Foldable Magic

We have just finished up our Social Studies projects - and just WAIT until you see them!  We used the coolest format - it's magic - plain and simple.  This project format is so engaging for your students, they'll actually beg to work on the project.  Seriously.  The secret is the hidden panel - students simply pull on the cover pages, and the hidden panel magically appears.  Get ready to WOW your class!  This is the second time I've done this project with one of my classes, and it was equally successful each time.  You can see my original blog post HERE.

Right now in Social Studies, my grade 4 students are studying Early Societies and my grade 5 students are studying Early Canada.  This research project was so easy to adapt so both grades could complete the same format.  My grade 4s researched food, clothing, homes, and health in Ancient Greece and compared it to present day Canada.  My grade 5s researched food, homes, tools and clothing, and culture for First Nations in Early Canada and also compared it to present day Canada.  For each section of research, they also completed a picture to illustrate.  We tied it into nonfiction reading with learning how to research, and talked a lot about the text features we included in our completed projects.

Sit back and watch the magic happen ...

Are you convinced?  Check out this YouTube video by Dan Jones for complete instructions on how to complete this secret door foldable.  It would be so awesome for so many different projects - and I think it would make an awesome book report project - using each section for chapter summaries and illustrations.  This is definitely one format you will want to use year after year.  And they look great hanging up, too.  I used push pins to attach them to our bulletin board, so students can easily take them down to show off the "magic" inside.  

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Lapbooking

Oh my goodness - how I LOVE spring break!!!  The school break is great, don't get me wrong ... but I think what I'm enjoying most is the break from my girls' extra-curricular activities.  I have two little dancers and one soccer superstar ... and they keep us RUNNING!!!  For the first time in a LONG time, we had NO activities this weekend ... which equals sleeping in ... which equals heaven to me.  :)

So, with the extra time I've found plus two very rainy days (not complaining - hoping that rain melts some of this snow mountain around me) it gave me the time I needed to finish a couple of projects I've been working on.

I've been working on a Canadian Lapbook Project.  My class LOVES making lapbooks in our science units, so I thought I'd create one for Social Studies.  Provinces and Territories is actually taught in grade 4 in my province, but it's a unit I always review in my class at the beginning of the year because it's SO important to me that the students know all about their country.  This lapbook has the students naming the province and territory capitals, population, major lakes and rivers, and exports and imports.  They also research natural resources and physical regions of Canada.  You can click on any of the pictures to preview this product. 

I had SO much fun creating the Canadian project, and had such a great reaction from my daughters (who insisted on helping me with the cutting), I decided to create a similar one for the United States.  I quickly realized that with 50 states, this was going to be a MUCH bigger lapbook.  This lapbook is actually 6 pages (2 file folders).  Students will study the state abbreviations, capital cities, state population, date it entered the union, imports and exports, and major lakes and rivers.  They will also research famous Americans, natural resources, famous landmarks, climate, highest peaks, and more.  It would make an impressive project to display and then send home to the parents!  Again, you can click on any of the pictures to preview this product.

To celebrate Spring Break, I'm going to giveaway FIVE of these resources.  Just leave a comment below stating which one you could use and I'll use the random number generator to choose 5 different names tomorrow.  Check back tomorrow evening to see the winners.

Happy Monday!!

Jen

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Friday Art Feature - It's All Greek To Me

Our new social studies unit is Early Civilizations - right now we're focusing on Ancient Greece.  This is the first time I've taught the grade 5 social studies curriculum ... and I was SO excited to teach this unit.  I've always had a fascination with Ancient Greece, and on my honeymoon (to Greece, of course), I dragged my newlywed husband to every single museum and ruin in Greece (so much for lying on the beaches - good thing he loves me).

As part of our study of Greek culture, we've been examining Greek pottery.  Next week we're going to break out the clay to create our own Greek pottery (super excited about that), so this week we planned our pieces.  Students could only use orange construction paper and black sharpies to create their pieces to represent the orange clay and blank ink the Ancient Greeks would use.  They had to research the different shapes and uses of the pottery and write the Greek name of the type of pottery they chose.

The pictures look great on display.  I also added some of the summaries the students wrote on an article about food in Ancient Greece.  Next week we'll be adding our actual pottery as well as the brochures about Ancient Greece we've been working on.

