Native Californian Study

Don't you love it when it all comes together? We just finished our Native Californian study.

We read Island of the Blue Dolphins and then wrapped the unit using the Island Quilt project by Fancy Free in 4th.

We also have been focusing on informational writing so far this year, so each student chose a tribe and had to research specific information.  They then wrote 5 paragraphs using the different categories in my Research and Writing Pack.    

Research... so much research... My students used these passages and comprehension questions and grids to learn more about Native Californian Tribes.  It was a way for us to compare and contrast the different tribes.   

We also used Native American symbols to write stories.  Never a dull moment in our classroom!  

California Social Studies Websites

I'm sure you can relate... you have your "Go To" websites that you rely upon every year when it's time to have your students research.  I wanted to share mine.  :)  

Maybe you visit the same ones, maybe there are different ones...  This little 4 page PDF freebie I just added to my California History Bundle to help teachers and students with their research.  Go redownload, or just click any images on this post to grab it for yourself.    

Regions, Native Californians, Explorers, Missions, and Gold Rush... it's basically our full year!  So thankful for these sites that make it so easy for my students who are just learning how to find information via the internet.  

The PDF has the websites in 2 formats - both a bit.ly which will help if you are having the kids type them into the search bar themselves, and/or the main website itself in case you want to know where they are supposed to end up.  I hope it helps!

Research can be fun!  My class has finished our Region reports, and today started researching our Native California Tribe!  Between the websites, my Native Tribe Reading Passages, and some library books we will be busy bees.  Never a dull moment in my classroom.  :)

Hope you had a great day! 

Two for Tuesday - All About Research!

Another Two for Tuesday - the day that 2 products are reduced by 50%!  Love these deals!

The other day I had a flash freebie over on FB with one of my research products.  I was reminded how much I LOVE using these in my classroom.  Every week my kids get a chance to visit the computer lab and when they are done doing the task I assign them, they get a chance to work on their research folder.  I have a crate in my classroom with all these little papers.  I switch them out over time, but the crate contains these research slips for students to study about... Kind of like Genius Hour, but with some more direction from me.  

So here's what I have marked 50% off for today only.  (I'll switch them back when sitting at the airport on Wednesday.)

My Animal Research Bundle contains 4 categories of animals to learn more about.  Each animal also comes with a lined piece of paper (with clip art) for students to write sentences and paragraphs about their animal.  Perfect for reports, or for the fun of learning about animals!

Zoo Animals - 24 animals

Ocean Animals - 20 animals

Farm Animals - 7 animals

Forest Animals - 14 animals

         My Big Research Bundle contains 6 products to study more in depth.  Each topic also includes lined paper (with clip art) in order for students to write sentences or paragraphs about the men, women, countries, careers, or animals.  

Here's what's included:

Rainforest - 11 Animals to learn about.  We study these during our Ecosystem unit.  

Famous African Americans - 12 men and women that are crucial to know about.  We study these people in February for Black History month.

When I Grow Up - 11 careers to learn about, we study these in conjunction to our Monday college days (when we have to dress up and learn about different careers and where to study).

What a Small World - 13 Countries from around the world.  We study these during the Olympics, or during our Government unit (to compare/contrast).

Arctic Animals - 11 animals that live in the Arctic, we study these during Winter.

American Presidents - 12 presidents to learn about, perfect to use around President's Day.

I hope these help you!  Go check out the other links ups over at Chalk One Up for the Teacher!

Biography Projects {New Freebie}

A couple of weeks ago I took my laptop to my oldest son's Boy Scout Meeting.  As a new to the group mom, I have quickly learned that his meetings can go on and on, that the parents are pretty quiet, and I really needed to get things done!  Open House is quickly approaching and this year I want to focus on food crafts... for example, the kids created their Best Part of the Year Ice Cream Sundaes, are busy making their Book Buffet Book Report (home project), and next week are starting to read a biography of their choice (in class).  I have more projects in the works too!

With their biographies I really wanted to have a fun cupcake wrap up, so I whipped up this mini flip book.  Students will take notes as they read - I have a whole set of Who Was Biographies from Donors Choose - and then will fill in the frosting portion of their cupcakes (asking for specifics such as Important Facts, Timeline, Illustration, and Why Famous).  The frosting is then colored, cut out, and stapled on top of each other to make a flip up book.

Now I had some help filling in my samples from my 5 year old.  He loves to color with red... (so it's a little hard to read).  :)

I LOVE how they came out.  This is a new freebie over on TPT.  I uploaded it yesterday.  

Speaking of Biographies and Famous Historical Figures, I created another Talk Time Research booklet too.  I'm loving all the feedback and the response to my milestone flash freebie Talk Time with Famous Authors, and wanted to get these graphic organizers ready for my class as they are reading.

26 Historical American Figures to research!  LOVE it!  This new pack is presently 50% off and joins the rest of my store which is still on sale through Friday.

I hope you have a fantastic day!  

Good Ol' George and Abe

I think my students are starting to hate researching when we go to the computer lab.  I mean this month with everything going on that's the only option I have given them.  There is so much to learn!

