In addition, we continue our current study of the Civil War. Students have learned about the controversy over slavery between the North and the South, which eventually led to the U.S. Civil War. In the coming week they will learn more about this war and how the end of the war also meant the end of slavery.
This week we read about the the early part of the war. We discovered that many civilians traveled with the Union Army to witness what they thought would be the the Union’s victory and the Confederacy’s defeat with their own eyes. These civilians had driven their carriages and packed nice picnic lunches. They brought telescopes so they could see the action. Some had even brought their wives and children to watch history in the making. To their shock, the Confederate Army won the first battle at Manassas and the civilians had to flee with the Union Army back to Washington, D. C. Ask your child to tell you which army was the Union Army (the North) and which was the Confederate Army (the South).
We learned about Robert E. Lee, who was torn by his loyalty to the United States and his home state of Virginia. Ask your child why he finally decided to serve as a General in the Confederate Army.
In addition, we heard about the compassion of Clara Barton who cared for the wounded soldiers during the war. Discuss with your child what it means to be compassionate. Talk about ways for your child to be helpful to those around him/her, even when it isn’t easy. Whenever there is mention in the news of the work of the Red Cross, ask your child who founded the American Red Cross.
In math we are solving addition problems with up to 4 addends with and without the composition of larger units (regrouping 10 ones as 1 ten, or 10 tens as 1 hundred). We also learned to make multiples of ten when adding to solve using the associative property to group numbers. And, we discovered how to relate problems to each other:
- 7 + 3 + 6
- 23 + 27 + 16
- 123 + 27 + 16
Finally, We had an assembly presented by the Lawrence Hall of Science about electromagnetics. Ask your child to tell you about the assembly.