Five for Friday: Slant Box, Cold Weather, & a New Book!

Today I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for my last week of the trimester recap! It's been a very crazy week because it's the end of the trimester which means grades are uploaded on Monday... So, of course I still have a few things left in my teacher bag to finish up. Such is the life of a procrastinator.... But, in the meantime, here's a peek at my life this past week.

I got my #SlantBox this week and of course it was amazing! Thank so much to Lauren at The Traveling Teacher for putting together an extremely amazing box! She really made education less "scary" by all her treasures :) Plus, she made my box more Thanksgiving themed since it's my favorite holiday! I love all my fall goodies and can't thank her enough! It was also great getting to know Kim from Mrs. H's Resource Room whom I sent my box to!

Here's my teacher goodies:

We had our first snow fall this week! Driving into work was beautiful as the dusting covered all the ground and trees. Just a dusting is all I need - I hate driving in "inches" of snow!

With the cold weather brought out my need to feel warm and cozy! My newest addiction and discovery is McDonald's White Chocolate Mocha! OMG! This is delicious coffee at it's best! I'm so excited for this new flavor. I also helped Iggy get warm and cozy by purchasing him a fleece hat from Target.

Found a new historical fiction novel that I might try to incorporate into our unit. It's Cincinnati Public Library's juvenile book of the month. So it has to be good right? The library usually doesn't disappoint. The book is about slavery after The Emancipation Proclamation. I can't wait to start reading it over Thanksgiving Break! The book is called Crow by Barbara Wright.

 

We're cruising through our regions of the United States! We're wrapping up the Southeast this week and going to start the Midwest by Friday! We're a little behind schedule on the calendar but the students hare having a great time creating scrapbooks and mementos of our cross country travels! Our word wall has been one of my favorite parts of the unit. Students have done a stellar job and I love seeing all their work hanging up on the walls as we go through our regions! Click here to grab a copy of my Midwest words and Midwest word wall worksheet. *Our words align with the Social Studies Alive text series.

How was your week?

How to Make a Cherry Pie & See the USA

 

It's feeling like a loooong week and it's only a Monday! We have a lot going on this week with library, MAP testing, and Book Fair all crammed into one week. Plus, I'm also trying to do some teaching at some point this week as well. I created a quiz that I decided the students needed over our novel and we're also creating our mosaics which involve shredding construction paper - we're having lots of fun in 5th grade!!! So, to relax and ease my mind about my upcoming week I thought I'd link up tonight with a great mentor for Social Studies! Thanks to Amanda and Stacia at Collaboration Cuties for hosing such a great linky! This text is called, How to Make a Cherry Pie and See the United States. This book is great for teaching geography, United States natural resources, as well as economic concepts like interdependence and specialization.

In the book, the main character and her dog really want a pie for the Fourth of July. However, the pie shop is closed. So they set off across the country to put together everything they will need to make a cherry pie. I wish the book focused more on the "pie ingredients" but it does get a little side tracked with things like clay for the baking dish and cotton for a pot holder... however, the book does an excellent job at showing specialization and interdependence while taking readers on a cross country tour of the United States. It also has a companion book, How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World.  It's a great book if you teach regions of the United States and need to hit economics as well as the geography! Plus, it's a great review of all the states with whimsical drawings. Definetely worth checking out! This a book I just added to my collection this year knowing my new curriculum in Ohio was going to be Western Hemisphere Geography with history and economics interwoven into the geography of our country.  I haven't used it yet this year but if I create a handout or SMARTfile I'll be sure to post something on the blog!

  This also connects nicely to Diane from Fifth in the Middle's Social Studies Linky Party! So don't forget to stop over and check out all the great postings and link up your ideas! I'm linking up this post to her Geography category!

I love reading in Social Studies! 

Must Read Mentor Text: The Journey of Oliver K. Woodman

I haven't been the most ideal blogger lately. Whew, the first week of school really wore me out! However, I couldn't miss an opportunity to link up with the girls from Collaboration Cuties for their Must Read Social Studies Mentor Text Linky Party! In fifth grade, our curriculum has changed this year in the state of Ohio. We used to focus on American History from Native Americans through the Industrial Revolution. Now, our focus is on Western Hemisphere geography. Everything we teach from history to economics all must relate to geography. It makes sense but it's been hard grasping our new spin on things. Our fourth grade teachers inherited most of our previous history like Revolutionary War and Declaration of Independence. As the fifth grade Social Studies Department Chair for my grade level, I've been working really hard to try and find some geography related picture books to bring social studies to life for our students. It's been rough! But here's a book a colleague found a few years back...

The book Oliver K. Woodman by Darcy Pattison is literally about a man made from wood named Oliver. He's going to visit a little girl in California named Tameka. Tameka's uncle is unable to come visit for the summer so he sends Oliver on a cross country trip in his place. The story takes place in letters and post cards that people write to Uncle Ray as they pick up the wondering Oliver. Uncle Ray then writes to Tameka to tell her about Oliver's travels.

 This book does a great job reviewing the different landscapes (in pictures) of the United States as well as give the "Spark Note" version of a cross country tour. Many times as I read a new destination I have my students make a prediction of what Oliver might encounter in that region of our country and then we read the page and see if any our predictions are correct.  I like to use this book as a review of our regions unit since Oliver travels across the entire United States. The book is also full of tons of PUNS and dry humor! I love it! Many of the travelers comment on Oliver's great manners and sense of humor...

