"It's Monday...What Are You Reading?"

In our final week studying Social Change, we read Nadia's Hands by Karen English.  This book is one of my favorites, as its message encourages readers to think openly about other cultures.  The story tells about Nadia, a Pakastani girl, who will be her aunt's flower girl in her upcoming wedding.  Prior to the wedding, Nadia's hands are painted with mehndi, a paste made from the leaves of the henna tree.  Nadia worries about what her classmates will think.  What would you think?  Ask yourself, what makes your culture unique?  At the end of the story, Nadia feels confident about going to school with her mehndi hands, as they are an important part of her culture and heritage.

"It's Monday...What Are You Reading?"

This week we are continuing our genre unit of study on Social Change.  We will be studying the life of Jackie Robinson throughout the week by reading a variety of non-fiction and literary non-fiction texts.  Today we started with Teammates.  This is a book about Jackie's start in the Major Leagues with the help of Branch Rickey and teammate Pee Wee Reese.  The book describes Jackie Robinson as a hero for not only breaking the color barrier in baseball, but for enduring the abusive fans in the stadium while he played.  We will also read Testing the Ice, a TFK biography on Jackie Robinson, Promises to Keep, and A Negro League Scrapbook.  We will compare and contrast the information that we learn in each text.  We will also study digit resources, including Jackie Robinson's official website, photos, and videos.   

"It's Monday...What Are You Reading?"

Beatrice is a girl who grew up in in a small village named Kisinga in Uganda.  When she was 9 years old, her family received a goat from Heifer International and her life was forever changed.  The goat provided her family with nutritious milk and two baby kids!  With the money her family received from selling their goat's milk and one of the kids, she was able to attend school.  Eventually, she went on to attend college at Connecticut College!  Be inspired by Beatrice!

As we conclude our study of Beatrice Biira, I thought I would share the anchor chart our class developed last week. This was a tool for the assessment that will go home today as well.