Getting to Know George Washington, Very Well!

     Our biography unit kicked off with a fast read of a very interesting person-Milton Hershey. This biography was super to begin the unit with because we all know and love his products! It would be easy to see his success and to figure that it was always that way for him, but we found out differently! This biography not only taught us life lessons of the importance of perseverance and stamina in reaching goals, but also gave us a few directions for new learning about other interesting topics. Once we completed the reading, we watched a video about the way chocolate is made!
     This text showed us all of the basics for high level reading of biographies and we were off to a four book study of George Washington's Life. We've completed, Who Was George Washington?, a full life time biography and have three books about specific sections of George's life to go. For more information about the types of text, and the comprehension topics we investigate with each book refer to my March 9, 2015, blog.
    One way to aid comprehension and process the biography's text is to think about other topics that would be interesting to learn more about, as they relate to the subject of the biography. We read many times that George Washington loved his home, Mount Vernon,  and really wanted to stay close to home farming and inventing, but his desire for a strong, successful new America forced him to leave Mount Vernon to lead the country, at the demands of his contemporaries. This led us to using a website to take a virtual tour of Mount Vernon. This is the first year that the tour has been available on the Mount Vernon Website and we thoroughly enjoyed it! I wanted to make you aware of the website and suggest that you and your student take the tour together. There are several areas we did not have a chance to see in class. If you are ever able to take a family trip to Virginia, I'd recommend a visit it is a naturally beautiful, historic area of Our Country.

Click on the picture and take a virtual tour of Mount Vernon