Today we learned about Emily Dickinson, who is one of the best known female American poets. We listened to two of her poems and then drew the images that came to our mind when we heard the poems.

Today we learned about Louis Pasteur and his study of germs. We did a science experiment about hand washing and germs to illustrate how it is sometimes difficult to get rid of germs.

Today we learned about Elizabeth Blackwell, who was the first female doctor in America. After writing a sentence about Dr. Blackwell in our history books, we made stethoscopes to listen to our classmates heartbeats.

Today we learned about Clara Barton and what an amazing contribution she made in her creation of the Red Cross. We made arm bands with red crosses on them to signify Clara's work on the battlefield. Everyone worked really hard in their reading today and I am so proud of how far everyone has come with their reading this year! Tyler Parker gets a special shout out because he has been the brave reader for the past two weeks! Good job, Tyler! Looking forward to learning about some one new on Thursday!

Today we learned about Susan B. Anthony

Today we learned about two important people--Henry David Thoreau and Florence Nightingale. Each made contributions in very different ways, but both made the world a better place.

Today, we learned about Abraham Lincoln and Charles Dickens. We made a timeline of important events and we completed a vocabulary word search about the life of Dickens.

Today we learned about Ralph Waldo Emerson. We learned that he loved spending time in nature and writing a lot! We also learned about alphabetical order. We practiced alphabetical order with nature words and also the names of everyone in the class.

Today, we learned about Franz Schubert. We listened to a lot of his compositions and color coded a glyph to indicate our reactions to the music. We also learned the German word for "songs," since most of Schubert's works are in German. German songs are called "lieder," which sounds a bit like our English word "leader."

Today we reviewed John James Audubon by performing a bird beak activity. We tried two different types of bird beaks and attempted to pick up small gravel pieces. Then we learned about Davy Crockett.

Today we learned about John James Audubon and his study of birds! We read a passage about him and then painted bird portraits just like Audubon would have! They were beautiful!

We learned about Peter Mark Roget today, who is a hero for creating his thesaurus! We learned about synonyms, or words that mean almost the same. We practiced synonym matching and fine motor skills with lacing cards.

We've been out due to illness, but the next hero we will be learning about is Sequoyah, an important member of the Cherokee Indigenous Peoples. Learn about him in a story. Did you know that Sequoyah is from Tennessee? You can visit his birthplace and learn even more about him. The Sequoyah Birthplace Museum is about an hour from Knoxville and would make a wonderful field trip!

Today we had a free day! Since it was the first day of the semester and we had some absences as well as some new students, we played logic games, drew pictures, and worked mosaic puzzles! All good skills for learning! We'll get back to learning about important heroes and heroines next week!

Today we learned about Saint Nicholas! We learned he was a very generous many who helped many people in need. I am so excited to learn about many more amazing people in the spring semester!

Have a wonderful holiday season!

Today, we learned about Ludwig von Beethoven! We watched a fun little Peanuts clip, since Schroeder loves Beethoven. We also listened to Symphony No. 3, Erocia, which was written for Napoleon, whom we learned about last week. Finally, we listened to Moonlight Sonanta and colored a page according to the music. We learned terms like: staccato, legato, forte, and pianissimo.

Today we learned about Napoleon Bonaparte. We learned he was Emperor of France and how he was banished to live on an island towards the end of his life.

Today we learned about Sybil Ludington, who was quite the heroine! When she was just sixteen, she rode her horse, Star all night to warn her father and his troops that the British were coming to attack. Paul Revere gets a lot of credit for this, but Sybil is often overlooked! We found important words about Sybil in a word search. Then we played Guess Who with the people we have learned about so far!
Here's a fun video about Sybil to watch this week.

Today we learned about Deborah Sampson, who disguised herself as a man so she could fight in the Revolutionary War. We made a comic about her! After that, we played a Guess Who? game, which we will probably play again next week!

Today we learned about Noah Webster and his dictionary! We learned about what a dictionary is and what kinds of information is in a dictionary. Then we played a fun room escape game.

Today we learned about Eliza Hamilton, who was Alexander Hamilton's wife. We learned that she helped soldiers during the war and helped start the first orphanage in New York. We completed a sentence scramble about Eliza Hamilton.

We finished up our learning of the friendship between George Washington and Marquis de Layfayette. We made little models of both the soldiers, which was so much fun! We were able to pose them in various interactions! They are very cute! When we return, we'll learn about Eliza Hamilton.

Today we learned about Marquis de Lafayette, who was a great French soldier who came to help the colonists fight in the Revolutionary War. He and George Washington had a close friendship and George Washington even considered him to be a son! We also practiced saying some French words just like Lafayette may have said!

Today we learned all about Mozart! Did you know that Mozart was just five years old when he wrote his first musical composition and he wrote over 600 pieces in his lifetime, even though he only lived to be 35?? We listened to Mozart and drew art based on what we saw when we closed our eyes and listened. Also we made a listening glyph, which is a type of visual assessment. The pieces we listened to were: Rondo alla Turca, Eine Kliene Nachtmusik, and Symphony No. 40 in G minor.

Today, we learned about the Amazing Abigail Adams! Did you know that she is only one of two women who have been the wife AND the mother of a U.S. President? Can you name the other lady who has been a wife to a president and the mother of a president?

One thing we learned about Abigail was how often she wrote letters to her husband, John Adams, reminding him to "remember the ladies." For that reason, we learned the parts of a friendly letter today and we wrote to someone to tell them all about Abigail Adams. The students letters were wonderful!

Today we learned about our third president, Thomas Jefferson. We learned that he loved reading and books and even helped to create the largest library in the world (the Library of Congress). We practiced organizing books in alphabetical order like in a library!

This week, we learned about our first president, George Washington! We wrote sentences about him and then made a collage of the Washington Monument.

Do you know who invented the roller coaster? Would you be surprised if I told you it was Catherine the Great? Today we learned all about Catherine the Great and her invention of the roller coaster. We also learned she did some amazing things for Russia, like make sure boys AND girls got to attend schools. She also created museums and theaters throughout Russia. We read the book A Royal Ride and then spend some time designing, drawing, building and testing our own roller coasters. Fun Fact: In many languages "roller coaster" means Russian mountains!

Today we went over our classroom rules (see below) and we looked at our Heroes & Heroines Workbook. We practiced our best coloring and wrote some words that describe heroes & heroines. Finally, we played a memory match game with pictures of the people we will learn about this year. Click on the link to get a copy of the memory match game to play at home (print two copies to have matching pairs. I would also suggest using card stock for printing)!
Classroom Rules
1. Listen Carefully
2. Follow Directions
3. Respect Others and Self