Learning Across the Curriculum with Native Americans

Do you ever feel like there are just NOT enough hours in the day? All the time, right?! Well I’ve got a solution for you…integration! I’m talking about making connections across the curriculum, using content meaningfully and authentically, and engaging students in learning in multiple ways. Doesn't that sound great?! Take a look at how our unit on Native Americans was integrated with writing, reading, math, science, and within social studies. 

Writers’ Workshop

During the third quarter, we focus on informational writing...what better way to do that than to have students take on the role of a news reporter for the Powhatan, Lakota, and Pueblo?! Students researched each Native American group and then went through the writing process to write their news. Topics they wrote about ranged from announcements of  contents where a long house was the prize (as in the example above) and the arrival of the English settlers to warnings about tornados and buffalo stampedes. As long as they were informing the "public" about something related to the Native Americans, they could go wherever they liked with it. The final step was to bring their news to life with the free app, Telestory! 

Readers’ Workshop

We were focusing on some TOUGH skills in reading this quarter and using the Native American content was a great way to make inferences, asking questions, and locating information more accessible to all of my students since they all had background knowledge on this content from the work we had done in social studies.

First we started with poems...I wrote poems for each Native American group where the students had to infer what each line of the poem meant and then infer who the poem was about/what was happening in the poem. Students also used a Prezi I made with authentic Native American photos to make inferences about which Native American group was pictured. They had to use their connections about each tribe's home, transportation, environment, and occupations along with the clues in the pictures to make their inferences. They were making inferences just like a historian!

Pebble Books is an excellent resource for kid-friendly nonfiction books! My kids had been doing a great job generating questions before, during, and after reading but they were not always asking the most accurate questions that reflected what they had read. To help them with this skill, I copied and pasted text from Pebble Books into five paragraphs. Then I generated five different questions that were specific to each paragraph. My students' goal was to match each question to its related paragraph and then highlight key words in the paragraph to prove that the question did indeed relate to that paragraph. I did something similar to help them practice locating information. I again copied and pasted five paragraphs from Pebble Books but this time I generated five questions whose answers could be located in each of the paragraphs. Then students matched each question to the paragraph with that question's answer and highlighted the answer in the paragraph to prove their work. You could do this with any text to help students practice both of these challenging skills!

Math and Science

Google Maps in math?! Yes! Students "traveled" to destinations related to our three Native American groups, illustrated a picture of the environment (connection to habitats in science), and then added their miles as they traveled from place to place. Students got to "visit" long houses in Jamestown, buffalo at the Yellowstone National Park, and multi-story terrace buildings in Albuquerque. This was a great real-world context for the students to experience adding with regrouping as they progressed along their trip AND was so much fun (they especially liked the street view)!

Social Studies

Students mapped the houses, transportation, occupations, and environment of each tribe with specific mountain ranges, lakes, and rivers they are expected to be able to locate in 2nd grade.

Economics beautifully integrates with Native Americans...the different resources, needs and wants, goods and services, bartering, scarcity...it's the perfect opportunity to integrate across social studies objectives. First I gave the students a list of economic academic vocabulary words and we discussed examples of each vocabulary word and how it related to the Native Americans. Students organized this information into a Tree Map (photo above, top left). After that, they used the Tree Map to create a Native American good or service...students made jewelry, buffalo skin, a feather game, bows and arrows, teepees, pottery, etc. The next day they bartered their goods and services in exchange for goods and services from each other. This simulation was a hit! Following the simulation, they completed a reflection on bartering and scarcity and a resource sort. The documents for our economics simulation are available in my TpT store. Enjoy!


Keep in mind that my students did other Native American activities and tasks that did not lend themselves to integration. When it was appropriate and connections were seamless, integration was a great way to supplement this content-based unit. What connections can you see across your curriculum? in other content areas? Give it a try!

Are Your Students Up For a Challenge?! Extension Mini-Projects

It all started with a video that one of my students sent me... We were learning about capacity as part of our unit on measurement, and I had explained to the students that the units of capacity are like a royal family...the cup is the royal cat, the pint is the prince or princess, the quart is the queen, and the gallon is the king. This connection resonated especially well with one my students so much that he when he went home, he found a bunch of containers, sorted them into the units, and made a video to share with me. His video was ADORABLE, and I was so impressed with his initiative. Then I thought, "This is a great idea! I should have all my students do this!" and the Capacity Challenge was born! Though I made this an optional project, 18 out of my 27 students took on the challenge and sent me their own videos. The Capacity Challenge ended up being beneficial for all of my students because I shared each video with the class, which exposed them to different variations of cups, pints, quarts, and gallons (i.e one student shared how ziplock bags come in different units). Students who completed the Capacity Challenge earned a medal to wear for the day that I customized to say "I completed the Capacity Challenge!". Students also signed their name on our Capacity Challenge List where I had QR coded their videos.