After reading,  I have my students map out Oliver's journey to practice scale and latitude/longitude as part of our geography skills review. The map of his entire journey can also be found in the back of the book. An amazing co-worker Jocelyn created this handout to review geography skills that goes along with the book. You can grab a copy from my Google Drive here.

There is also a companion book, Searching for Oliver K. Woodman if your looking for a follow-up lesson or activity. This is a newer book that's on my Amazon wishlist but hasn't made it into my classroom rotation quite yet.

Don't forget to link-up and share the Social Studies love,

Social Studies Mentor Texts

It's no secret, Social Studies tradebooks are my weakness! If I see a tradebook that I could use in a Social Studies setting... I just have to have it! I pulled three of my favorite books today to share but I could have shared 20+ books. I have quite an extensive collection. If only I could get in to my classroom and show you a picture of my cabinet... On second thought maybe it's for the best!

To share my favorites, I'm linking with amazing ladies Amanda & Stacia from Collaboration Cuties for their weekly Mentor Text linky party! Here are my three highlights...

 

 First up is the story, Henry's Freedom Box. If you teach the Underground Railroad, Slavery, or even Civil Rights... this is a story you need in your collection. The story sounds almost poetic and pictures are breathtaking...but the story is the best part! The story is of the true story of Henry "Box" Brown who mailed himself to freedom during the slavery. I love this book because it shows the reality of slavery during this time period but ends on such a hopeful note. This unit can be very weighty and dark and it's nice to find a true story that is so inspiring! 

Next up is the picture book Encounter. This book is fantastic for incorporating Language Arts & Social Studies! The premise of the book is about the European conquest of American Indians. The book however is told from the perspective of a young Native American boy. This book is great for teaching inferring as well as reading like a writer to examine craft. Jane Yolen did her homework and this book contains lots of research even though it's a "fictional" account. The author's note in the back of the book is just as informative as the story! This book also a great "after" Columbus Day read. I feel it's so important to try and get "both" sides of any historical event. My fifth grader's loved debating if Columbus deserves a holiday... I also created a handout to work on inferencing that goes along with the story - there is a quote from the story of what the young American Indian is describing and before showing the pictures, I have students use context clues to make an inference. You can check it out at my TPT store - it's only $1! Click here for my information.

 

Lastly, if you teach regions of the United States, you need My America! This book is FULL of poems about states & regions of our country. It's a great look at the vast differences and beauty of each region. There are also great maps of region before each section of the book. I borrowed this book from my curriculum leader and after using it for a week, I decided I needed my own copy! It's that good!  I use selected poems to introduce new regions of the United States. Students use the poems to make inferences and predictions about each regions' climate, geography, economy, and wildlife. I've found the poems really help create a picture of each region for the students in a way that is very different from our textbook.

Click the covers to learn more about each book!

Can't wait to see everyone else's favorite Social Studies tradebooks! My library can always use more picture books!

Teaching Regions of the United States

Today, I watched Tim Burton's Frankenweenie for the first time. It was dark, creepy, and a little sad but an overall good story. It got me thinking about resurrecting lessons I love. Teaching is always about choices and sometimes I feel like I drop "good" lessons because I'm under the dreaded crunch.... so....I'm trying to wrap my head around one our biggest units of the year, United States Regions. We've always taught regions in 5th grade. But now - we have to teach regions more "in depth." This means expanding a 4-5 week unit into the first half of the year! I need to teach not only the states and general geography like in the past but also weave history and economics into my study. It's a lot to teach and since we have FIVE regions... I'm worried it'll get repetitive to the students. 

I thought I'd share what I've dug up from past lessons so far... sorry for the terrible Frankenweenie pun! I couldn't resist.

First, here is a great You Tube Video to introduce the 50 states or serve as a review! My students absolutely LOVED, begged for, adored this video last year. I'm definitely using it again next year.

Second, I used to have students create Regional Amusement Parks after our regions study. I've been so pressed for time the last few years, I've skipped over the project. But I thought about bringing it back to life. It would definitely hit all the standards plus be a fun way to review regions. I would want to redo my grading sheet and also create a peer grading sheet - but my students used to love this project! With the extra time for regions this year, I think it would be a fun hands-on project to bring back! I wish I could find a picture of the finished parks to share...

You can snag the entire handout here...

 Another activity was from a co-worker. I work with fantastic teachers. The teacher came up with an Amazing Race style competition to get post-cards from all 50 states. It's a great way to reinforce regions and states while also working on networking skills! Last year, we simply ran out of time... although, it really only takes ONE day to introduce and answer questions. The rest is at home. It's a great way to learn more about the states and have some team competition. You can get the rules handout I give my students from here.

Here are the rules:

1) Postcards must be mailed/postmarked FROM the state.

2) ONE FACT about the state needs to be on the postcard.

* Anything else is fair game! Quite a few governors/sports teams/travel sites have given my students neat "state" packs for writing!

Lastly, I'm hoping to add some picture books to my Regions Unit. Here are two I will definitely be using next year! Check out the titles by clicking the pictures below!

Do you teach regions? What are your must haves? Any hidden gem lesson plans you're willing to share???