Newsletter: November 5th

Dear Families,

I am so sorry for the delay in publishing this latest newsletter. Between writing narrative reports and a number of other projects I'm working on I just fell a bit behind. That said, we've been really hard at work in the classroom. Check out the photos below to see a few of the things we've been up to!

On Columbus Day we learned a bit about how history is written. This began with us viewing
a cartoon about Christopher Columbus from the "Animated Hero Classics" series.

After watching this video each of the kids listed adjectives they'd use to describe Columbus
based on what they learned from this video.

Next we read a book about Columbus' arrival told from the perspective of a Taino boy
who was later taken as a slave by Columbus. As you can imagine, this text offered very
different information.

Finally, I shared a few excerpts from A Young People's History of the United States
that spoke the fact Columbus and his men took many slaves, demanded the Natives find
them gold, and severely punished (and even killed) those that did not meet their demands.
Again, the kids wrote adjectives to describe Columbus based on what they learned from
these texts. As you can imagine, their choice of words were much different this time around.

We discussed why different historian/authors might choose different facts to share. During this discussion
we learned historians share facts but also leave out other important information. The kids then helped me make a list
of all the information we had learned about Columbus (both positive and negative). They were asked to
take on the role of a historian and choose which they would include and which they would leave out
when limited to retelling his story in a 5-cell comic. This one-day inquiry helped them come to see how
history is neither concrete nor black-and-white. As we set out this year to learn about many historical
events and people we'll continue to critique all we hear while constantly asking "Whose perspective(s)
are included her and whose are left out?"

In social studies we began learning about SC geography.

This included learning about the six regions of our state.

After conducting research into these regions the kids were grouped up and tasked with creating
a mural for one of the regions that included: (1) an illustration of what it looked like in this
region, (2) physical features found within the region, and (3) the climate within this region.

On our half-day last Friday, the kids had an opportunity to create relief maps of South Carolina.
They moved from mural to mural adding materials to their maps to show how the altitude changes as you
move from the Blue Ridge to the Coastal Zone.

They had so much fun making these maps.

They included a key to help identify which materials were used to identify specific regions.

In math we've most recently been working to revisit computation with regrouping. To make this
relevant to the kids' lives, Ms. Delcocco used the flyer from our Scholastic Book Fair to engage
the kids in tallying book prices and making change. 

This was a great way to tie in computation and money within real world scenarios.

In science Ms. Delecocco has been working with the kids to launch an inquiry into
electricity. There's lots of excitement around this right now. Most recently, the kids
were tasked with finding a way to light a bulb using a D-cell battery, two wires, and a
small bulb.

As much as anything, this called on the kids to demonstrate perseverance because
it took some critical thinking and lots of patience!

Ultimately, they learned how closed circuits allow flow of electricity to the bulb.

And finally, here are some fun pics from last Thursday's Fall Festival...