Voyagers and Pathfinders (5th and 6th graders!) are off and running in Humanities class! In our first unit, titled “Building a Community of Readers, Writers, and Historians,” students are figuring out how we can come together as a group of learners. We started the year with some team building activities based around the questions: Who is in the room? What is in the room? Where is the room? Now, students are reading two texts that focus on the connection between community and identity. Our first book is “Last Stop on Market Street” by Matt de la Peña and our second text is “Islandborn” by Junot Diaz. With these texts, students are reviewing how we read together, how we have a conversation about what we read, how make summaries, and how we articulate different connections we see.

In addition to this work, students are also getting started with our independent reading routine. At this point, every students should have a book that they are reading, on their own. They should bring back and forth between school at home so they can read it each day in school and each night at home. Once they finish it, they can choose another one! Students are welcome to bring in books from home, the public library, or borrow books from our classroom libraries.

It’s going to be a great year with #TeamHumanities!