I chose to do my treasure box on the Constitution.  We always learn rules in the first few months of school so the tie in with the Constitution was a no brainer.  We must teach about Constitution Day  so I used this as my main activity.  We discussed all of our rules in our classroom and why they are important.  We looked at many pictures that I took from the summer institute plus my detailed explanation of all that I saw first hand.  The children were really excited to see the documents and pictures of our founding fathers.  We discussed why our country needed rules and how much thought went into this.  We role played as our founding fathers explaining why rules are important.  We completed a picture of the American flag and Constitution Day to take home to parents.  The children were encouraged to tell their parents about all that was learned.

Franklin

Benjamin Franklin was not only one of the Founding Fathers of the United States.  He was a leading writer, publisher, inventor, diplomat,scientist and philosopher.  He is credited with inventing the lightening rod, Franklin stove and bifocals.  I was amazed at all of the things Benjamin Franklin was involved with.  How he was able to acco mulish so much in his life is amazing.  I loved reading all of his chief events in Franklin's life were listed in his life at the end of the book, which was very informative.  I learned so much about Benjamin Franklin and many facts that I didn't know.  He was a man who wore many hats and was so involved in the shaping of our country.  It will be very hard teaching my Kindergarten students about Benjamin Franklin.  I will try to incorporate this with Constitution Day on September 18th with some fun hands on activities that I have planned.

June activity

I have always been intrigued with slavery so I read about it in both books. I could never understand how human life,no matter what color your skin is, be treated like it was in slavery. In Hakim's book it was mentioned in many places in the book. It was referenced in the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, and many other times in history. The words slave or slavery are not even mentioned. The Constitution writers substituted "person held to service or labor" or "all other persons" for slave. They were very many interesting facts given in Hakim's book. In Woods book it was given a small explanation titled antislavery. It talked about far more blacks living in slavery at the end of the Revolutionary era than at the beginning. I enjoyed reading both explanations but Hakim referenced it in many places in the book and did a better job keeping my attention while reading!

May activities

I guess the saying better late than never could be my motto. End of the year responsibilities have just taken everything out of me. After finally reading the assignment, I found I really did enjoy what I read. I teach Kindergarten so the format of the book was right up my alley. It was very easy reading that I think children would enjoy reading. The format was really very appealing to me because it contained so many facts that I didn't know. History was not my favorite subject in school but if I would have had it presented to me in this way, I may have liked it more! We do have a Social Studies series that is more hands on. I learned so many amazing facts in this book. I found myself wanting to read every little tidbit on the page. I also think that this format relates to current brain research presenting the facts and also adding some fun and creative stories for the creative side of our brains. All and all I found Hakim's book was very interesting and would be a great resource to use in any History class.

Brain research

After reading all about brain research and the difference between left and right brain learners I realize that we have very many kind of learners in our classrooms. My Kindergarten classroom in fact has left brainers-logical and right brainers-random and creative. How do I get through to all learners? I think that I need to teach in an open environment and use all five senses to teach. We need to nudge children in the right direction and offer them many choices to learn. We need to teach to the whole student using brain processes whole and part at the same time. Easier said than done! I'm talking about 5 year olds here! When teaching reading we read several levels of readers so that each child has success. This is important as all children need to reach some kind of success in learning. I think that we as teachers also need to see that success in each child's face as we strive to reach all learners!

Let's try this again!

I have not had success with my last blog. I am trying this again. Sorry if I held you all up from following my blog!