I had every intention of posting this yesterday and just didn't get that far.  However, I was so excited to celebrate this birthday, that I figured a day late is better than nothing.  This upcoming year, one of my themes is going to be focused on immigration and the many gifts that ALL humans add to our world.  As an introduction, I am going to be looking at the individuals connected to building the Statue of Liberty.

Two weeks ago, my husband and I held the "golden tickets" to go on an adventure up into the crown of the Statue of Liberty.  I have to admit that this was a HUGE item on my bucket list.  It was a thrill to be some of the few people that have experienced the long climb up 354 steps into her crown.  Despite the many challenges that our country is facing, I do believe that she is a symbol of optimism and hope and I want to share her wonder to my students. 

Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi is known for his design of "Liberty Enlightening the World" otherwise known as the Statue of Liberty.  She was designed to commemorate the friendship between France and the United States.  The Statue of Liberty was dedicated in October 1886.  She is 151 feet, 1 inch tall and sits on Bedloe's Island in New York Harbor.  

The classroom calendar is a perennial wall hanging in almost every elementary classroom across the country.  Many are decorated with seasonal pattern cut-outs such as red apple, yellow apple, green apple (can you tell I taught Kindergarten?) or fall leaves in various color patterns.  Teachers use the calendar as daily tool to show holidays, school events, a way to count to the 100th day of school, and classmates' birthdays.  However, for so many of us, the challenge of carving out time is an ever present battle during instruction.  

A couple of years ago, while I was teaching timelines in class, I realized that I needed to be more intentional with my calendar time and could incorporate quality literature while connecting them to the classroom calendar and the larger timelines that I teach in class.  I have streamlined my calendar design and added new history makers for students to learn about.  I have tried to share not only my favorite grade level books, but some other strong pieces of literature for upper grades.  I use these books as part of our regularly scheduled read aloud time.  Additionally, I have MANY Youtube cues that I continue to add to for each month (I will share more later).  

If you are interested in using this in your classroom, the August file can be found on my Teachers Pay Teachers site for FREE for the month of August.  Additionally, if you are interested in any of the book recommendations, please click on the images below to go to my Amazon Affiliate store.