We have been working with the story of Abraham Lincoln, borrowing some history books from the library on the children's section, and reading them aloud to do main lesson readers for the children in grades and simple drawings for the small children.
For the grade children we also have them read independently the book Abe Lincoln, a child version of the story which has been very good.
After these first weeks of introduction we are delving into the theme of slavery, which brings us to the cabins and lives of the slaves of that time; we are reading the book Christmas in the Big House, Christmas in the Quarters, and Projects about Plantation life, for the whole group, and at nap times we are taking up some parts of the book Uncle Tom's Cabin and also the Underground railroad with stories of Harriet Tubman . We will leave the stories of Huckleberry Finn when we revisit next year.
As usual with blocks, we have poems and songs to start every day, which accompany us through all of the block, and also a special play or drama activity in the afternoon. The song Summertime is very fit to introduce different voices singing, as it has the soloist repeating verses independently from the main tune, and for the play we choose a part of Uncle Tom's Cabin, which depicts the life of the slaves and its mood.