The Capacity Challenge was so fun that I posed a second challenge to my students for our science unit Living Systems...The Plant to Product Challenge! Students investigated a product in their home that was made from a plant and then researched the process from plant to product. Then the students shared their challenge with the class exposing all students to important plant products. Some students made a video while others made a poster and brought in a prop/artifact to accompany their brief presentation. Some students were general with their research while others were more specific. I made the challenge's requirements open-ended so that the challenge would be accessible to a range of learners. If you're interested in the Plant to Product Challenge it's available in my TpT Store!

So are your students up for the challenge?! Good luck!

Math Menu: An Alternative to Math Centers

Have you ever considered using a math menu? I was at my wit's end with math centers when I saw our gifted specialist use a choice menu for a social studies unit and thought, "Could I do that for math?!"  While math centers have value for students, I was struggling to maintain them…making the activities and materials, switching them out, etc. I knew there must be an easier and more efficient way for me that would also meet the needs of my students. That's when I decided to create a math menu and give it a try! 

Our Math Menu is printed on poster paper and is posted in our classroom.

When designing our Math Menu, I wanted the menu to be general enough that it could be used with any math unit so that I wouldn’t need to create or prep too many new tasks. I also wanted to make sure I held students accountable for their work and that they had some kind of product to show for their time spent during Math Menu. The final characteristic I wanted was to make sure there was a mix of open-ended and closed tasks so that no one would quickly do all of the choices and be left with nothing else to do.

After the students have learned all of the objectives for a unit, we will usually do Math Menu for about five to seven days before a test. While students are participating in Math Menu, I pull small groups by objective based on formative assessments. I LOVE the structure of a menu vs centers because of flexible grouping…I can pull groups whenever I want, for however long I want because I am no longer tied to the rotation of a center schedule. Students may also be in more than one group. For instance, if Michael needs support with adding coins and measuring length, he will see me with the adding coins group and again for the measuring length group. The part I have to be careful about is making sure I’ve seen every student so that no one is left out or left doing Math Menu for too long. 

At this point, I have been using Math Menu for about a year with both my students from last year and my current class. Basically when it's time for Math Menu, I'll say to my students in Oprah-style, "It's time for Maaaaaaaattttthhhhhhhhh Meeeennnnuuuuuu!" and they'll say, "YAYYYY!" Then I tell them something like, "I need to see the following students at the carpet for adding double digits...and everyone else may go to their choice for Math Menu and gather what they need." I will work with a small group from anywhere to 5 to 15 minutes depending on how they are doing. Sometimes a few students in the group catch on quickly so I'll send them back to Math Menu and keep working with those who need more intervention. When I'm done working with a group, I'll call for the class' attention (we use "Give me 5") and give the names of the next group of students I want to see. I will also periodically get up to see what everyone is working on around the room too. At the close of Math Menu, everyone helps clean up and I check the Check-in Table (see below). 

Along the way I have added some features to make Math Menu successful for my students and I:

Signs

Signs help keep us organized and give the students a reference for what to do. 

Check-in Table

Students shade in the amount of money their choice costs. This gives me a quick glimpse at who is accomplishing their work. This table was printed on poster paper, laminated, and is posted on an easy-to-reach cabinet in our classroom.

Checklist, Templates, and Pre-Cut Game Cards for Invent a Game

All of these items help the students prioritize and make the best use of their time when they are making a game. I found game templates for free for Monopoly, Candyland, etc. HERE and had a parent volunteer make blank cards and bag them. 

If you are interested in my Math Menu and management pieces, check it out in my TpT Store! 

Hello, again! First Year Recap

Hello, again! I'm back! Turns out my first year of teaching was a little VERY busy... but it was also AWESOME, rewarding, challenging, and FUN!! There are so many things I want to share but for now I'll leave you with a recap of some of my favorites activities...Enjoy!

