The Statue of Liberty!

This week we learned a little about the Statue of Liberty (or, as your second grader should be able to tell you, her whole name is "Liberty Enlightening the World").  It was a gift from France, and was the first view for immigrants coming from Europe to Ellis Island. 












Your second grader is working on memorizing part of Emma Lazarus' poem "The New Colossus":

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

That last bolded bit is the part your second grader is charged with memorizing, as it appears on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty.  We will keep working on it until we all get it!  Each child earns a patriotic prize when they successfully recite it to me.

 

Next week we will start exploring the concept of citizenship, and what it means to be a good citizen and member of a community.  

We have also read several excellent books about the immigrant experience.  I track our classroom read-alouds (and other education- and parenting-related books) on LibraryThing, which you can access on the lefthand side of the blog ("What is Mr. C reading?").