Revamping Regions

As I {previously shared}, I'm in charge of social studies long range plans.

I thought I'd just be able to reuse what I made last year, but after I looked at it again with fresh eyes, I decided that I needed to just start over. 

I wanted to focus more on the landforms of each state so students could see how regions were geographically similar.  I wanted to include vocabulary that they'd hear in the FOSS Landforms Kit (which is being taught in humanities).  I wanted to be more consistent with each state including the same information (images of state flag, state quarter, state seal) and the same basic layout.

This, unfortunately, is a massive undertaking but all the fifth grade classes are not only using it, but enjoying it as well. 

Last night, many, many hours after my contract time ended, I finished the introduction and Intermountain region powerpoint.  Coming in at 119 slides, it took quite a while to upload to Dropbox and TpT.  I designed it to be a ten day unit, with the first being an overview of what defines a region and how they're created.  The next eight days focus on the eight states in the Intermountain region, with one day at the end for a test.  I zoomed in on Yellowstone National Park, so that could be a day within itself.   

You can snag it {here}.

I designed the lessons to be about 15-20 minutes per day, since that's all we seem able to squeeze into our schedules.

This weekend I'll jump into the West Region with an additional topics on volcanoes, the Northern Lights, and tectonic plates.  From there, I think the Great Plains and the Midwest will be the next two regions, followed by the South, New England, and Mid Atlantic.  After all the states are covered, we'll be working on Native American Indians, Exploration, Plymouth, Colonial Times, the American Revolution, and the foundation of our government.  The year will end with a civics and government unit.

Hopefully this year (lucky #7) will feel like the last year that I have to keep reinventing the wheel and working so hard to create curriculum for my students.  There will always be tweaks and trying new things, but I feel like a first year teacher all over again.  It's a little rough this year.  But at least it's Friday!

Social Studies Long Range Planning

We are sharing our planning responsibilities as a grade level this year and I get to take the charge on the social studies (government, civics, geography, and economics) plans.

This is how I feel:

My undergraduate focus wasn't education, it was pre-law.  However, you can't major in pre-law, so it was Political Science with a minor in Global Studies and certificates in Civic Education as well as Philosophy, Politics, and Law.  However, I didn't end up in law school and thank goodness for that!

I do hold a master's degree (and thirty additional credits) in education, so I have a pretty good idea what to do in the classroom.  (Seven years' worth of experience helps too!)

I'm excited to get to synthesize my extensive background knowledge into a cohesive, scaffolded introduction to the social sciences.

We are starting with {What is Geography?} and the {5 themes of geography} before we move into different types of maps, including this {sort}.  From there, we'll dive into regions utilizing Mystery Skype and the map.

You know, the map:

After that we'll move into Native American Indian Research Projects and have them write a fiction story based on their research.  They'll create diaries as a member of a Native American Indian tribe.  This will tentatively be happening as our culminating writing project in November, thus integrating social studies and writing.

From there, we'll review colonial history before moving into branches of government.  I plan to embed economics into each region (in addition to land forms to pre-teach the FOSS kit they'll be doing in humanities).

I hope to have all of this fun wrapped up around winter break, but know I have a much larger window if needed.  I know GATE is focusing on multiple perspectives in history this year with a focus on the colonial period, so that's exciting to have that built in extension for my students.

As I finalize products and plans, they'll be available on TpT!  Stay tuned :)

Movin' Mountains

In science we are just finishing up learning about types of maps before we move on to how landforms change over time with stream tables.

We talked about cartographers and surveyors (since I'm dating one, I've got lots of background knowledge!).  They made a map of the playground and I modeled making one of our classroom:

They collaboratively sketched out the features of the room and then their homework was to make an aerial map of their bedroom or favorite room.  Not all the students completed the task but the ones who did were so excited to share with their neighbors the next day.

