Just before Fall Festival, all language arts classes finished up their unit on aboriginal American Indian stories. Each student read a variety of stories and used the traits that found to write their own stories. Today, we are starting Elisa Carbone's Blood on the River, James Town 1607, a historical fiction novel about the settlement of Jamestown. In addition, language arts student will be reading two chapters from Sally Walker's Written in Bone, detailing an archeological dig at Jamestown. I'm happy to share that most everyone is excited about the book-- a few students read the entire book over the weekend and I heard several students say they couldn't put it down!
In social studies, we are also moving forward to look at the early settlements of North America. Students will have an opportunity to read a variety of resources telling the same story and compare point of view and bias (we hope to have a debate on the merits of Columbus). Because our studies are so closely linked, the students have decided that instead of "language arts" and "social studies," we will have "social arts." The enthusiasm in our classroom is contagious!
