Showing posts with label President's Day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label President's Day. Show all posts
Yikes! I'm a little behind on February favorite reads. Hope you find some new read alouds or mentor texts for this month.

This first one is my new FAVORITE! It's great for anytime, not just February.
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore by Willam Joyce
Here is what Amazon says:
   Stunningly brought to life by William Joyce, one of the preeminent creators in children’s literature, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore is a modern masterpiece, showing that in today’s world of traditional books, eBooks, and apps, it’s story that we truly celebrate—and this story, no matter how you tell it, begs to be read again and again.




The story is AMAZING! To accompany the book, you MUST show the Academy Award winning animated short. You can purchase the video on iTunes or use this version if you can show it at school. I put both the book app and video on my iPad to use at school.

The kids made some neat comments as they watched. I love that there are no words and they have to really listen. Perfect for a quick write when it's over.


For the month of February, you might enjoy sharing some of these:

Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch  is just a classic for me. February does not end without sharing this one. The story is so sweet.


A few informational text for February:
Valentine's Day Is


Lincoln happens to be my favorite president and I love all books about him. I have quite a collection. These are some of my newest:
I am Abraham Lincoln (Ordinary People Change World) is a super cute book by Brad Meltzer.

Let's not forget our first president and other famous Americans:

George Washington: A Picture Book Biography

George Washington


A Weed Is a Flower : The Life of George Washington Carver

Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth are two of the most fascinating women. I enjoy sharing their stories with the kids.
When Harriet Met Sojourner

Only Passing Through: The Story of Sojourner Truth

At the elementary level, we often forget about Frederick Douglass. 
Words Set Me Free: The Story of Young Frederick Douglass 

I'm on the lookout for more books about the childhood of famous people. Students should have the chance to see that many of these amazing people were kids just like them who accomplished great things. If you know of any please share in the comments.

Hoping you found some new books to share with your kiddos. Thanks for stopping by!

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Beach Sand and Lesson Plans

Getting kids to think creatively and critically can be such a task these days. Coming up with projects and ideas certainly keeps me on my toes. My 3rd graders love to write skits and perform them for the class. I try to give them as many of these opportunities as possible. It is so important for them to have time to  collaborate and share out. They really do love it, too!

One project that we will be working on in February are Presidential Interviews. It's very simple, but it gets them thinking and learning about presidents in a different way. You can assign this after you have studied Abe Lincoln or George Washington as a whole group or assign different presidents to pairs of students to research. Basically, the students will research their given president (or use the information you have discussed in class) and write interview questions. I will tell them that their questions must have answers based on the facts they researched. For example, they might ask "When and where were you born?" or "How many children do you have?" or "What years did you serve as president?" One student will act as the interviewer and one will be the president. They can create props, bring props from home, and wear costumes if they wish.

I created this Presidential Interview freebie to help you get started. It includes the directions for the interview project and an organizer for the questions and script.


Another freebie you might use with this project are these president cards. They come in handy if you are assigning random presidents to students. I have included other ideas for the cards, too.



The Presidential Interview project works well with my All About Presidents organizer which you can find HERE at my TpT store. Students use this organizer when researching presidents (or other famous men in history) and this information can be presented in the interview format.

Enjoy more FREEBIES at Teaching Blog Addict!






If you are looking for more products to enhance social studies look no further.  USA HOORAY Educents bundle  is only on sale for a few more days! $30 for over 1,000 pages of materials! It's a deal for sure!

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Beach Sand and Lesson Plans

Allowing time for students to be creative has always been a top planning priority in my room. I'm excited to be a part of the Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Store #teachercreativity Blog Hop.

Do you find the traditional book report summary or one page typed research paper boring and, most of the time, copied from the internet?? I turn and run from these old-fashion projects. I much rather give my students a project that they will make unique and I know is not plagiarized. LOL!

These little Paper Bag Scrapbooks are super, duper easy to make and can be used for just about any subject and grade level.

Here are some of the supplies that I purchased at Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft store. If you are going to have students create books based on a specific topic then purchase a variety of stickers and papers that match your theme or purchase a mix of basic paper and letter stickers. As time goes on, you will build a collection of scrapbook materials. Asking parents to donate or students to bring in supplies from home helps, too and adds to your collection. I knew that I was going to create a scrapbook based on Charlotte's Web and one about Abe Lincoln (my favorite president BTW!) I purchased materials that I knew would compliment both of those topics.
These card stock books are great and inexpensive. Check it out...$4. Get these when they are on sale or with your Teacher Reward discount. These books come in a variety of patterns and colors and there is plenty of paper inside! I also purchased those manila tags.

Ribbon, brads, or brass fasteners work great for holding these books together. A staple works, too.


Here are the quick and easy peasy steps to making a Paper Bag Scrapbook. Three paper bags will make a 12 page book which is plenty. Lay the bags on top of one another alternating them like this:

Fold all three in half. Use a hole punch to make a hole at each end of the crease, punching through all three bags.

