American Hero Unit

We just began a new unit in Social Studies: American Heroes!  We will be studying a new famous American each week for the next 12 weeks.  The kids will learn about important people such as: Rosa Parks, Amelia Earhart, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Alexander Graham Bell and more!  The kids love learning about the past and I know they will enjoy learning about these important people, their character traits and their contributions to our country.  We will be making a timeline on the back wall of our classroom to support our learning.

This week, we learned about our first American Hero: Martin Luther King Jr.!  We sang, read poems and songs, watched short movies, wrote and made a craft as we learned all about this Civil Rights leader and his message of peace and equality.  The kids were very engaged.....hopefully they have been sharing some of what they have learned at home.  Here is a photo of the hallway display we made:

Science
We also finished up our science unit on weather by learning about the water cycle.  We learned a great song to help us remember the 3 major parts of the water cycle: evaporation, condensation and precipitation.  We watch some information on BrainPop Jr. and the kids each 'took notes' on the parts of the water cycle book after labeling a diagram.  They were very patient and focused when we made Water Cycle Bracelets with string and pony beads.  Don't they look so proud?

We talked a little bit more about clouds after reading Tomie dePaola's Cloud Book and made stratus, cumulus and cirrus clouds out of cotton balls.  Our next unit will be focused on learning about solids and liquids.  This is very hands on and is my favorite science unit.  I know the kids will love it!