Soft Rain - A Story of the Cherokee Trail of Tears

You know how much I love teaching novel units!  Currently, we are reading Soft Rain - A Story of the Cherokee Indian Trial of Tears.  It's a  historical fiction book based on the Cherokee Indian Trail of Tears.  The story is written from the prospective of a nine year old little Cherokee girl.  She tells of the removal from her home and the terrible journey west. This is one of my very favorite children's novels.  What better way to teach the history of the Cherokee Indians than from this book?  

Each student is keeping a journal as if they were the main character, Soft Rain.  They are documenting the journey of this incredible young lady.  Grangran made us a journal to write in - Thanks, Grangran!

Caroline showing off our current novel!

Our journals

Ian writing in his journal

Peyton writing in his journal

Caleb sharing a journal entry

Author's Chair

 Students love to share their writing pieces from the "Author's Chair"!  We write all of the time, but I know you already know that. :)

  A couple of weeks ago, we worked on writing a story.  We started with creating a graphic organizer with details about our main character, setting, plot, and theme.  From there, students began writing their masterpieces.  If you haven't read your child's story, please do so! All of the stories were GREAT! 

Ben

David

Maddie

Mia

Franklin

Ian

Caleb

Celebrating Thanksgiving in our Classroom

The day before Thanksgiving Break was filled with all sorts of fun!  We had our first "Book Exchange" party this school year.  Each student brought in a book (new or slightly used) wrapped up in fall fashion.  We put all of the books in a pile and students drew numbers to decide the order in which we would pick books!  Everyone went home with a new book!  FUN!!  

Look at these great packages!

The Book Exchange begins!

Hurry up, Caroline!

Hmmm. . . do I want to keep this one?

We also made homemade butter for our mothers!  Should I tell you how we made it?!  No, I don't think so!

The ladies and their butter!

The finished product.

Need some help?

Shake, shake, shake!

Our Guest!

Mr. Chase!!

What a sweet surprise!  One of the fine young American soldiers we've adopted this year was able to stop by for a quick visit!  He was home enjoying some R&R with his family and made time to visit with us.  Now, I'm not really good a keeping a fabulous surprise a secret, but I managed to keep this one!  My kiddo's were so excited when he walked into the classroom.

Just let me say, Mr. Dakota Chase Woodall is a FINE young man!  He came right into our classroom and immediately connected with every one of my students.   He took the time to personally say and hello to each child!  I wish I had pictures of him giving high fives and handshakes to all of them.  He answered questions for about thirty minutes - being careful to not skip any child that had their hand raised.

He is now back in Afghanistan.  We will continue to keep him in our prayers and, of course, keep on writing those letters!

Special Gift

Thank you, Mr. Brian.

Command Srgt. Major Brian Woodall sent us a very special gift.  Caleb, class Mayor, is holding an American flag that was flown over an American base in Afghanistan on the 10th anniversary of  911.  We are blessed to have such a special gift!  It is a treasure that I will cherish for years to come.  Thank you, Mr. Brian!