I showed them my map of my bedroom and they were fascinated.  It was kind of adorable, considering all that was on my map was a bed and dresser.  They're just super observant and curious little ones, which is a wonderful thing.  (Sometimes they remind me of Littlest One in Lois Lowry's Gossamer but only a few of them get the literary reference).

From there, we moved into making topographic maps by tracing the different layers of a foam mountain:

This is investigation 4 in the FOSS Landforms kit, but I teach the kit out of order (such a rebel!).  

Tuesday we'll talk about contour lines, contour intervals and elevation when they make their keys.  I just love how excited they get about geography and landforms.  It's important to be excited about this great planet of ours!

Science strategy

We were reviewing erosion and deposition, so I tried a new strategy:

I gave them a paragraph with out they key words and they had to work together with their partners to figure out what was missing.

They did pretty well with figuring out the big concepts :)

Up close and personal with erosion

Since we switch students for science, I get to teach the FOSS Land forms kit four times.  Since this kit is my favorite, it works out nicely :)

(Coincidently, all four of us got our favorite kit to teach! I think it definitely benefits the students when we're excited about what we're teaching)

We've learned about maps (physical, political & topographic) as well as land forms and globes, so it was time to investigate.

We were looking at how a stream table changes an environment.

My students got up close and personal with the process of erosion:

I use the pictures of their actual investigations in my power point and we then talk about how the canyon was formed, deposition and alluvial fans.

Next we see what happens when we add a slight elevation:

The result is the alluvial fans tend to be larger and the earth material is more widely displaced within the table (deposition).

Next week we'll try it with floods :)

Of course, they have to record in their science notebooks and make a hypothesis:

I love how excited they get about sand, clay and water!

Post Card Fun!

In my former blog Project Postcard, I asked for post cards from around the world so my students could study geography.  I'm pretty well set for the United States, but if you're abroad and in a cool place, send me one!  (Also, if you're near Mount Rushmore, I would like one for that monument so I can discuss human-enviornment interaction, which is one of the five themes of geography).

Today we had ten minutes left after our vocabulary review and since it was Friday, I couldn't set up the next activity because air would dry out our clay/sand models that we'll use for stream tables next week.  

So we went on a photo safari instead.

I passed out groups of post cards to each table team and had them talk about the landforms they saw.

They did a great job with coming up with questions without even being asked, which of course is wonderful!

Yes, they got a little too loud but it was nice to walk around and hear them getting so excited about mountains.

Here are some snap shots of my young scientists:

Zacatecas, Mexico

Northern Lights, San Fransisco and Alscase, France

St. Louis and the Atlantic Ocean

Yellowstone, Michigan and Big Bear Lake (CA)

Yellowstone

Meteor Crater (AZ) 

Great Wall of China and Hawaii

Atlantic Ocean and Alcase, France

A beautiful mountain (I couldn't see the back of the post card, they weren't very eager to share with me)

Thank you for all the post card donations!  

I love when my students get so excited about science and geography.  We made some great connections with the 5 themes of geography.  You can download my TpT freebie about geography here!  If you like it, please rate it and give feedback :)  If it didn't quite meet your expectations for a free product, I'd like to hear that constructive feedback as well!

Snap Shots

As stated in a few prior posts, I don't have anything in my TpT store that I wouldn't and haven't used in my own classroom.  Everything I make is for my students, then shared.

I guess I'm taking advantage of this magical "free time" before I start a family to create these timeless, rigorous activities for and with my students.  

I'm only in 2 college classes and my boyfriend has an odd work schedule, so it works out in my students' favor.  I'm not very good at relaxing.  I'm great at watching Netflix, don't get me wrong, but I feel like I need to be doing something else too.  Good thing I can type without looking at the keys!

My students used 2 of our centers this week.

The first is our new Tiger Rising center:

They were quizzing each other on the characters in the novel based on descriptions from the text.  It's a great way to compare and contrast characters!

The second is our map sort center:

We used this as a small group review before we took our science test today on types of maps.  Technically, this is a science & social studies hybrid assessment (geography) but students had to create topographic maps, so it ties in with landforms as well! 

