States & Regions

I am LOVING teaching 2 classes of Social Studies this year!! In 5th grade, we learn about American History...but we start the year with States & Regions. I wasn't too impressed with the material I had to pick from so I decided to make my own. We just completed a 5 (almost 6 week) unit about the 5 different regions and finished with a big research project about a state. I can honestly say, from start to finish...this was SO MUCH FUN! 

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I just uploaded my unit to my TpT store for you to check out, but I wanted to explain how I used all this in my classroom. I started off by contacting each states tourism department and requested a free travel brochure for each state. I have a crate in my room that I store all of these in. (Except Connecticut who is the only state to go paperless) Then I checked out all of our State Books from the Library and stored them on a cart in the back of the room. Finally, I found maps and a few websites that I made available to my kids. I kept all these on hand throughout the duration of the unit. 

Week by week we went through a region of the US. Each region had their own journal pages my kids added to their SS Journals. I decided to set up my room in stations and my kids used the resources I listed above and moved around my classroom to find information. It took about 2 class periods for them to get through the stations and find the information. As they finished, I gave them the Region Word Search for that week...and they loved those! 

At the beginning of the week, we talked about the states in a particular region, and we labeled them on our Study Guides. These are not mine, but I wanted to link them as a resource if you'd like to use them too.  They come from Teacher Vision are are free! Just do a search for each of the 5 regions and you'll find them all! I also used this same page as weekly quiz. 

Finally, to culminate this unit, we did a big State Float Project. I knew I didn't want to do a research paper. Let's face it...I always hated writing them myself, so I wanted to make this fun. I created an A-Z State Floats Notes packet for my kids to turn in as their research. For each letter of the alphabet, I came up with something I wanted them to research. {Examples: C=Capital, H=Historical Event, L=Landforms} My kids really seemed to enjoy this type of research and I enjoyed grading it! The other part of the unit was to construct a State Float (like a parade float) I had seen these projects floating around on Pinterest and knew I wanted to try it out. They turned out so cute!!! We set them up on display in our Science Lab for a few days and let other grades walk through and check out our floats.

 

        

I've just had so much fun teaching this over the last 5-6 weeks and wanted to share what we've done! :)

If you are interested in implementing a States and Regions Unit in your classroom, head on over to my store and get your very own! :)

Open House

Open House is the week we return from Spring Break. We had a weird week with testing, programs, etc...so I decided we would just work on our Math Projects for Open House this week. :) I did a different project with each class and was very please with the final product. Now lets just hope it still looks like this when the parents come. :)

*I apologize for the pictures being blurry...They're from my phone :/

My Block 1 did a Symmetry Project. I took their school pictures and blew them up. Each kid had to find the center and draw a vertical line (line of symmetry) Then they had to measure to accurately draw their other half. They had so much fun and I loved seeing what great artists I had. :)

Block 2 did a Clock Project. This clock was my inspiration. 

I had the kids create a clock using examples of math. The only requirement was that the answer had to equal the correct number (and placement) on the clock. I think they turned out soooo cute!

My Block 3 did a fraction activity. I gave them a story about a rock band. Throughout the story were descriptions of the band mates using fractions. They had to create their band using these descriptions. Again, I was so impressed at some of their artistic abilities. 

My Therapy

Music is my therapy.
Praise the LORD Chris Tomlin decided to release his new album on the VERY day I needed it more than ever!!! Burning Lights. It's pretty much amazing...

You hear me when I call,, You are my morning song

Though darkness fills the night, it cannot hide the light

Whom shall I fear

You crush the enemy, underneath my feet

You are my sword and shield, though trouble lingers still

Whom shall I fear

I know who goes before me - I know who stands behind

The God of Angel Armies is always by my side

The One who reigns forever - He is a friend of mine

The God of Angel Armies is always by my side

My strength is in your name

For you alone can save

You will deliver me

Yours is the victory

Whom shall I fear

Nothing formed against me shall stand

You hold the whole world in Your hands

I'm holding onto Your promises

You are faithful.

Snowflakes

We did this today at our Winter Party and the kids really enjoyed it! I encourage everyone to do this when the return in January!!!

Free TpT Products!

Ok...ready for a little bribery?!? Hehe.
My niece Harper has been entered in a little contest.

You can also find adorable Harper pictures here, here, here and here!!!

It's a small contest based out of my hometown and the winner gets a free photography session and a big canvas print!! There aren't very many kids in this contest (25-30) and she's at the top. So...being the great aunt I am, I am bribing my followers to vote for my niece in exchange for any product you'd like from my TpT store FOR FREE!!!

Here's how it works:

You can vote today-December 10th one time a day. Each day you vote, leave a comment what number vote you were and also what product you'd want to use in your classroom. **Make sure you install the app if you are voting from your phone. It doesn't do anything scary...it's just the webpage the voting opens on. Make sure you click the word VOTE. If it worked correctly you will see the current number go up one showing it counted your vote. :)

If you're not a teacher and could care less about the prizes...well, I'll just have to thank you from the bottom of my heart. :)

VOTE HERE!!!!

TpT Items

I finally jumped on the TpT train. And to clarify, I've been on the browsing and downloading train, I've just started uploading my stuff. I started going through my files at school and had a ton of stuff, but figured they looked a little boring compared to TpT standards. Ha! So this weekend, I katie-fied them and added some spunk. Thanks to Kevin and Amanda with their awesome fonts and a handful of other people with their awesome graphics, I think I'm set.

Without further ado...

Tweets in the Classroom. You can read about how I used this in real life HERE

Mean, Median, Mode and Range Review.

Big XII Football.

This is always a big hit. I do a huge display in the hall and we keep a graph of football wins for the week. Then the kids get to find the MMMR each week. We love football in this neck of the woods!

and finally...

This is an activity going along with the book "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" by Judi Barrett. My 5th graders love it. Anytime you can mix a fun picture book into a math lesson...you know the kids will love it! :)

Hope you can check out some of my stuff! I'm busy getting more together...so stay tuned. :)

Aunt Katie x3

I was looking through my blog today and realized I've gone all teacher for the last 6-9 months. While that's wonderful and all...this blog did not start out being a teacher only blog. I remember one of my very first posts said it would be about my family, recipes, great deals I've found, teaching...and anything else I found interesting. I use this blog as a place to log things important to me and to be a resource for great ideas.

That being said...one of the things that makes me happiest is being an Aunt. Since my last "Aunt Katie" post we've had an addition. Little Hudson Wayne. :) He is so precious!! ...And I can barely wait until the holidays so I can get my hands on all three of these little babies!

...And now for a little Ella Kate and Harper. :)

These three make my heart SO HAPPY!!!