change in which animals store food and grow thicker coats for the upcoming winter. We reviewed the four seasons.