Landform Map Project: Day 1

Today we started on a geography project that the kids are SO EXCITED about!

We've been studying geography and landforms lately, so we'll be making our own landform maps. My book suggested that we make landform maps of our state... but how fun would that be? And really, how much would they get out of it? Instead, my students are designing their own island countries. They have to include at least 4 different landforms in their country that we learned about. Eventually, they'll have a raised-relief landform map of their imaginary country!

Here we are hard at work! No wandering aimlessly around the room... no harassing other people who are trying to work... no clips moved! Go kids!

Here are a few of our prototypes so far...

You can't really see... but they marked off where they wanted each kind of landform on their island. I am really excited for how these will turn out!

Our ABC Countdown continues to march on toward the end of the year. Today was J - Jump Rope Day! I probably won't do this again because half of my kids didn't know how to jump rope and I didn't block off enough time for lessons... so my fun jump rope ideas kind of fell to the wayside while we had jump roping lessons.

Oh wells! Maybe next year we'll jump rope more often so we'll be ready for this day. :)

It Never Rains in Florida!

Today we studied seasons and weather in Social Studies and made a foldable! I don't do a ton of foldables but my class really loves them. I think they're into the little flaps, haha.

They had to draw a picture of the season and then write a little something about the weather during that season.

Part of what we learned today was that different parts of the country have different weather at the same time. We talked about how people from Illinois go to Florida during the winter because it's warmer there than it is here, and then I learned from my class that it NEVER rains in Florida! Isn't that interesting?

In other news, our little zinnias are coming up beautifully!

And while I was by the window taking this picture, I noticed our sweet kite glyphs that are making our room so cute!

This glyph is from the Great Glyphs Around the Year e-book from Scholastic. 

I got it during one of the dollar specials and it is pretty sweet. I especially loved this particular glyph because there was no gluing involved! We have been totally out of glue since before Christmas... yikes.

And I leave you with this which made me die laughing today! I hope you're enjoying the last day of April, because starting tomorrow......

Table of Contents?? Gasp!

In Social Studies right now, our chapter is called ... Our Earth, I think. This chapter includes such things as:

• city/state/country/continent
• landforms
• seasons
• taking care of the Earth
• how we change the Earth (mining... using too many resources... that sort of thing)

It seems semi-disjointed and random but they are all pretty fun topics so I'm happy I picked this chapter to end the year with!

We already finished the city/state/country/continent portion, and I will have to put up pictures of that soon... but today we began the landforms portion!

I was planning on spending the weekend making a landforms freebie, but the more I thought about it, the more I knew I could just use what I already had to make the same thing I was planning on spending hours creating.

So... here it is!

This was my sample... none of my kiddos has handwriting that is this amazing. ;)

I just folded a piece of construction paper, folded up six pieces of regular notebook paper, and stapled it together. Actually I had two kids in for recess detention today, so we had a little assembly line going on.

Over the course of our mini-unit on landforms, we're going to learn about 8 different kinds of landforms. For each one we learn about, the students will write a sentence explaining the landform and draw a picture of it. Today we learned about islands and peninsulas. I didn't take any peninsula pictures, but here are some of the island examples.

I had them skip the first page of the book so we could make a table of contents when we're finished with the whole book, but I didn't tell them that part right away. When I told the class about skipping the first page, one girl said, "Hmm... I'm thinking on that first page we might want to write, 'A landform is.....' and fill in the blank." I said, "Well, I was thinking we could make a table of contents so you can refer to the right page when you want to teach other people about landforms."

"A table of contents?????????" she cried. "Wow!!!!!!!!!"

So I think that one was a winner. :)

They are PSYCHED, seriously, about filling up this landform book. I am psyched about seeing how much they are absorbing about landforms. So far they've learned that the S in "island" is silent, and if you pronounce the S, their teacher will get mad. And they know that Florida is a peninsula. Haha! But for reals, it's been a great way to liven up Social Studies!!