Presidents Mini Unit

Whew!

I tend to forget how BUSY the month of February can get!

It's jam packked...but then again what month doesn't feel that way by the time it is over? 

Besides Valentine's Day, February also brings us President's Day.  

I find my students are more fascinated with non-fiction than anything else I teach. 

 There is just something about it that totally tunes them in!

 I put together a little packet to go along with our week long President's celebration.

  If you were able to check out my MLK unit and enjoyed it, then this will be right up your alley as it is fairly similar.

This mini-unit is the perfect way to teach all about Washington, Lincoln, and President's Day in just a few days! All you need is a non-fiction book to accompany the pages in this unit and you are set!

Here is what the unit includes:

*Who Was Washington? {describing graphic organizer}
*Washington was/had/wanted facts organizer
*Washington 3 facts and a fib {students produce & record 3 facts and a fib)

*Who Was Lincoln? {describing graphic organizer}
*Lincoln was/had/wanted facts organizer
*Lincoln 3 facts and a fib {students produce & record 3 facts and a fib)
*Comparing Washington and Lincoln! {Venn diagram}
*The President's: Fact or Not so Much {cut and paste fact activity}
*If I Were President... {creative writing prompt}
*President's Day ABC order

It is now available in my TPT store and will be on sale this weekend!

Voting in the Classroom Election Freebie

It's election season, even though I'm not exactly thrilled. 

But what I am thrilled about is this FREEBIE I'm sharing with you!

Let's teach our students the importance of voting and give them the opportunity to do so in the classroom.

There are several great books that accompany this freebie. 

Grace for President

My Teacher for President

Duck for President

We read all 3 books throughout the week.

We also learn about the actual presidential election and events that take place to help candidates get elected. 

We talk about all things election: campaigning, registering, ballots, debates, etc.

Some of those things we actually do in the classroom as well.

We madk our campaign posters after reading Grace for President.

We hold our election after Reading Duck for President.

Once student are well aware of the many jobs of the president, we hold an actual class election.

Step 1: hang campaign posters around the room

Step 2: make voter registration cards

Step 3: vote!

Step 4: count votes and make pictograph

Step 5: declare a winner, graph results and tabulate data

We also incorporated writing into this day of fun.

After I was declared the official winner {what can I say--they LOVE me}, we pretended they were chosen as the president!

"I would play with my dog. Sign bills. I would make laws and rules to help people." 

Let me just say that I packed a lot into their little brains and LOTS of it stuck!

Not to mention it is always tons of fun!

Don't forget to snag this freebie with most of the templates seen on this post in my TpT store!

BIG State=BIG Ideas, TEXAS Teachers Read This!

Texas, our Texas...how we love learning about our state!

Rodeo season is in full swing and we've got our boots cleaned and ready to learn.

Our poem of the week is one of our favorites and I find them reciting it subconsciously throughout the week. Catchiness as its best!

We kicked off the week learning about all the symbols of our great state.

Some we already knew and some we didn't.

L is for Lone Star is a fabulous book that taught even this devoted Texan things I didn't know!

After recording our schema and new learning, we made a flip-book with 3 of our favorite symbols.

Each day throughout the week we dove deep into talking about 5 important symbols.
We read about them, asked questions, and recorded facts in our Texas Symbols book.

{You can find this in my TpT store}

On the day we learned about Bluebonnets, I taught my firsties how to make their own!

You can too:
Fold a white sheet of computer paper in half.
Color the top half blue, bottom half green on BOTH sides.
Cut the blue into small strips.
Roll at a diagonal and tape.
Done!

Themed books about our state are always fun to read. 

Here are a few we practiced making connections with.

Text-to-text

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly--There Once Was a Cowpoke Who Swallowed an Anth

Text-to-Text

Little Red Riding Hood--Little Red Cowboy Hat

We did a little comparing and contrasting with 2 stories this week too. 

Most of my kids knew the story of Cinderella.  I had them retell the story out loud for those who didn't. 

So we compared it with this laugh out loud story: Bubba the Cowboy Prince---a MUST read!

 We compared the 2 stories in a Venn Diagram boot and made it look a little fancy-shmancy!

In writing, we've explored the 5W poem this week during our poetry study. 

It answers the questions "who, what, when, where, why"?

We wrote a class poem about an armadillo together and they got to be the illustrators. 

Then we brainstormed ideas/animals/people that represented Texas. 

They chose one to write their own 5W poem about. 

We also wrote 5W poems that describe ourselves. Grab this FREE template in my TpT store!

During our grammar time this week we reviewed adjectives. It just seems that these little words won't stick in my firsties brains! A sign to the teacher...I need to use it more ; )

We colorfully decorated these big ol' boots.

I gave them 3 sticky notes to describe their boots and glue at the bottom. 

"bold"   "vibrant"   "pretty"

To top it all off, we celebrated our week with FOOD! Our state dish of course....CHILI!

I'm always SO shocked when some of my friends tell me they've never had Chili!!!

To incorporate writing, we made the chili together and then wrote a recipe for them to take home!

After our taste test, we again, used adjectives to describe our Chili.

{Click on the picture for a FREEBIE}

I hope you found some Texas sized ideas to add to your Texas sized vault!
#texasteachersdoitbigger

Thematically Planning--President's Week

You know those quotes that stick with you...the really important ones? 

The ones we find most meaningful?

At the I Teach 1st conference Cara referenced a quote in one of her sessions that blew my mind.

"97% of students will retain information if it is taught thematically."

Then what on earth have I been doing the last four years!

Operation: change how I teach

So of course, I came back from the conference and have been planning out our weeks thematically ever since. It makes the weeks more fun and more engaging for the kids.

I do believe their brains pick up on more as they are hearing it all throughout our day!

This last week we learned about the President, well because we were off for President's Day. 

Hello! I'm sure they had absolutely NO idea WHY there was no school Monday. 

So I read a short little mini book on President's Day.

Intrigued they were, so I went on to introduce our poem for the week. 

During whole group reading time, we read a book called If I Were The President.

My kiddos LOVE telling me their schema so that's what we recorded first.

I  gave them 3 minutes to record 3 things in their schema about the president. 

We came together to share then we read the book. 

This is a great book because it has kid-friendly facts and terms. 

{book pictured below}

We recorded our new learning together and then on their paper. 

Throughout the week, we read several other fiction books.

We made connections to Arthur Meets the President.

We made our campaign posters after reading Grace for President.

We held our election after Reading Duck for President.

Once students were well aware of the many jobs of the president, we held a class election.

They were pumped!!!

Step 1: hang campaign posters around the room

Step 2: make voter registration cards

Step 3: vote!

Step 4: count votes and make pictograph

Step 5: declare a winner, graph results and tabulate data

We also incorporated writing into this day of fun.

After I was declared the official winner {what can I say--they LOVE me}, we pretended they were chosen as the president!

"I would play with my dog. Sign bills. I would make laws and rules to help people." 

Let me just say that I packed a lot into their little brains and LOTS of it stuck!

If you stayed tuned in this long, I've managed to throw in a FREEBIE for you loyal thing you!

Snag this with most of the templates (that I created) seen on this post in my TpT store!

As I began to think about our theme for next week, I based it off of our science unit: Objects in the Sky. I found several fiction and non-fiction books, scoured Pinterest for relate-able craft ideas, and pulled in as many other things I could--like our poem and math unit on time.

Check back at the end of next week for more on how week 2 of thematic planning went!