We had a special guest from the Forest Foundation who taught us about the importance of trees and the many ways people use trees. After the presentation, students wrote an informational paragraph describing some of the information they obtained.
We began our unit of study about the U.S. Civil War. First, we learned about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad. We learned that Enslaved Africans were forced to work without pay. They worked on plantations, and they had no freedom to choose their work or where they lived. We learned Harriet Tubman was an Enslaved African who hoped to make a change in her life. She finally did when she escaped to freedom in the North. Once she was in the North, however, she returned to the South many times as a conductor on the Underground Railroad. Students learned that Enslaved Africans used the Underground Railroad to escape the harsh conditions in the South and that the passengers used the north star to guide them. We learned that the song "Follow the Drinking Gourd" was a secret code that the slaves used to find their way North and to Freedom. Ask your child to explain how the Underground Railroad was different from a real railroad.
Students learned about the the Mason-Dixon Line. We found out that before the Civil War slavery was allowed in the South, below the Mason-Dixon Line, but slavery was not allowed in the North, above the Mason-Dixon Line.
On Friday, we had a movie and popcorn party to celebrate our class raising the most money for Nordstrom in the Spelling Bee. We watched The Peanuts Movie and munched on popcorn and chips.