2/16

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Today, we learned about the origin of Valentine's Day. Saint Valentine was known for simply wanting people to be able to get married in the time of Emperor Claudius, "Claudius the Cruel", who wanted all men to fight in his army, so he prevented marriages from happening. Poor Valentine was sent to jail for secretly performing the ceremonies, but while he was there, he cured the jailer's daughter's blindness and converted the jailer to Christianity! Later, he was sadly martyred. We show our loved ones how much we care on February 14, ever since the third century.  

In History, we learned about the Wright brothers, and wow! They were so creative and persistent with all the trials they went through to launch the first airplane!  We also learned that children were sent to work in factories in the early 20th century, especially children who were from poor families because their parents needed the money. It was another sad part of our history. They were treated poorly and made to work very long hours, with little pay.  The photographer, Lewis Hines, helped the cruelty come to light with the photographs of all the children he encountered and he helped child labor to be eradicated. We discussed doing chores in our own homes and how we can help our moms and dads in our own way.  Next week, Ms. James second grade class will share a performance of the effect of Mr. Hines' photos and what child labor was like. 

We made some playdough, decorated our Valentine bags, enjoyed a Valentine story, talked about Jesus' love for us, passed out Valentines to each other, and had a party! 

Thank you Kilynn's mom for the yummy fruit! We had so much leftover from Tuesday's class, that we had plenty of yummy eats to make a party. 

Thank you also for the very special gifts I received: Valentines, candy, a Starbucks card, and lots of hugs! It made my day!  :)