(Yes, it's pink.  That's normal for my classroom :)  )

Just some snap shots of our collaborative learning this week!

TPR volcanoes

We've been doing volcanoes and land forms during science (catch up here).  Today we reviewed the TPR hand motions that go with tectonic plate movement:

Subduction:

Divergence:

Fault lines:

My students had a lot of fun learning about tectonic plates and landforms :)

KWL charts

In science, we are doing a mini-unit on volcanoes.

One of my favorite strategies to activate students' background knowledge is with a K-W-L chart, like mine on volcanoes:

The K is for what students think they already know about the topic.

The W is for what students want to know about the topic.

The L is for what they learn about the topic (either in class or while researching).

We are going over the structure of volcanoes, classifying them and then going to one of my favorite free online tools, Discovery Kid's volcano builder!

Once inside, we get to review layers of the earth:

Tectonic plates and the ring of fire:

Go inside a volcano:

We go through the scientific method with the students, only changing one variable at a time.  For volcanoes, the variables are the viscosity and gas levels within the volcano.

Enjoy!

Tectonic Plates

In science, we've been working on land forms.  Yesterday we talked about layers of the earth and created this anchor chart:

We aren't supposed to use pre-made anchor charts or posters, so I cut up an old one from the Dollar Tree to use the graphic for my new one.

We talked about the three possible outcomes for tectonic plates and created TPR activities to help students remember today's lesson.  I didn't get a picture of them doing the hand motions today but I'll update this blog soon with those images!  

(TPR is total physical response, it's a strategy to help ELL and IEP students make lasting memories.  By adding physical motions to the vocabulary words, students activate both hemispheres of their brains and make longer lasting connections).

Land Forms

We've been studying land forms for a few weeks now in science.  We've learned all about different types of maps, made several different versions and observed how elevation can change a stream table.  

Next week, we are going to conduct more stream table experiments, this time with flash floods. (One time with no elevation, one time with elevation to see the difference).  From there, we'll discuss more vocabulary, look at Google Earth for land forms and learn about layers of the earth.  Then, after we co-construct our anchor charts, we'll learn about the ring of fire and tectonic plates.

I saw this idea on pinterest and I think it's a perfect Friday science activity:

I'm totally game for combining food and science, it's hands-on, edible learning at its finest!

Strange Days

Today was...interesting.

It started with me picking my students up from humanities because well, we added that special this week and my specials schedule changed yesterday.  One of my favorite subs is filling that job and my kids had so much fun. 

They worked on creative movement and when I picked them up, I was treated to a flash mob.  Yes, they busted out their new dance moves just for me :)

(I do love my flash mobs!  At MEMTA, I helped orchestrate and lead one while last summer at DENSI, I participated in one at the Vermont Lake Monsters game.)

We analyzed informational texts for the main idea, practiced decoding words with long vowels (a, e & i), worked on revising our pieces, observed stream tables, analyzed figurative language and then switched for math and small groups.

However, I had to confiscate a yu-gi-oh card and dealt with post-it notes with "kick me" on the back.  It is entirely possible I learned to time travel today and returned to about 10 years ago.

Oh hump day.

Science notebooks

We've talked a lot about notebooks this year.

In science, we've been studying land forms, geography, earth and space. 

We started with maps and created this tree map of maps (I crack myself up):

We have been looking at physical & political maps.  We talked about aerial maps and tried to be surveyors, mapping out the primary playground by using different benchmarks.

Today we built foam mountains and traced the "layers".  Tomorrow we'll discuss how these "layers" are really contour lines and dig deep into topographic maps.

I'm in no way following the suggested pacing guide because well, my pacing guide made more sense :)

Here is another thinking map about land forms:

We also went over the 5 themes of geography (Mr. Help!) which is available for free at my TpT store :)

Here is one of my TpT sorts in action, ready to be analyzed by my ten year old geologists:

Yay science :)