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Friday, June 14, 2019

7 Continents - Having Fun with the Arts, Maps and Geography


Hi, Friends! I haven't blogged in awhile. I made a change in grade levels from 1st to 3rd and that has taken up all of my time these last 2 years. Now that it's summer, I am excited to start sharing the awesome fun my teammate and I have been creating for our kiddos while they are learning. The first project I created after moving to 3rd was a 7 continents geography project. I knew our standard was to teach students to use political and physical maps, but that seemed so boring! I wanted to make something Arts and Project-Based to be fun, yet rigorous, and hit all the mapping and geography standards. They would create the continents out of salt dough!

We started by reviewing how to read maps, use compasses and to tell the difference between physical and political maps. We also learned about landforms and practiced landform vocabulary. After a week of mapping and geography skills, students were split into groups and picked one of the 7 continents to research. I did not have anyone chose Antarctica as there aren't enough political or physical features for this project. I did model with Antarctica though, so they could learn about it.

Now that they had their continent chosen, it was time to study the physical landforms and bodies of water that make up and surround their continent using many different maps as references.

While students studied their physical maps, they created their own on a large 11 x 17 blackline as a group. This 2-D physical map becomes the "plan" for their 3-D model out of salt dough.
 After everyone completes their physical map, it's time to make SALT DOUGH continents. They are having so much fun they don't even realize they are continuously referring back to their map to create their continent!!

 You can see this group's 2-D physical map as they create their salt dough continent.



Once the salt dough has dried, it's time to paint. Now we can tell what all of those landforms are!




After the salt dough project, we are far from done. The group will now work together to make a large political map on another 11x17 blackline. Using the political maps I copied for them.




Each group has their physical and political maps done and now they are invested in their continent so it's a great time to integrate Language Arts with research and writing about one of the 7 continents. Each group has books on the continents and we use Epic books to take notes. The note page follows the same headings as in the Bobbie Kalman books on Epic. I also ordered some used versions to have since I'm not 1:1 computers.




Lastly, groups research, write paragraphs and then create a presentation to share their learning with the class.

If you're interested in this project and using any of the resources mentioned, plus rubrics for the teacher as well as student rubrics, click the picture below.
Have fun mapping the 7 continents!

Friday, May 29, 2015

Student Summer Gift Tag Freebie!



Well, this is late for some of you, but better late than never, right??
Here is an editable student Gift Tag Freebie. I paired this with freezer pops and gummy worms. The kids loved it!
 I hope someone can use this;tuck it in your files for next year! Happy Summer!!

Friday, April 10, 2015

Kolton's Post on Friday, April 10, 2015 Reading Groups

I love that Kolton says, "This is where our teacher helps us to read." It makes me so happy to teach them to read. I am absolutely loving the student blog posts!
Erin
Easy Blog Photo
This is what you do at at reading groups.

Thursday, April 9, 2015

Ciara A.'s Post on Thursday, April 9, 2015


This video makes me so proud! Not only can the girls explain how read to self works in our classroom. They captured the rest of my students enjoying reading. I couldn't be happier. I love this class!
Erin

This is how we read.

Ciara N.'s Post on Thursday, April 9, 2015 Daily 5 in our classroom.

Ciara chose to show everyone what Daily 5 looks like in our room. I used to use a clip chart but the clothespins were always breaking and it drove me nuts! So I made this rotation chart in Smart notebook. Students move counter clockwise around the chart. You might notice I added "Games" so I could incorporate literacy activities that matched our targets for the previous week as well as "Poetry". In poetry, students read and build poems that we have practiced in calendar. Students are find word patterns in the pocket chart and then they glue the poem into their poetry notebook and illustrate. After they finish those tasks, they love to create movements or dances to go with the poems. You'll see two girls working on movements to an Easter poem in the video. If they have taken time to rehearse, I'll let them perform in front of the class. They love it! 
Comment below of you have any other questions about our Daily 5 (or would it be Daily 7?😉).
Easy Blog Photo
This is daily five where we work. this is how we get to be a better reader writer speller😃

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Jacob's Post on Tuesday, April 7, 2015 Research!!!

We learned about desert animals. first,we researched them.  Next, we answered questions about them.  Last,we drew a double bouble map.
Easy Blog Photo

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Before I explain this project Jacob is sharing, let me back up for a minute.
We just spent the last two weeks studying the Sonoran desert. As we studied different plants and animals, we added to our desert lap book. The kids loved making these books and begged to take them home when we were done.





After we finished the lap books, I asked students to choose two animals. Their choices were:
Javelina
Coyote
Kangaroo Rat
Horned Lizard
Gila Monster
Elf Owl

Once they chose their animals, I made them each a copy of the texts I wrote for each animal. They highlighted important information and found answers to text-based questions. After they researched both animals, I had them compare their two desert animals using a double bubble map. Pretty difficult stuff for them, but so many had great connections!

Now that Jacob and the rest of the class have researched and compared their animals, I am going to make them choose one of their two animals and write an opinion about which animal they think is better, more interesting, etc. using reasons from their research!
Easy Blog Photo
If you're wondering how my 1st graders are creating blog posts, check out the Easy Blogger App! I love it!!

Image result for Easy blogger app

Monday, April 6, 2015

Adriana's Post on Monday, April 6, 2015

This is Adriana's post showing a song the first grade teachers and I wrote about volcanoes for our Earth Science show. The students haven been practicing the songs and choreography. This is a few of the students practicing reading the lyrics during daily 5 read to someone time. Adriana thought this would be good to show other classrooms learning about volcanoes. 
I love that she shouts, "Excitement!" At the beginning! 
Erin
Easy Blog Photo
We are going to sing a song called,great balls of fire