1. Native American Tribes in the United States

 

In Virginia, 2nd graders learn about the Powhatan, Lakota, and Pueblo Native Americans. They must know their regions, land, climate, modes of transportation, occupations, architecture, and contributions. Students worked in groups using construction paper and markers to make a map (I already had the outline of a blank US map printed for them) demonstrating the essential knowledge.This was an excellent hands-on, cooperative activity, especially for the art smart and visual learners!

 

2.World Map with Sugar Cookies

This cooking activity was a hit! The final outcome it what you see above... to have a world map labeled with the continents, oceans, and specific rivers and mountain ranges. So much happened before this though and we got a little messy!! First, the students made the sugar cookie dough!

I had stations set up around the room with an ingredient and measuring utensil at each station. Then each group of 5 to 6 students had a big mixing bowl at their table. Each group member received one or two ingredient cards with a measurement. They were responsible for using their ingredient card(s) to go to an ingredient station, measure, the ingredient, and put the ingredient in their mixing bowl. Everyone was held accountable, had an important role, and had to make sure their measurements were correct! If your students haven't learned measurement yet, I suggest doing a mini-lesson beforehand so their cookie dough comes out...normal. Then came the mixing, the cookie cutters (purchased from Amazon), and the baking.

The next day, when the cookies were all done, the students used their textbook to research the location of the continents, oceans, rivers, and mountain ranges that are listed in our state's standards. Each group received a baggie of labels and divied up the labels between the members of their group. I had the students put the labels on toothpicks and write their student number on their labels so I would know who was responsible for what. Not only did we integrate our measurement and map skills, we had a yummy treat when all was said and done. :)

3. Inferencing Investigation (from The Inspired Apple)

I LOVE this reading activity from Babbling Abby at The Inspired Apple!! Here's a synopsis from Abby's TpT store:

"By investigating "Snow Day Case Files" students will sort through evidence to determine what the main characters in a mini-story did during a snow day. As "Inference Investigators," students are encouraged to make inferences based on the clues in the evidence."

Tree Map for classifying evidence (the heading of the map says "Clues")

I had my students work in pairs and each pair made inferences about two pieces of evidence. After the students made inferences about their evidence, we had a whole group discussion about their discoveries. I had discussion questions, like Abby suggested, but I also made a tree map with masking tape on our rug to classify our evidence. Each branch of the tree map connected with a discussion question. For instance, if the first discussion question asked, "What are some activities Tim and Grandma Sue did," then the students would place any evidence that they thought answered that question under the first branch on the tree map. Classifying the data with the tree map really helped students see the connections between their evidence.

I LOVE the "Snow Day Case Files" because the kids LOVED it. However, my favorite thing about this activity is how it makes inferencing, an abstract reading comprehension skill, concrete and hands-on. As a result of this activity, the students really knew what it meant to inference and be a "reading detective". They became expert inference investigators!! Be sure to check out Abby's Inferencing Investigation!

4.  Gallery Walks

 

I love using Gallery Walks to get kids up and moving around the room! During a Gallery Walk, students rotate around the room to an image or piece of text, like a discussion question or problem. The students may work independently at each gallery or may have some kind of discussion, it's up to you! My students have done Addition and Subtraction Story Problem Gallery Walks, Fraction Gallery Walk, and Matter Gallery Walks. In the picture above, the students had to identify and illustrate the change in matter based on a real-world example. Here's a close-up of one of the galleries and recording sheet:

Stay tuned for a recap of my favorite technology integrated activities!! Thanks for visiting. :)

Monday Made It Linky Party

Hope everyone had a relaxing weekend!!

I'm off to continue setting up my classroom but before I do, I have three projects to share with you for Tara's Monday Made It Linky Party (click her button above to join in and/or view other super projects)!

1. Where Am I Board: I saw this on Pinterest last week and immediately went to make my own. I purchased the dry-erase magnetic board from Walmart ($6), the gems from Dollar Tree (hot glued magnets on the back), sparkly ribbon from Walmart, and used clear labels (my new best friend). I want to hang this by the classroom door but I'm not sure how to hang it so it will stay on the cinder block walls. I may experiment with the 3M tape it came with or hot glue a ribbon handle but do you have any other ideas?

2. Wrapping Paper Curtains: I was inspired by a pin from School Girl Style to make these wrapping paper curtains with pattered packaging tape as a border. I don't think this picture does them justice but they really warm up that corner of the room. I purchased the wrapping paper from Target and selected this particular paper because the animals relate to the second grade curriculum. My goal is to integrate as much as possible.

