Honoring Nelson Mandela

After hearing about Nelson Mandela's passing I knew I wanted to do something to honor his life in my classroom.

I bought this book this summer at a Scholastic warehouse sale.

Nelson Mandela by Kadir Nelson

The artwork is amazing.
The story does a nice job explaining a complicated life to children.

I read it with my class then students completed a compare and contrast chart with Mandela and Martin Luther King.

Are you planing to honor Nelson Mandela's passing?

EmilyK

Veteran's Day (The Redux)

Last year, I posted my Veteran's Day lesson here.

This year, I have a new spin on this lesson.

I still plan to read America's White Table with my class and make a rememberance table.

After we finish reading the book, I am going to ask them to write.

They can write to an active duty service person.  I will send them to kidz4troops.org.

Or, they can write about a veteran in their family.

How are you teaching about veterans?

EmilyK

Mentor Text Linky- Those Rebels, John & Tom

I'm linking up with Collaboration Cuties for their weekly mentor text linky party.

This week is centered around Social Studies!
I LOVE Social Studies!

I also love my school librarian.  She understands that I have an OBSESSION with books.  This title came in a couple weeks ago, and I was the first one to check it out!  (Not that there was much competition.  It just excites me to say that my class read it first. )

This book jacket description begins:
"John Adams & Thomas Jefferson were very different.
John was short and stout.
Tom was tall and lean.
John was argumentative and blunt.
Tom was soft-spoken and polite."

The book describes their childhood differences and personality differences.

Then it takes you to the Continental Congress where John and Tom discover they can get more accomplished by using their differences, and in the process they develop a friendship based on their love for American independence.

You have to read the Author's Note at the end.  It describes that both men died within hours of each other on July 4th, 1826, America's 50th anniversary.  AMAZING!!

Do you have a new book you just can't wait to share?

EmilyK

To Honor Veterans

It has been a long and busy week in my classroom.  Between the election and finishing our argument essays we have barely a minute to spare, except where Veterans are concerned.

Last year I saw many people blogging about this book:

After reading the summary, I knew I had to read it this year.

As we read we set the Rememberance Table.

After I read the story I shared with them my connection with the story.

This is my friend Scott.
He felt drawn to serve America after 9/11.
He served two tours, one in Afghanistan and one in Iraq.
He has recently left the military to pursue a career in education.
Last year, he got married on Veterans Day.  At his wedding reception, they had a Rememberance table.
So touching!

After the students heard my connection to the story, they wrote about someone they thought was a hero.

Many wrote about grandpas, or family members that served in the military.  One of my students has a mom who teaches special needs students and she has a service dog to help with her work, so he wrote about his dog.  Others wrote about school staff like our nurse or custodian.

It was one of those melt your heart moments.

How do you honor Veterans in your classroom?

EmilyK

Ultimate Presidents in History(freebies)

The election is coming up.  Just days away!!

One of my teaching partners and I created this fun twist on candidates for a mock election.

We were talking about the election, and I felt strongly that we needed to have a mock election.  My teaching partner and I both felt strongly that we didn't want to talk politics though.  

As 5th graders so much of what they believe is based on what they hear at home, not on life experience or facts. 

We are from Missouri, if you haven't heard about our Senate race, its controversial.

I just don't want to touch the election topics with a 10 foot pole!

We decided instead to elect the Ultimate Presidents in History.

Washington and Truman vs. Lincoln and Jefferson

I created these campaign posters.  (Click image to get them for FREE!)
Poster 1:

Poster 2:

All the presidents we included have been in the Social Studies curriculum, so they had knowledge about the candidates.

Now on to the election prep!
I created this Voter Registration form for my kids to fill out on Monday as we prepare for our election on Tuesday.

Also a Freebie!  Click the image to download.

Then on Tuesday we will vote!  Click the ballot to download it for free!

All items have a table number because we will be having a mock electoral vote as well.
Each table will have its vote go toward one pair of candidates.

So excited to see how it all turns out!

EmilyK

Summer Learning, Picture Books, and Building classroom Library FREEBIES!!!!

