Ask Me About Wednesday, February 8, 2017

Today we studied some amazing subway photographs.  We looked at the plane shapes we saw in the photographs.  We clarified a few things about these shapes.  We know that diamond is often used when talking about a rhombus, but when we are talking about geometric shapes, we are going to call it a rhombus.  We also talked about the difference between a square and rectangle.  We know a square is a special rectangle with four equal sides, and L shaped corners or 90 degree angles.  We know plane shapes are just a shape, not anything we can hold.  Ask me to tell you about the shapes I see in these subway photographs.

We continued on our Read Across America journey today.  We re-read a story we read earlier in the week.  This story is called Freedom Summer, by Deborah Wiles.  This book is narrated by a little boy whose family has an African American housekeeper.  She brings her little boy, John Henry, in the summer, and the narrator and the little boy are best friends. Although John Henry is the best swimmer the little boy knows, he cannot swim in the town pool because it is for whites only.  When the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, the boys thought they would finally be able to swim in the pool together.  The boys race over the hill early the next morning only to find the pool being filled in so nobody will be able to swim.  We had a good discussion about why this happened, and the children seemed to understand that this was how some white people felt a long time ago, but that now many people do hold those same feelings.  We talked about how this was like bullying and that as kindergarteners they can learn to speak up for children who are not being treated fairly.  Learning to do this with kindergarten-size problems will help as they grow and experience more difficult situations.  The book ends with the two boys going to a store to get ice pops, but this time John Henry goes in to pick and buy his own ice pop.  The story ends there and we don't know if he was allowed in the store, but it's a beautiful illustration of the two boys going in the store with their arms around each other's waist.  I highly recommend this book.  It is told beautifully, and the author is from Frederick, Maryland!  

Are we finally going to see some real snow tonight? 
Have a nice evening!
​Miss Wolfe