In Honor of Labor Day

     I believe it's important to showcase America's holidays, so in honor of Labor Day we explored the history of Labor Day during class on Friday (8/29).  It was a great opportunity to integrate history, reading, and writing.  We kicked off this mini lesson with a KWL chart (image below).  It's an easy way to organize what students know, want to know, and learn about a topic.

     After we started the KWL chart the students independently read the TIME For Kids article "History of Labor Day: Americans set aside a day to honor the nation's workers."
    Then, I read aloud History.com's article "Labor Day."
    Next, we viewed the History.com's "Labor Day" video (same link, same page as above).  The students were most appalled by the fact that kindergarten aged workers were required to work under harsh conditions in extremely low paying factories.  This also helped them realize that not all children had the opportunity to receive an education.  One instance that makes me (and many others) particularly grateful that in current times American children have the right to receive a public education.
    Finally, the students engaged in 20 minutes of uninterrupted writing in which they were asked to respond to one of the following three prompts:

     I hope you've enjoyed your holiday weekend thus far.  If you took the time to read and watch the above articles and video then you know it's well deserved! I also hope you've enjoyed my bonus post :)

     Until next time, 

     Miss Grell