Flapbooks & Foldables

It's been a while since I've posted a new product on TPT and I guess that's why I'm so stoked about what I just posted.  I actually created a ton of flapbook and foldable templates quite a while back but couldn't quite figure out how to package it for other people to use.  Now that I figured it out, I'm so excited to give everyone the opportunity to check this out!  

I like using flapbooks and foldables to get my students more engaged than the standard boring worksheets.  Here are a few examples of ones I've created for my classroom:

If you like this Native American one, you can check out my Native American packet by clicking {HERE} or on the picture above.

If you like this telling time flapbook, you can check out my telling time packet by clicking {HERE} or on the picture above.

Anywho . . . if you want to create your own flapbooks, you can grab a few freebies by clicking {HERE}.  If you want even more templates, click {HERE} or on the picture below to see my 29 templates that I just posted on TPT.  

To celebrate my new product, I'll be putting my entire shop on sale for 20% off through Friday!

Native Americans! Plus, coming up next - Earth Science!

 

Last week we had . . . kind of a mad rush to finish up my Native American unit.  You know, it’s always better to test before a long break than to wait.  It worked out well, though, because it coincided perfectly with Thanksgiving celebrations.  You’d think we did that on purpose or something.  ;)

Here are a few things we did for Thanksgiving/Native Americans.

We made booklets about Woodlands and Plains Indians (from my TPT Native American unit that you can get {HERE} if interested) plus Amy Lemons’ uber cute Native American craft to go with it.  I cannot, for the life of me, find a link to this freebie, but you should definitely check out her blog {HERE}.  It’s my favorite!

I really dug on a few faces the boys drew.  They cracked me up.

We also read The Littlest Pilgrim and made pilgrim hats out of chocolate wafers, icing and a peanut butter cup.  Super easy and delish!

Also, I had my kiddos write from the viewpoint of a turkey telling people why we should eat something besides turkey.  My favorite one was this one.

He really struggles with writing – especially conventions (I’ve got my eye on him) but his voice just cracked me up in this.

Here’s a translation if you can’t decipher it all:

Save a turkey.  Eat more duck.  We turkey are tired of being eaten.  Stop eating us and eat duck.  Please help us by eating duck.  Ducks are good.  We turkey are disgusting.  Do not eat us.  Eat duck.  From the turkey.

You should see my blog post {HERE} if you want that writing prompt as well as another plus a cute turkey craft for free!

So after all that Native American/Thanksgiving fun, we’re moving on to Earth Science.  I feel like it’s hard to find a lot of good resources for this unit, so I put some together myself.  If you want to check it out, click {HERE} or on one of the pictures below, which are a few things included in my unit. 

 Oh, and btw, if you haven’t heard, there’s a ha-uge sale at TPT starting tomorrow.  It’s a Cyber Monday and Bonus Tuesday sale.  I’m giving 20% off and TPT is giving an additional 10% off for a combined total of 28% off! 

 

Thanks for the button, School Supply Addict! 

 I have a really cute Winter packet if you want to snatch that up while it's on sale.  You can click {HERE} or on the picture if you want to check it out.

Here are a couple of things I’ve got my eye on for myself.  What are you lusting after?

 

Spiders + Native Americans = Fun!

There is something to be said about getting the scissors and creating things when you’re talking about 8 year olds.  The engagement level goes right up.  Today we made a few things that I was pretty excited about.

First I did one of Amy Lemon’s (Step into 2nd Grade) super cute and, as a bonus, free, activities.  We created spiders and wrote poems about them. This was perfect because we’ve been learning parts of speech, well, all year, it seems and these poems involve using verbs and adjectives.  Here are a few examples of my students’ work:

If you want to snatch this up, head to Amy’s TPT store {HERE}.

The thing we did later in the day wasn’t quite as cute but it was fun for my kids.  I whipped up a flipbook Venn diagram for Woodland and Plains Indians to go along with our Native American unit.  We’ve watched a few United Streaming videos about the Woodland Indians and the Plains Indians, created an anchor chart (I gotta say, that anchor chart is ugly as sin.) and discussed the characteristics at length, so I thought I’d see what the kids could do as far as comparisons. 

If you do a unit over Native Americans my unit on TPT might be helpful to you.  You can check it out {HERE}.  

If any of you want the Venn diagram flipbook for free, please just leave a comment and I’ll link it to this blog post so you can download it. 

Native Americans

Yesterday I was one of those huge nerds that work super late on a Friday.  When I was walking to my car that was in the middle of an empty parking lot I was inventing a new meaning of the phrase "walk of shame".  But I did accomplish something that gave me a pretty nice sense of satisfaction.  I updated/revamped my personal unit for Native Americans.  A while back I created units (and by units I mean rough day-by-day plans) for all of my Social Studies, Science and Math units.  Each year I use them again and add/edit a little, but this year we got a new "textbook" which is an online textbook from Success Net Plus.  As a side note, I'm really excited about having this as a new resource but I'm feeling a little bit of a learning curve because their little PD introduction to the product wasn't as helpful as one would hope.  Anyway. . . I updated my unit to include this new resource and just revamped the whole thing.  

I'm kind of a create units kick because of chapter 2 in Never Work Harder than your Students, which we're reading for my school's book club for teachers.  It's ok.  It's somewhat useful, somewhat repetetive, a teeny condescending at times.  We'll see how the rest goes.

So. . . back to Native Americans.  Monday we're starting off by reading Scholastic News about Columbus Day.  I know.  It's a week late but we were wrapping up Life Cycles stuff for the end of the quarter.  And better, late than never, right?  Plus I felt like it's kind of a perfect way to launch into this unit and then I can let Thanksgiving tie the unit up with a perfect little bow.  :)  I'm excited.  Can you tell?  

We're also going to watch BrainpopJr's video on Columbus Day (which is free, so you can watch it even if your district doesn't subscribe) and, if we have time we'll watch another video from United Streaming titled Holiday Facts & Fun: Columbus Day.  It might sound a little video-y, but I love letting my students watch videos for Social Studies & Science both.  They are so much more engaging than the standard textbook (another reason to be excited for our online textbook!).

Speaking of videos we'll watch several more videos from United Streaming throughout the unit.  In my district the focus for second grade is Woodland and Plains Indians.  In addition to videos, I plan on doing some group activities, creating tortilla teepees (or maybe cupcake teepees), and doing the cute things I've whipped up in my Native Americans pack which is on TPT.  Here are some of the things we'll do:

Get these activities for your classroom by clicking {HERE} or on the picture below.

 

I'm thinking, too, of doing some craftivities, but I haven't figured out what to do yet.  I'm going to do some searching on Pinterest and TPT. If you find anything cute online, leave the link to it in the comment, please.  I'd love that.  

What fun activities do you do for Native Americans?  What fun things do you do for Thanksgiving?

Just in case you're wondering where I got all the cute clip art and fonts from for my Native American things, here are the credits:

Clip art by:

 Tales from Outside the Classroom

http://talesfromoutsidetheclassroom.blogspot.com

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Middle-Grades-Maven

www.middlegradesmaven.blogspot.com

www.scrappindoodles.com

Fonts by:

http://www.kevinandamanda.com/fonts/