Confederacies

This week, the 7-8s continued their study of early America and the Constitution. We reviewed Haudenosaunee, an Iroquois confederacy from colonial times, noting its influence on John Rutledge, Benjamin Franklin, and other Framers. We delved deeper into the Bill of Rights by examining scenarios through the lens of the first ten amendments, figuring out which of the ten were most relevant in each case and debating the various decisions.

In addition, this was the week when we began working on the all-school play in earnest, reading through our Norse script, revising it, and beginning to plan movements. The kids have lots of good input on this. We also read through the myths that the kindergarteners and 1-2 classes will be performing, from Ghana, the Arctic, and India. The 7-8s will provide narration for these scenes in performance.

The Constitution Past and Present

In this three-day week our focus was entirely on American government. Since many Americans were surprised by the results of Tuesday's election, we spent much of our time together on Wednesday processing the results. We discussed the logistics of a Presidential election. The Electoral College was a key element of this conversation. We also touched on the way the three branches of government interact, which was a useful transition into our work on the often excruciating, yet also amazing, process by which the US Constitution and Bill of Rights were drafted and ratified. Finally, the kids got their new sixty-page anthology built on this topic and began their now-habituated process of reading and annotating.