 3. Calendar: Now that I'm looking at this picture, I think the calendar area needs a border (or a few) to be visually organized, and I need to get more magnetic numbers. Nonetheless I was inspired by Mama Jenn's book ring calendar system to create my own. I love that she put all of the calendar pieces on book rings (my other new best friend) so that pieces don't go missing and it's easy and efficient to change anything. I used:

magnetic push pins from Walmart

magnetic numbers from Amazon (I chose these particular magnets because the entire back is covered with a magnet, also you're going to need at least two containers) 

magnetic base-10 blocks (it's that little orange ones piece on the bottom right, and I can't remember where I got those from)

I want to use calendar as daily place-value practice but may add other components depending on the needs of my students. You can download my calendar pieces from my TpT store for free. Some of the pages need to be printed more than once so I've labeled those particular pages with their multiple uses. Enjoy!

Hope you have a wonderful week! Remember to click Tara's button!

An Assortment of Happenings!

Hope you are enjoying the weekend! I took a much needed nap this afternoon...isn't it nice to catch up on sleep?! Here is a picture walk with explanations of what's been happening in the classroom lately:

For Dr. Suess's birthday, the students made Thing 1 and 2 glyphs. I got the template from Kimberly Edgerton's TpT's shop. To introduce this activity, I created a Prezi on hieroglyphs. I asked the students if they had ever heard or seen the word 'hieroglyphs'. Then I showed them a picture of hieroglyphs, which turned a light bulb on in some of their brains...one student said, "Hey, I've seen those in Scooby-Doo!" I explained to the students a brief history of hieroglyphs (how 5,000 years ago people used pictures to communicate and tell stories, etc.). Then I explained how pictures are used to communicate information in our world today, typically in the form of graphs. I accompanied this explanation with an infographic. Then they created and shared their glyphs! If you click on the Prezi link above, you can see the pictures and glyph key I used. 

The students planted sunflower seeds! Some of their seeds have already begun sprouting! We did this activity while learning about George Washington Carver since he studied agriculture. I poked holes in the bottom of the cups and set them on plastic paper plates for them to drain excess water. The students love checking on their plants!

Compound cards! Before the students created their cards, we did the the Compound Boogie by Dr. Jean. They loved it and were singin' and dancin' right along! I love to get them up and moving!

I Spy time! I got this idea from Teacher Tipster. I placed ten mini Judy clocks around the classroom, and the students had to find all ten clocks and record the time in their math journal. 

We'd been having a issue with mixing up the tag pens with the wrong set of books (the tag pens only hold a certain amount of memory). I did have each pen in a bag with a set of books but that just wasn't working out even though I had modeled and modeled how to take care of them. So Dollar Tree to the rescue! I got these baskets from the Dollar Tree and they have solved our problem...the tag pens now stay with the right books!

Poem for the week that I created and the students wikki stikked: short oo. They always notice when there is a new poem up and are eager to read it!

I implemented Writer's Workshop this week! The students are writing stories about our Noun Town we created the other week. I have emphasized to the students that we become better writers by writing. Everyday I asked them, How do we become better writers?" and they respond, "Just keep writing!!" (the way they say it reminds me of Finding Nemo, "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming.") On the first day, we brainstormed what they could write about. Then over the following three days they planned their stories with a story map and a beginning, middle, and ending map that I got from The Teacher Wife. I created my own planning maps and story too to serve as a model for them. Once they had their plans and checked them over with me, they began writing their stories. They're really getting into their stories! I just love reading about their ideas!

The Mystery Box (labels from Babbling Abby) is one of my favorite activities. I got the box at Hobby Lobby for $1. The students get so excited when I bring it out! I've been using the Mystery Box to introduce our themed story for the week. I give the students clues as to what might be in the box, and they have to use their inferencing skills to make an educated guess. Examples of what I have put in the Mystery Box are a toy red-eyed tree frog (for the story The Red-Eyed Tree Frog), friendship necklaces (for the story That Toad is Mine!), and a bear puppet (for the story Lost). 

If anyone has any suggestions on Writer's Workshop or would like to share how they implement Writer's Workshop, I would love to hear about it! 

Number Talk

How do you start off your math block?

I begin with Number Talk. According to Sherry Parrish's book, Number Talk is:
1. A five- to fifteen-minute classroom conversation around purposefully crafted computation problems that are solved mentally.
2. The best part of a teacher's day.