Emily and I are taking classes this week through the Summer Academy that our district has provided for us.  Although it does cut our summer a bit short, the resources and information we gain are definitely beneficial.

We were lucky enough to be in the same class where we had the opportunity to peruse a variety of picture books and discuss various ways they can be used for instruction.  I love when presenters give time for teachers to share out ideas.

As you probably noticed in the Picture Book Linky we participated in, Emily and I absolutely LOVE using picture books in our daily instruction.  So we want to share out some of the books discussed in our class today.

A great book to teach the purpose of  punctuation
and what happens if we didn't have it to use.

A book about a dog which is
written as Haikus

Great for connections and is SO appropriate
with our current weather conditions

A book of idioms and some history
behind them.

Also, the lady presenting (my friend Cheryl) shared a bunch of resources for building a classroom library.  They are book lists to go along with many different reading skills and she was oh so gracious enough to share them with us.  Some documents list books which go along with one specific skill while others have various skills combined into one file.  There is also a document which lists picture books to use across the content areas. :)  Click here to access these documents.  We hope you find them useful in building your libraries! :)


In the class I taught today over launching units for reading and writing, a few people asked me if I had recommendations for organizing libraries as well as keeping track of the books.  I gave some suggestions like grouping them by authors, genres, and/or topics.  In my amazing friend Tracy's library, every book has a card containing its information.  She takes a picture of each of her students sitting in a reading chair and attaches those pictures to pocket envelopes which are glued to poster board.  When a child checks out a book, he/she takes the card from the book and places it in his/her envelope.  I think that's a great way to keep track of books.


We would love to hear your amazing ideas.  What do you recommend for organizing and keeping track of books in your classroom libraries?  Also, we are always looking for picture books to use. So any ideas are always more than welcome!


Antoinette and EmilyK

Native American Cupcakes

   My sisters and I decorate cakes as a side business.  So after finishing a cake, I sent the picture to some of my co-workers.  My friend Tracy responded back with, "Why don't we have our students decorate cupcakes with Native American dwellings on them."  I was a little hesitant, but thought it was a very creative idea.  So we decided to provide the cupcakes for our 5th grade students and they would bring in the extras for decorating their dwellings.  Overall, the project turned out well.



Isn't it cute!  Notice the tree.



I love this fire pit!



This one is a mud hut. 



I love that this student used the whole cupcake.

An interesting use of crackers for walls.

 The students thoroughly enjoyed decorating the cupcakes.  Since this was the first time, there are some things I would definitely do different.  First, I would have a model for them to see.  I know that sounds like a no-brainer, but I didn't have one for them.  Second, we brainstormed some ideas of items to bring, but I pretty much left it up to them.  Next time, I will probably provide a list of items because some things did not turn out very well (like tortillas).  I look forward to doing this again next year.  Hope you enjoyed the pictures of some of the students cupcakes.

Antoinette

Social Studies Anchor Chart

We are so excited about joining the Anchor Chart Linky party hosted by Tales of Frogs and Cupcakes.
Do your students ever have trouble keeping track of names of cities, states, and countries?  My 3rd graders definitely do!  I started this anchor chart at the beginning of our geography unit.  I plan to add to it throughout the year whenever we read about another place. 



The red stars mark the state we live in, and the cities in our state.

            EmilyK

Social Studies Journals

As a school, we are incorporating Social Studies into our Communication Arts.  I think this is a great idea and decided to use journals as way for the students to reflect on what they learn.  I am not a huge fan of text books as a sole resource to teach, so I am always on the internet looking for ideas/resources to use.  We also have USA Weekly papers which are a wonderful tool.  What I have been doing so far (which is tentative as this is new for me) is teaching the lesson either whole group or through partner reading of the USA Weekly.  After the lesson, the students write a reflection as to what they learned.  I give them questions to guide their reflections.  When they are finished with the written part of the journal, they include an illustration that goes along with what they learned.  Depending on the concept being taught, I plan to include maps, timelines, etc as well as the written reflection and illustration.  I would love to hear how other people use Social Studies journals in their classrooms or any suggestions/ideas.