Celebrating Similarities and Differences

    We read The Crayon Box That Talked and then discussed how differences make each of special and allow us to do bigger and better things together. Then we illustrated ourselves on a crayon and colored our crayon.

    We read Elmer and discussed how sometimes when we feel different, we try hard to be like everyone else, but it's really better just to be your self. We colored our own Elmers and shared how we are different.

    We read Whoever You Are by Mem Fox. We talked about how our skin may be different colors, but we all have feelings, likes, and dislikes. Then we examined a brown and white egg. We looked at the outside and compared/contrasted the two. Then we cracked our eggs and compared/contrasted the inside. We recorded our observations on a Venn Diagram. We made the connection between the eggs and people; the only difference is on the outside. Then students shared a way they the same with their partner and wrote a rebus sentence about what they both like.

    We read The Peace Book by Todd Par. Then we wrote a five senses poem about peace through interactive writing.

We Dream of A World...

    Ms. Riner and our third grade reading buddies came down for a joint social studies lesson. Ms. Riner read the book We Dream of a World. Then she talked with them about Martin Luther King, Jr. and his dream. Then the kinders got with their reading buddy and talked about what their dream is. The third graders wrote the kinders' dreams and sketched them. Then the kinders colored the pictures. Our students had so much working together and were so proud that Ms. Riner displayed their work in the front school hallway for everyone to see! Ms. Riner was also kind enough to give me the gift of time to take care of a few lesson preps things for the following week while she taught our classes!

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

    We learned about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as part of our study on ordinary people who had a great impact on our nation. We watched Martin's Big Words and talked about his dream and what it meant. Then we wrote together about Dr. King's dream.

    We read Martin's Important Lesson and then discussed our dreams. We wrote about our dreams and put  together our I have a dream projects.

    To finish up our study of Dr. King, we read Martin Luther King, Jr. Then we created a Venn Diagram comparing and contrasting our class with Dr. King.

Martin Luther King Jr.

We learned about Martin Luther King, Jr this week as well as why being different is good. We read a story called Being Different is Being Special. Then we examined in small groups a white and brown egg. We started a double bubble map to compare/contrast the two. Then we cracked them open and looked at the inside and finished our map. We learned that even though people are different colors on the outside, we are the same on the inside.

We discussed what peace looks and feels like. Then we wrote a poem about peace and made hand print doves.

We also read the poem A Box of Crayons. We talked about similarities and differences among people. Then we illustrated self portraits and colored our crayons.

We watched a Discovery Streaming video that showed us about MLK's life from boy to adult. Then we created a Venn Diagram to compare/contrast our class with MLK.

We listened to MLK's I Have a Dream speech. Then we wrote about our own dreams.