Happy Thanksgiving!!

It is hard to believe that the Thanksgiving holiday is upon us. I would like my Highland family and students to know how truly thankful I am to work in such a great school with such great teachers and kids!! I wish you and your families the best Thanksgiving ever!!

This week we finished our unit on Native American Cultures and then on Tuesday we compared our Thanksgiving traditions today to those present at the first Thanksgiving in 1621. I believe most students were surprised to learn that the first Thanksgiving was not in November and there were no turkeys to eat on the dinner table. The only birds mentioned in the diaries and journals of the pilgrims were water fowl which were thought to be duck, pigeon,or swan. The kids were also surprised that venison, or deer meat, was the main dish along with, lobster, mussels, eel, and fish.

As we compared how our Thanksgiving is similiar to the first we found that giving thanks was at the top of our list along with eating a huge meal coming in second.Other similiarties were the kinds of vegetables that were shared on that day and playing games with one another.

One thing we all can agree on is that Thanksgiving is a time for us to remember our blessings and be thankful . If the Native Americans and Pilgrims could be thankful after the horrible year they had endured, then surely we can find something or someone in our lives to be thankful for.  

11-29 to  12-3
This week we will begin our study of the first Europeans to journey to the new world and their interactions with the Native Americans.

Pictures from our Frankfort Field Trip 10-27-10

These class photos were taken at Daniel Boone's gravesite.

November 15th, 2010

This week we will be continuing our unit on Native Americans.  We are studying various groups that inhabited North America. We will study the Eastern Woodlands, Plains, Southwest, and Northwest cultural regions and the people who lived there.  This will lead us to the first interactions between the Natives and Europeans.

Veteran's Day

I just wanted to say thanks to all of those students and teachers who helped with our program this year. It was perfect. We have such talented and helpful people at Highland that makes it easy to pull together and show our Veterans how truly appreciative we are. Our program was student driven as the kids sang songs, read letters and learned about freedom.  We mailed out over 500 letters to veterans this week. I hope in some small way that they know someone out there does care and thinks they are a true hero.

11-06-10

This short week was jammed packed with fun and learning for the 5th grade here at Highland Elementary!!  After returning from our break we have been writing Veteran's Day letters. Each student at Highland is working on a friendly letter that will be sent to veterans in the VA hospitals in Louisville and Lexington. The purpose of these letters is to thank these brave men and women for their service in the military. My students have been working extremely hard trying to put down in words how thankful they are for what these service men and women do for our country. Honestly, some of the letters are written with so much love and thanks that it brought tears to my eyes. I hope by sending these letters we can make many veterans feel loved and appreciated as we prepare to celebrate Veteran's Day.  Highland will have a Veteran's Day program Thursday, November 11th during morning procedures.

Also, this week we went on another field trip to the Louisville Science Museum. It was amazing!! The kids had so much fun they didn't even realize they were learning many difficult science concepts. Hats off to Mr. Lindsey for planning such a fantastic trip!!

Next week in Social Studies we will begin our unit on Native Americans!