American Studies

Week 1: We had a great first day of class! Today, we learned about some of the early explorers who possibly discovered America, especially St. Brendan the Irish monk. We also became "explorers" today and explored our classroom, the field outside, and our map of the world. Finally, we did some basic math and reading exercises which helped me develop an idea of where the students were in their abilities.  

Week 2: The adventures of Christopher Columbus was the theme of the day. We traced his route on our globe and made newspaper boats. We spent a good amount of time on math today. We practiced identifying numbers greater than 10 and skip-counting/adding by twos. For the next class, please bring My Very First Catholic Speller. 

Week 3: We learned about the Indians and did our history reading in a longhouse that the children built and decorated. We did a geography lesson on the location of different tribes and learned about the conversion of St. Kateri and the martyrdom of St. Isaac Jogues. For the next class, please bring My Very First Catholic Speller,

Week 4: Conquistadors, Aztecs, and Our Lady of Guadalupe were the themes for today. The children learned the story of Cortez and how he helped free the Aztec Indians from their false religion. We also learned about how Our Lady's appearance to Juan Diego helped convert almost a million people within his lifetime. The story was reinforced by collecting fall leaves in our "tilmas" and tracing them with pencils. We also did a geography puzzle of the United States. For the next class, please bring My Very First Catholic Speller,

Week 5: We continued to learn about the Spanish settling of America, especially of the founding of St. Augustine--the oldest city in the USA and the name of our school! We also learned about the virtues of patience, and kindness. Finally, we labeled the points on a compass rose to start to familiarize ourselves with the cardinal directions. For the next class, please bring My Very First Catholic Speller,

Week 6: We are now exploring the French settling of American. We learned about FrenchVoyageurs and St. Isaac Jogues, a man who made great sacrifices for love of his Mohawk friends. We did some brief reading and writing, focusing on words with the short "a" vowel. Finally, the boys made their own beaver dams today out of Play-dough, sticks, and leaves! They worked on trying to collaborate with each other in a virtuous way. 

For the next class, please bring My Very First Catholic Speller AND something like a floating bathtub boat (we will be learning how the French explored the Mississippi River and will be holding boat races!).