This morning, fourth graders at PGS started a unit of study about the Holocaust.  Throughout this week, theater educators from The Hartford Stage will join our class to teach the kids about the novel Number the Stars, which tells the story of a fictional family in Denmark that helps to hide a Jewish family that tries to escape from the Nazis.  Next week, we will begin reading this novel as a class.

This will be an advanced unit that covers mature content matter.  Fourth graders at PGS have had this unit for many years, and I’m always impressed by how maturely students are able to participate in the lessons.

When we teach this unit, our focus is more on characters and situations in the novel, with general background information provided to students.  We do NOT discuss any of the graphic or gory details, and we always work very hard to make the unit “kid-friendly” and age-appropriate for fourth graders.

As the unit progresses, I will be in contact with you to keep you informed about class discussions and content so that you can be prepared for follow-up discussions at home.

As always, please feel free to email me if you have any questions about this unit.