Today, I challenged Danny right at the start with some assessments! He correctly identified landform and bodies of water in his booklet 12/12. He also provided the appropriate fill in the blank to identify the landform 4/4, therefore scoring a 16/16 on his demonstration of understanding. Additionally, we reviewed our maps and globes materials from yesterday (Florida Studies Weekly packet and maps vs. globes pictures). Danny took the follow up assessment and scored 7/7. Next, we went over the Florida Studies Weekly learning packet entitled "Which Way". This information taught us about the cardinal directions as well as the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean. We were first introduced to this material last week. Danny labeled a compass rose. Danny then needed to write to words for each direction. He was presented with N, S, E, and W. He used the direction signs we hung in his room (with the letter of each direction highlighted yellow to help him locate) to find each word to write. We discussed that the Pacific Ocean is the largest and the Atlantic Ocean is located to the east of Florida and is the water that we swim in at the beach. Finally, we tackled a few pages in his Geography text. The first tasked him with identifying things we'd find on a globe (island, city, and country, etc.). For the second page, we discussed how maps can found in various forms. These include paper, books, or digitally such as on the computer, phones, or tablets. We looked at the map of our area on my smartphone. We located the school, my house, and looked at Danny's town of North Palm Beach, where we found the park, golf course, and waterways. We zoomed in to see things with more detail and zoomed out to see just the whole city. Danny then looked at pictures in his text to determine if it showed a globe or a map and from what source.

We looked through Stephen's notebook for part of the class today. I asked Stephen to verbally highlight some things he learned during the school year. We discussed the 5 themes of geography and I introduced a writing assignment that connects "The Barefoot Mailman" to 3 of 5 themes of geography. The writing will be an editorial. Last, we discussed the post Barefoot Mailman assignment. I asked Stephen to develop 3 to 5 essential questions he would like answered regarding the research assignment that compares two geographic areas and focuses on linking the areas to a high percentage of professional athletes that are produced in those two areas.

Arianna and I finished her Earth display reviewing continents and oceans. She colored continents on the World Map and did a great job at locating and identifying elements of a map - the equator, the oceans, the cardinal directions. We read a giant newspaper from Studies Weekly about Maps and completed exercises for comprehension - labeling a compass and creating a map of her classroom. We began watching a short video on Mel Fisher's discovery of treasure off the Florida Keys from the shipwreck of the Spanish galleon, the Atocha. This was a good way to review geography and revisit pirates, which she is something she loves.

This afternoon, we began with a review of landforms and bodies of water. Then, we moved into the Florida Studies Weekly learning packet about Maps and Globes. We learned that globes are round models of the Earth. We looked at the globe and I identified the continents, the United States, and Florida. They can show similar things as maps, however maps are flat, more detailed, and can show us how to get places. We looked at a map of the USA and found Florida. Danny also identified the starting sounds of three pictures (mouse, apple, and pig) and wrote them down. Those letters spelled map! We also discussed the equator and that it is a line that goes around the middle of the globe. We found it on the globe and traced our finger over the line. We read that the places around the Earth look differently based on the variety of landforms and bodies of water. Florida is famous for the beaches and has forests and wetlands as well. We looked at two large pictures, one of a map and one of a globe. Danny colored the water on the globe picture in order to help him see how the Earth is mostly covered by water. He then colored the land on the map. Finally, we sorted pictures in an interactive notebook to differentiate between map and globe. I highlighted the starting letters of "map" and "globe" in an effort for Danny to sort them by using the starting sounds of the words.

I asked Stephen to share what he has learned from his reading of, "The Barefoot Mailman". Historical connections; past, present, and future were made related to means of communication, technologies and the impact of individuals,as well as local, national, and global communities. We also discussed a project linking a community in South Florida to one in the Dominican Republic that have produced uncanny numbers related to producing professional athletes in two unrelated sports.

Bobby continued to watch a documentary, "God Grew Tired of Us". We discussed the 5 themes of geography prior to viewing the documentary. We located the physical and relative location of the Sudan on a globe and discussed migratory patterns of people based on "push" and "pull" factors. Assimilation, quality of life/standard of living, and man's ability to overcome challenges and obstacles in order to adapt and thrive in a new surrounding were highlighted. Last, I asked Bobby to write down three areas of interest that he would like to study following the completion of the documentary.