If you don't have access to the book, I found a brief overview of Number Talk.

During the last teacher work day, one of the teachers gave a workshop on Number Talk, which convinced me to implement this concept into student learning. I also observed this particular teacher doing Number Talk with her kindergarteners just this past week. I had watched some videos of other class's doing Number Talk but they didn't really speak to me. After watching this teacher at my school though, I had a much better direction on how to guide the Number Talk.

I have assigned each student a partner. One partner is peanut butter and the other partner is jelly (if we have an odd number of students due to an absence, I make one of the students a bun to a pb and j) . To signal the start of our Number Talk, I play It's Peanut Butter Jelly Time. When the students hear the song, they find their partner, find a spot to sit together in front of the SMART Board, and show me that they're ready to learn by sitting on their bottoms with their hands in their lap and their lips zipped. They LOVE the Peanut Butter Jelly Time song!

Next, I post a problem on the SMART Board and read it aloud. They think about the problem and then turn to their partner to share their answer and their thinking. When they're ready, they give me a thumbs up by their heart. I then call on individuals to share their answer with the whole class (sometimes I write the different answers on the SMART Board) and they explain their thinking (sometimes they show it on the SMART Board). Hearing their explanations is very interesting and telling!

Depending on the problem, I may have a demonstration. For instance, here is one of the problems (exemplar styled) we did this past week:

"Juliann has joined the circus as a tight rope walker! It takes Juliann 20 steps to walk across the tight rope. Miss Jaffee wants to learn how to walk across the tight rope too! Will it take Miss Jaffee more or less steps to cross the same distance? Why?"

I always use the students' names in the problems. They get a kick out of seeing their names and reading my silly stories. So for this particular problem, I had a piece of tape on the floor. After the students' shared their answers and thinking, Juliann and I demonstrated walking across the tape (our pretend tight rope) and compared our steps.

The mathematical thinking, problem-solving, and sharing that takes place during Number Talk is so beneficial for student growth. Yay for math!

Math Daily 5

You've probably heard of the Daily 5. You may even use it in your classroom. I've heard only positive things about the implementation of the Daily 5 in classrooms. I wondered if there was such a system available for math. I did some research, and the 2 sisters do have some information available for a Math Daily 5 but there is not a book out about it yet. I even came across some other bloggers who are using a Math Daily 5 or something similar to it, such as Adventures in Teaching, Mrs. Grochoki, and Tales from a K-1 Classroom.

My Cooperating Teacher has given me responsibility for math so I've been experimenting with how I want to organize the math block but I thought I would share what I have planned so far.

Math Block Structure:
I. Number Talk
II. Whole Group Mini-Lesson
III. Math Daily 5

I will go into more detail about Number Talks in another post but I am basing it off of the book Number Talks by Sherry Parrish. This past week I used the mini-lesson time to introduce students to the activities they would be participating in during the Daily 5. In general though, I plan to use that time to give a general introduction to the whole class on a new skill. Then while the students are participating in the Daily 5 choices, I will be pulling small groups to more easily cater to students' needs. However, this past week I circulated the room to help the students adjust to the new activities.

The Math Daily 5 choices I'm using are: Number Games, Fact Games, Strategy Games, Technology, and Read and Write.

All of my games are in gallon baggies and have colored triangles that coordinate with the appropriate choice's bin. You'll notice on the left corner of the baggies I have the number of people allowed to play the game. Since I limit the number of people who can play a game I often included multiple sets of the same game in the bins.

 

Number Games:

I found this game on Spend a Day in Second Grade. Visit her blog for detailed directions for 3 Town (great introduction for regrouping). I bought the poker chips from Target and the chip dish from the Dollar Tree. I created a game mat too.

My other Number Games are Base 10 at the Beach (free), Even and Odd Love (free), and Place Value Star Wars. I also want to include activities for skip counting but I haven't found or created one yet.

Fact Games:

Math Power Towers idea came from Teacher Tipster (his videos crack me up and he is full of great ideas!!), and I got the label from Mrs. Gilchrist's Class (free).

Bears in the Cave (a game for practicing subtraction) came from Kids World Exploration.

For Connect 5, players take turns rolling two 10-sided dice. Player chooses to add or subtract the two numbers rolled and covers the answer with a chip on the board. Players want to try to connect 5 answers in a row. This game actually involves a little strategy too because the student has to think which will benefit them more, adding or subtracting, in order to connect 5 in a row. You can get the game board from Rockin' Teacher Materials (free).

