Week 5 in our history study has us learning about Thomas Jefferson and the Supreme Court. Jefferson was America's 3rd President, but in January of 1801, right before Jefferson took office, John Adams appointed John Marshall to be the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Marshall was a brilliant man, who shared many of Adam's Federalist views--but was at odds with Jefferson, who was a Democratic-Republican. Despite these differences, Marshall was an effective leader, who reshaped the Court, which until this point in time, had lacked definition and power. We learned about the Court's beginnings, Jefferson's two terms as president and also about the great duel between Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton--which resulted in the death of Hamilton. The Dialectic class and the Upper Grammar class combined this week and had a guest teacher: Mr. Keller. Mr. Keller gave the kids a lesson on the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and shared how a case makes it to the US Supreme Court-using some of his actual cases as examples. The kids did a great job taking in all this information and asked great questions, too. Meanwhile, the Lower Grammar kids also discussed Jefferson and the Courts. They then did a project where they created silhouettes of each other. Silhouettes were a popular art form in the early 19th century and a silhouette of Thomas Jefferson can be found on our nickel, even today! The Five In A Row kids read the book, "If Jesus Came to My House." In this simple, touching story, a young boy realizes that he can treat others according to the lessons he would learn if Jesus really did come to his house. The kids then had a great time painting houses made out of cereal boxes!
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