As we have been learning about landforms and bodies of water, we performed a writing activity in which Danny had to copy the correct word matching the description. For example, one statement asked which is big and salty and Danny copied the word "ocean". We practiced this with ocean, lake, river, hill, mountain, and plain. We then sorted them by water or land.
Next, we read a non-fiction selection entitled, Martin Luther King, Jr. by Grace Hansen. We enjoyed seeing these real-life pictures of Dr. King. We talked about that civil rights means treating all people fairly and equally. We then answered several two-choice questions to practice recall about the material we read. Additionally, we began a new unit of Florida Studies Weekly entitled Maps and Globes. This gave us a basic overview that maps are flat and globes are round. We found the United States and Florida on the map. We watched a Brain Pop Jr. learning video about reading maps. Annie and Moby shared how maps can be used to help us find where we are going as well as show other things like population or precipitation amounts. Maps show us states, cities, countries, and continents. We learned terms such as map key (shows what the symbols on a map mean) and the compass rose shows us the cardinal directions which helps us read the map. We talked further about the cardinal directions (north, south, east, and west) and labeled the walls in his room accordingly. Finally, we completed the page about lakes in Danny's Geography book. In this activity, Danny found things that could be found on a lake and worked on categorizing more specifically by then marking only the animals found in a lake a different way.

In social studies today, we continued our discussion on landforms and bodies of water. First, we reviewed our landform pictures while identifying key features for each. While using the pictures for support, we then made edible landforms for a hands-on way to help us see them better. We used Hershey Kisses for the mountains, green jelly beans for the hills, a Nilla wafer for the island, and graham cracker crumbs for the beach. Blue and green icing helped us to show the land and bodies of water including plains, an ocean, a lake, and a river. We had a lot of fun with this project-based learning opportunity! Additionally, we reviewed our booklet on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. To evaluate the concept of discrimination in a different way, we read the fiction book, The Sneetches by Dr. Seuss. In typical Dr. Seuss fashion, The Sneetches are odd looking characters. However, some of them have stars on their bellies, while some do not. Those with the stars have segregated those without and do not interact or play with them. We see the sad expressions on the faces of those with no stars. The story progresses further into the characters with no stars having the opportunity to get them, and the star-bellied Sneetches then remove their stars. They go through this continuous cycle until they finally come to the realization that it does not matter; we are all the same, no matter our appearance. Danny and I discussed the theme of the story and made comparisons to the struggles that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. helped our country overcome.

Bobby and I discussed his news article and Bobby made a long list of interview questions. He will conduct the interview tomorrow. We discussed civil rights and Martin Luther King Jr. We reviewed geography terms and concepts - landforms, latitude and longitude, absolute and relative location, cardinal and intermediate directions, and renewable and nonrenewable resources. We discussed hemispheres and Bobby practiced finding routes on a map.

We began with continued discussions from yesterday on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. We watched a reading of the book, A Picture Book of Martin Luther King, Jr by David A. Adler as read by LeVar Burton on Reading Rainbow. This gave us a brief overview of his life. We also read through a simple level reader highlighting key facts. We discussed how Martin Luther King, Jr. was successful in working hard at helping people be treated more equally. In an effort to provide a more concrete lesson, Danny and I completed an activity to simply examine color. We looked a brown eggs and white eggs. We talked about how there were varying shades of brown among the eggs as some were darker than others. We then cracked a brown egg into one bowl and a white egg into another. We talked about how the eggs were different colors on the outside, but looked the same on the inside. We applied this to Martin Luther King, Jr. as he wanted people to see that it doesn’t matter if we look different on the outside, we’re the same on the inside. We also discussed good and bad character. We went through various behavioral characteristics such as shares, honest, listens, steals, hits kids, kind, loyal, and rude and then Danny marked the smiling face or sad face next to each to denote if it is good or bad behavior. Danny then completed a 5-question follow-up about Martin Luther King, Jr. in which he scored correctly on all 5 items. Next, we continued our study of landforms. We reviewed our My Book of Landforms booklet that Danny completed yesterday. Then we compared the landforms of a snowy mountain and an island. We sorted 12 different items that would be associated with one of them, such as: wearing sunblock, skiing, wearing mittens, and surfing on the waves. Danny did a great job sorting the items! Finally, we looked to find the landform picture based on descriptions. These were done in two groupings and included an ocean, hill, and lake and then a mountain, plains, volcano, and valley.