Texas Visualizing

This week is Texas Public Schools' Week and we are immersed in our Texas Fractured Tale Unit.  But,  I was also looking for a fun way to get my students excited about learning about Texas.   I knew I wanted to be sure to integrate some of the things that we had already learned this year- like poetry and visualization.

My teacher buddy had recently shared an adorable poetry book her fourth grade students had written several years ago that described Texas using all of the letters of the alphabet.  (She is in the process of started a blog...so stay tuned)  I loved the idea, but I knew that would be a MUCH larger project.  I really wanted them to be able to take this activity home with them at the end of the week, so they could share it with their parents during Spring Break.  Instead, I thought of using just the letters that spelled T-E-X-A-S and each letter would stand for something important like:

T-  Tastes of Texas
E-  Eyes on Texas (What you might see)
X-  Extraordinary Places
A- Animals of Texas
S-  Symbols of Texas
 
The poems turned out to be great discussion starters, and we went ahead and brainstormed a long list of everything they had in their schemas about that particular topic. The letter T was all about the Tastes of Texas.  They came up with a great list of Texas foods like...jalapenos, tortillas, BBQ, salsa, chili peppers, tacos, hot wings, etc.

After a great discussion, they drew their mental images in the empty space below the poem.   Below are just a couple examples.   They are having a great time learning about Texas.  Those schemas are growing!!!!

This is one of my favorite Texas books to read aloud during Texas Public Schools' Week. 

Way too good to miss, and goes perfectly with this activity.