Lady Liberty

Do you know how big Lady Liberty's foot is?  Our 2nd graders do!!
This was an absolute terrific lesson-- my kids are still talking about it!  This lesson is from the wonderful author Deanna Jump! I also added a bunch of my favorite activities, too!   We study America's National Symbols in 2nd grade!  American Eagles, the Flag, Liberty Bell, and the wonderful Lady Liberty.  We started off the lesson by prompting the question: "Do you think Lady Liberty's foot (from heal to toe) is bigger than our second grade (shoulder to shoulder), smaller than, or equal to?"
I had the kids create a graph that illustrated our hypothesis.  Then we took a 25 foot piece of butcher paper-- colored the whole paper green-- then created a GIANT foot- toes and all!  Then we stood all 24 of my students shoulder to shoulder-- and WALA-- we were much shorter.
I love to incorporate literature into all my lessons-- not just in reading class!

We read the following stories; The Story of the Statue of Liberty, L is For Liberty, The Statue of Liberty (Step Into Reading, and The Statue of Liberty (Welcome Books).  When we read the stories, I had the students write down as many facts or interesting information that they could remember from each story.  Then we created a HUGE graphic organizer listing all the facts that they could remember! 

For an independent reading activity-- I took two of the books- The Statue of Liberty (Step into Reading) and The Statue of Liberty (Welcome Books) and I placed in our reading center.  During independent time-- they were able to go back and read the story by themselves.  When they were done reading independently-- they need to find the following (And they had a page to fill out-- where they listed the page numbers and completed the activities) they had to find the Table of Contents, Glossary, Index,Captions, and Key Vocabulary.  They listed page numbers, and answered questions in regards to comprehension on the sheet.

Writing~  What does the Statue of Liberty stand for?  And what does the Statue of Liberty mean to me?
The students drew a picture of the statue of Liberty and then we posted their responses under their picture!

Math~ First each child created the 7 point crown-- then they wrote a math fact that had a number seven in their math problem.  For example-- 7+8=  , 7+7= , etc.....  They placed the answers on the back of the crown!