 I used ribbon on this book to hold it together. I used brads on the other book.
Three pockets are created by the bag openings. The kids love these. I tell them they are good for holding secrets and surprises! Use the tags to place inside or cut more card stock and slip it.

What goes inside those pockets is open to so many possibilities. Encourage students to create the scrapbook from the perspective of a particular book character or president or famous historical figure. The pockets could hold memorabilia, theater tickets, important documents, letters, photos, or other trinkets. The sky's the limit and so is your students' imaginations. These books make for a perfect assessment tool. You will be able to see how well they know the topic!

I created forms students could use if you wanted to make a book report scrapbook or president scrapbook. You can find those HERE and HERE if you are interested.


If you want to start your collection of scrapbook materials for the classroom start by printing out this coupon.


If you have not signed up for their Teacher Reward program, you can do that HERE. You'll get 15% off your order every time you shop!!

Check out these other teacher bloggers and see how they foster creativity in their classrooms:


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Beach Sand and Lesson Plans



It's been a busy week! I'm going to get right into my Five for Friday (with two extra). Link up with Doodle Bugs and share too! This linky has become quite popular!!


#1:  For morning work, I like to change things up from time to time. Denise from Sunny Days has created wonderful monthly printables packs. Though she created them with first and second grade standards in mind, they are NOT too easy for my 3rd grade smarties! I started using them as review, but what I have found was my kids are weak in many basics, especially grammar. We have some work ahead of us! Check out her newest March Printables Pack! You will find these are not just for "busy work", but real quality practice!

#2: Our focus this month has been on reading informational text and internet research. For President's Day, I created this President Pack for just this study. I love President's Day and I like to go beyond George and Abe.  I whipped up these cards to start our research. The students picked randomly (I took out George and Abe). For most of my kids they had never heard of the president they selected, so I heard a lot of "darns" and "ahhs". They each got a President Poster that was perfect to guide their research. We headed to the computer lab after a mini-lesson in the room about  internet searches. They did a fantastic job! They were SO excited as they read about their president. They found so many cool facts and realized there was so much more to these leaders of our country. They couldn't stop sharing with me!


#3: An activity from my President Pack that the kids really enjoyed was creating a "presidentbook" page. This printable has a Facebook like feel. Using their internet research, reading of informational text (I checked out lots of books from our library), and facts from the poster, they decided what their president's "facebook page" would be like. First, we discussed what is on FB. Most have seen their parent's pages and everyone of them had heard of FB. (We had a little talk about social media and internet safety, too.) For this activity, they had to think about who their president would be friends with (past or present people were ok), interests, groups they would belong to, and status updates. They came up with some creative ideas. I love this as an alternative to a traditional report. Having to present the facts in a new way showed me that they learned and understood about the life of the president they researched. I was really pleased with the way these turned out. The kids "got it"!


#4: To wrap up our president study, I assigned the kids a reader's theater script. I had 3 different president scripts I had downloaded from Scholastic Printables last year. I gave them out randomly and the groups practiced for several days. I visited each group to be sure they understood the scene from history they would be presenting.  One group had Thomas Jefferson and the Louisiana Purchase. They had to understand terms like "implied powers". Reader's Theater cover so many skills: fluency, vocabulary,  cooperation, speaking and listening. We talked about what a good audience looks like and how to project your voice if you are the speaker. Even my shyest kids seemed to come out of their shells.
➣Here is a site with free reader's theater scripts. Click ➣here for another site. Try it with your kids! It's a fun change of pace, too!


#5: If you did not see my post this week about the author Elvira Woodruff and historical fiction you might want to check it out. The day of that post was when my blog was a little out of sorts! I'm so glad it's all back to normal! THANK YOU HONEY BUNCH BLOG DESIGN!!

#6: On Friday, I showed my class a DVD called In Search of Dr. Seuss. If your students are ready to learn more about Theodore Geisel, then you must show this! The movie goes into the real meaning behind many of the books and the reasons he wrote them! I suggest this for high 2nd graders and up. The movie talks about how he was a policial cartoonist and it does mention Hitler, as he is the basis for Yertle the Turtle. I give the kids a little background before hand. The movie is fun and fast paced, lots of color and music and has many famous faces.  I have shown it for years and the kids are always engaged when watching it! (It is about 90 minutes so have a chunk of time to show it or show in two parts.) Yesterday when they left they were saying how they couldn't believe how much they learned about presidents and now Dr. Seuss! It was a successful week!!





#7: Not school related: My daughter danced in a flash mob yesterday. A young man asked our studio to dance as part of his proposal to his girlfriend. It was SO cute!! The girl had no idea what was happening. Our group danced while her family brought her roses. Then at the end the guy came out and got down on one knee! It was neat to be part of such a special occasion. So glad she said yes!! What a happy ending to the week!


Hope you had a fantastic week, too!!




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Beach Sand and Lesson Plans

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