Focusing on Nonfiction

This week during Read Alouds, we focused on nonfiction texts... and not just any nonfiction texts, but books about American History. We read about three very important United States symbols.

Monday the students learned about the American Flag.

--> It has 50 stars, one for each of the fifty states.

--> It has 13 stripes, one for each of the original thirteen colonies.

--> A man named Francis Scott Key wrote The Star Spangled Banner (our national anthem) about it. 

The flag in our classroom

Our read aloud

Tuesday, we moved on to learn about the Statue of Liberty.
--> A man named Frederic Bartholdi modeled the statue after his own mother.
--> The statue was a gift from France. It was so big it took over 200 crates (boxes) to ship it to the United States.
--> The Statue of Liberty is in New York Harbor.
--> Liberty means Freedom!

We even borrowed Miss Debbie's miniature Statue of Liberty!

Wednesday, we learned about another important U.S. Symbol- The Liberty Bell.
--> The Liberty Bell is located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
--> When it came from England, it had a big crack, so the makers had to make a second one, which also later cracked.
--> It is also a symbol of freedom for our country.

Liberty Bell read aloud, miniature Liberty Bell (from my summer travels), and craft.

It's fun to learn about the history of our country! The students are asking all sorts of great questions during our discussions too.

Tomorrow we're going to compare the past and the present with a read aloud about Alexander Graham Bell and his invention of the telephone.