I also have addition and subtraction flash cards at this choice. The students can play this in a game format where they take turns being the host (holding the cards) and the remaining players are the contestants. Whichever contestant knows the answer first, puts their finger on their nose and is then called upon by the host to give the answer. If the contestant gets the answer correct he or she keeps the card.

Read and Write:
I currently have pictures books on various math topics here. My favorite author for math picture books is Stuart J. Murphy so I have several of his books at this choice. Students also have the choice to write math stories. 

Technology:

I can't even express how much the students love the SMART Board!! I really wanted to find a way to use the SMART Board for it's intended purpose, as an interactive white board. We had conversations about how to take turns and work as a team but they still needed some redirection this week on how to get along at the SMART Board. I need to implement some kind of management system at the SMART Board so the students can be more independent and successful. Again, I'll keep you posted!

Anyway, these are the games that I have made available to the students so far:
Greater Than, Less Than, Equal To Basketball (definitely worth the $2!!)
Bunny Hop (free)
Rolling for 50 (free)
Penny Dice Game (free)
Penny Nickel Exchange (free)

I haven't introduced the fifth choice, Strategy Games, yet. 

I also created a Math Daily 5 check-in chart. Each student has their own magnet with their name on it. To make their choice, they choose one of the colored triangles that coordinates with the appropriate choice. Their goal is to get one of every color triangle before repeating their choices. For instance, if I chose Number Games I would put a green triangle by my name. Next time I made a choice, I might choose Read and Write and would then put a pink triangle next to my first choice. This would continue until I have done all five choices. 

 I made this chart from sheet metal (Lowes $10). I used tape to outline the chart. I made the name magnets from balsa wood and painted the wood with chalkboard paint (this way I can reuse them). Little box lids are holding the foam triangles. The students loved having their own magnet and space to make their choices! This also helps them keep track of where they've been. I was inspired by The Teacher Wife when creating this chart. I LOVE her blog by the way!

I know everything I wrote may be a lot to take in (that's why I love including pictures!) so if you have any questions, let me know!!

How do you teach math? What are your favorite activities for centers?

Have a happy weekend!!

Guess My Number!!

Hi, Friends!
Just wanted to share a game I played with the students today. They loved it!

I was inspired by Mrs. Lemons and made a SMART Board version of Guess My Number.
I uploaded the one I made to Google Docs so here ya go! Basically, I think of a number and the students try to guess my number by asking the suggested questions below the hundreds chart. They are not allowed to ask me if it is a specific number but must use the questions to eliminate numbers in order to reveal my number. I love the hundreds chart on the SMART Board because when you touch a number it turns red. I have also used this hundreds chart when we are skip counting. Since the tiles change color when you touch them, this is a great visual for the students to see patterns in the hundreds chart.

Enjoy!

George Washington

Happy Wednesday!

Need some ideas for teaching students about George Washington? Here is what I did!

First, I made a somewhat life-size George (I was inspired by this one for Abe). His head is a little large but his height is accurate. I had him laminated too. If you do this, you will have to cut George at the neck and ankles to fit him through the laminator. For morning work, I had an interactive display where the students had to identify what coin GW is on, find him in two historical photos (one of GW leading the Continental Congress and the other crossing the Delaware River), and write two questions about what they wanted to know about him.

  

The next morning, I moved George to the hallway and measured the students' heights next to GW. I would ask the students questions like, "Who is tallest?", "Who is the shortest?", "Who is taller than you?", "Who is shorter than you?", "Who is the same height as you?", etc. This was a great introduction to measurement, which the students will be learning more about in a few weeks. 

 Then, we had our second virtual field trip to Mount Vernon. The children met with a storyteller, who was dressed in colonial attire, and listened to her tell the story of George chopping down the cherry tree. After the story, the students had an opportunity to ask the storyteller questions (they used the questions they had written from morning work) about GW. Here are a few of the questions the students had:

Where were you born? 

What did you do for fun?

Did you go to school?

Did you wear a puffy wig?

You can schedule a virtual field trip to Mount Vernon through the Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration. There was a miscommunication from the staff at Mount Vernon about the program we had been expecting to participate in but the program we did see was done well. The storyteller was enthusiastic and involved the children through the story. 

How do you teach students about famous Americans?