  

Today I gave them this Venn diagram (from my freebie pack).  They had to find similarities and differences between George and Abe.  Today I just wanted to pop on to share this awesome website that one of my munchkins found.  

www.diffen.com  

You can compare any 2 things/people/ideas that you can think of.  It makes it into a 2 column chart with different categories.  It was so easy for them to compare/contrast.  

After they researched, my kids had to write a 3 paragraph compare/contrast informational essay.  It's 3rd trimester, so it's time to break it in with my higher expectations.  They totally nailed it.  So proud of my writers.

I hope this website helps you too!

FREEBIE - Hanging Out with George and Abe

February always drives me nuts.  There is so much monthly stuff I want to pack in, but there is still the pacing guides to also move forward on, and with all the holidays (I'm not complaining about holidays), there's not enough time in the day.  I made this little mini pack last year to tie in research and writing.  Students compare and contrast George and Abe, fill out the research papers and the Venn Diagram, and then write informational paragraphs.  It hits a lot of the standards!  Below are some pictures of what's included...

Here it is over on Google Docs.  I hope it helps you!    

Research - Pin it to Win it!!!

 It's that time of year... the kids need to learn how to look up information and then use that information to form coherent paragraphs.  It's all about Student Research with me lately!!!  

I know I already posted about my new Arctic Animals pack, my Famous African Americans pack, my When I Grow Up pack (different careers), and What a Small World pack (my version of the Olympics, to get the kids learning about different countries) - well, I made up one with 12 American Presidents also, and I'm almost done with a Rainforest Animals pack too.  Seriously, I am in LOVE with the clip art over at Educlips.  It makes me happy, and my students have been going gaga over it too.  They want to color in everything!!

Now, you might be wondering how in the world am I going to have time to do so much research in my classroom.  Well I thought about it, and I've broken up all those above packs into things that I want my students to learn full class, and the ones that I want to give them the opportunity to choose... I want their interest levels to be high when they are learning.

During the Olympics we will be completing the Small World booklet together, but the other ones I printed off half size and put them into file folders at the back of the room on my computer table.  Now during workshop time/Daily 5, research is an option.  They get to choose someone or something that they are interested in and research information about it.  

These little pages will be turned into me and they get research points - at this point I'm thinking at least one per week.  We are blessed to be able to go to the computer lab every other week for about an hour (it ties into our library time), so if they don't have time to complete a research activity during class, they will have that time as well.  I'll be keeping track, and we will be using their notes as a jumping off for informational paragraphs.  This is going to be fun!  

So, here is the Pin it to Win it opportunity.  Simply pin one of more of the items listed below from all my new research options, and then come back and leave a comment with the pin.  This will go through the weekend and on Sunday night I'll choose a random comment to win a pack of their choice.  Sounds easy, right?  When you are over there on TPT, just remember that if you download the preview you get an automatic freebie of a couple pages from the pack.  Freebies are always nice.  :)    

Okay, here are all the links to go and pin:

What a Small World

Arctic Animals

American Presidents

Famous African Americans

When I Grow Up

Hope you had a great day!

Tried It: Word Searches and Research Time

It's the end of the unit this week - so we are reviewing our spelling patterns, getting ready for our big spelling assessment.  I wanted to share a little something that I tried yesterday. Yesterday I had my students pull out their unit spelling list, and they created word searches with as many words as they could fit.  It looked something like below (this was my example on the board).  

Have you had your students make word searches?  It was super easy.  My class each started with a piece of binder paper, then used a ruler to make vertical lines.  They left the bottom 5 lines of the paper blank so they had room to make their word list.  Then they went through their spelling sheet and used as many challenging words as possible from all the 6 word lists.  Horizontal, Diagonal, Vertical... I had to remind them to write the words at the bottom of their paper.  Then they just filled in the extra squares with random letters, and switched with a partner to solve their word search using a highlighter.  They LOVED this activity, and I loved how they were reviewing those tricky words.

In other news... I have a plastic drawer in my classroom filled with word search books, courtesy of my dad when he was cleaning out my grandma's house.  My grandma was a collector of word searches... well, she was a collector of everything...  When the kids are completely done with an activity, I sometimes give them the option of tearing out a page to work on.

I also wanted to tell you that my students love researching, and with so many stories lately about winter, snow, and arctic animals, I wanted to take their interest and get them motivated to dive deeper!  Enter something that I created that I'm so excited about.  You know how I love making my students work, well - here's another research opportunity for them.

Included are 11 animals that students can choose from to research.  Usually I make them do the entire booklet when it's time to research, but this time around I'm planning on printing these off and adding them to my ELA workshop afternoon rotation.  Students can use the computers and books from the library to research the information.  I already know they want to learn about these animals (I see them reading animal information books and Zoobook Magazines during silent reading time), now I want to take that interest and give them something that I know they will eat up.  

Then they can write about them.  :)  LOVE IT!  Another fun activity that will get them thinking and working on those important research skills that they will need for their futures.

This new pack is over at TPT and I have put it on sale through January 29th for only $2.  

Hope this helps someone!