Whew! Yesterday was a whirl-wind of a day full of exciting sights in the city!
As researchers about New York City, we have been reading lots of books, looking at lots of pictures, and thinking about our own experiences. Some of the things we've been writing about, though, are things some of us have never seen! We wanted some first-hand experiences to really build our writing - it's hard to add details if we've never seen what we're writing about.
Half of the second graders are writing about forms of transportation found in New York City. The other half of the second graders are writing about man-made features of the city (bridges, buildings, statues, etc.). The students got to choose which group to work in based on their interests. Both groups of researchers learned a lot for their books!
- The first part of our journey involved walking through the East Village. We observed other people walking, people on bikes, people in cars, people in taxis, buses full of people, and even a motorcycle.
- Next, we went down into the MTA Subway system. We took two trains - first the L train and then the 5 train. We used our five senses to gather lots of information and took lots of notes in our reporter's notebooks as we traveled.
- Then, we exited the train at Bowling Green and walked into Battery Park. Researchers on statues, boats, buildings, and the Statue of Liberty were ready to observe now! We saw lots of boats - police boats with lights flashing, boats full of tourists ready to climb up the green lady, yellow taxi boats taking people around the five boroughs, sail boats out for a nice sail, and lots of other cruise boats for people wanting to see the city in a new way. We also saw lots of statues within the park - some were monuments to the 9/11 tragedy, some were statues of people, others were in memory of soldiers who lost their lives. Of course, we also finally saw the big statue - the Statue of Liberty! Even from the park we could see that construction on Liberty Island was going on, the trees had lost their leaves, and that the large flag on the island was flying high. Lots of observations about the statue were written down as we noticed lots of new things about the statue we had read so much about.
- After that came lunch time. While it wasn't a topic for our all-about books, we certainly learned, quickly, how hungry the birds along the water must be! Lots of seagulls and pigeons flew and hopped around us, hoping for a bite of our food!
- Next, we walked to the Staten Island Ferry Terminal to take the boat. We observed the terminal and noticed how similar it was to the airports many of us have experienced. Then it was time for the boat ride!
- On the boat we got really close to the Statue of Liberty! We saw the Brooklyn Bridge, the Manhattan Bridge, and the Verrazano Bridge! We noticed how different each of the bridges were from one another, yet their accomplished the same thing. We took lots of notes about the boats we saw, the tall buildings in the Financial District we could now see from the distance, and the bridges we went past.
- After docking at Staten Island, it was time to turn around and come back. This time we stood outside on the boat - we got quite wet, and it was very cold, but it was also lots of fun! Then we traveled back to school on both the R train and the L train. We even got a song sung for us on the R train. We clapped along as musicians sang and played underground What fun!
It was quite the long day, and by the time we got back to school we were tired, wet, and hungry. We had snack, talked a bit about our day, and had some quiet time before leaving at 3:00.
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Today, in the writing workshop, the notebooks flew open and the research we had gathered began to enter our drafts. We crossed out things, added new facts, changed our wording, and adding describing words to make our writing clearer for our readers and stronger as a piece of non-fiction. It was a great day yesterday and our "All-About" New York City books will be the proof!