  

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Folding in Social Studies

OK - it's not a Math Journal Sunday ... but I've got a FANTASTIC foldable to share with you today.  I saw this idea on A Teacher's Treasure a few weeks ago, and as soon as I saw it, I knew I HAD to do it with my class.  This is called the Secret Door Foldable.  You've got to head over to Mor's blog to see it - she even has a great video to show you step-by-step how to complete the template.  The minute I finished watching her video, I ran to get two pieces of paper to try it out for myself ... and then I had to get a few more pieces to make some for my girls.  Be sure to have some paper nearby ... I know you're going to want to try it, too.


We used the Secret Door Foldable for our culminating Social Studies project.  Our last unit was First Nations People and European Explorers.  I had students go through their notes and assignments, and choose the most important information (integrated the reading strategy of determining important ideas) to summarize on their foldable.  They also needed to organize their writing into paragraphs with subtitles.  Social studies mark - check, reading mark - check, writing mark - check!  PERFECT!!!

They drew a title page for the cover of the assignment.

They summarized their information on First Nations People on the inside foldable.  They also had to draw a picture or colour the background for visual appeal.  LOVE how this students added text features to his summary of information!

They then summarized their information for European Explorers inside the Secret Door.  They students LOVED this assignment, and it was so evident from the quality of their work.  Impressive!!!  A few of my students told me they had to make these foldable templates for their little brothers and sisters at home.  Too cute!


While you're visiting A Teacher's Treasure to see how to make these foldable templates (and I know you're going to), be sure to check out Mor's giveaway for tickets to the Everything's Intermediate Expo.  This expo is geared specifically to intermediate teachers and will focus on interactive notebooks (more foldables!!!), integrating technology, making math more meaningful, and more.  Check out the details HERE.

And, while I have your attention ... Krystal, from Lessons in the Middle, is having a Spectacular Spring Giveaway at her blog.  There are over $250.00 worth of prizes and materials in the giveaway (including my Fictional Narrative Writing Workshop Unit).  It gets even better - Krystal has a grab bag of products she'll send you just for entering her giveaway!!!  Check it out and find some time-saving materials by clicking on the button to the right.

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Writing Historical Letters

My students' historical letters were due today, and I couldn't have been happier with them (the letters or the students).  They had to write a historical letter from the point of view of one of the European Explorers we had studied in class.  I wrote the success criteria in the format of a friendly letter, so the students could see the letter format they were to use (wish I had taken a picture of this for you).  Basically, they needed to write a 3 paragraph letter to a family member back home:  the first paragraph was to discuss their journey, the second paragraph explained what they discovered, and the third paragraph discussed their plans for the future.  Students were to use historically accurate facts that they had researched from their textbook, but also throw in some fictional details (which gave us a great opportunity to discuss the genre of historical fiction).  Lastly, they were to age the letter in some way to give it an authentic look.  It's funny how this last little requirement completely excites the students.  They couldn't wait to get home and burn some paper.  Every year I worry that this assignment will lead to household disaster, but as far as I know, I haven't been responsible for any real fires ... yet.

This was one of my favourite letters.  This student chose Henry Hudson, and wrote a 3 page letter!  He even hand-made an envelope for the letter (and the envelope had a wax seal!).

The letters look great displayed on the bulletin board just outside my door.  And the best part is I get this fabulous whiff of coffee or tea every time I walk into my class.



Happy Wednesday!!!

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Making Maps

If I wasn't convinced before, I definitely am now ... Halloween candy should be banned at school!  Add two days of indoor recesses to that (and my progress reports being due), and WOW - what a week!  Needless to say, I've had to keep them super busy all week - any unstructured time would lead to chaos!

The students finished one of my favourite projects this week - Making Maps.  I LOVE how they turned out (and my students are so proud of their work, too).  I always do these maps as our first social studies unit (Mapping Skills) every year.  I alternate between World Maps one year, and Canada maps the next year.  That way, when I have a group of two students for two years in a row (I always have a split grade), they're not doing the same map twice.  They have to draw these maps freehand - using an atlas as a reference (because the maps are sketched, I can get a visual arts mark and a social studies mark).  They then label the provinces, capital cities, and major water bodies.  They must use the index in the atlas to look up the rivers and smaller water bodies.  So many skills packed into one assignment.  The day after the maps were due, I had a map quiz where the students had to label the provinces, capitals, and major water bodies.  It's actually a grade 4 expectation in our curriculum, but still a necessary review for my students.

If you're interested, I have this project listed at my TPT store - it includes a list of instructions for both the World Map and the Canada Map, as well as rubrics for both.

Happy Saturday!

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