Winter Celebration Scrapbook

I finally finished my Winter Celebration Scrapbook.  It was a project I started last year, but never got around to finishing.  With Christmas nearly here, I knew it was time to finish putting this little unit together for my students.  I used the scrapbook templates last year and my students loved them.  I had students complete them based on the read alouds I chose for each country.   This year, I knew I wanted to add passages to go along with each of the scrapbook pages. 

Here is a peek at the unit:

 

I make my scrapbooks with large sheets of construction paper folded in half and stapled in the center to form a booklet.  I wanted the finished scrapbook to look and feel like a scrapbook, so some cutting and pasting will be involved.  Here is my sweetie pie holding onto mommy's example:

 

This Winter Celebration scrapbook contains a page for each of the following countries/celebrations: 

• U.S.A.
• Kwanzaa
• Mexico
• Germany
• France
• Sweden
• Hanukkah

Each country contains a passage explaining how Christmas is celebrated in their country.  If it is a celebration such as Kwanzaa, the passage explains the celebration.  A small craft or coloring activity is included for each celebration.  There is also a tag that shows how to say Merry Christmas in each of the countries.  The tag for Kwanzaa is a greeting said by family/friends on each day of Kwanzaa.

Here is a closer look at one of the scrapbook pages:

You can check out the scrapbook on TPT by clicking here.  The first 2 people who leave a comment can get this little unit for free, but please don't forget to leave your e-mail. (Giveaway has ended)
 

Communities

I thought I'd share a couple of community activities we worked on a few weeks ago.  My students REALLY enjoyed learning about communities this year. Of all the exciting things we learn about, I never dreamed learning about communities would have been so popular.

We did an inferring activity with communities, which was a great way to integrate reading and social studies.  I am all about integrating whenever and wherever possible! 

 They provided the clues and their answers are written underneath the bottom flap.  You can get this template by clicking here.

For the activity above, I simply numbered them off and they worked on whichever community was associated with their number.  A few were sad that they didn't get their favorite type of community.  So, we followed up with this activity where they got the chance to illustrate all 3 communities.  

Biography Template

I was looking at my To-Do list, and remembered that I had been meaning to create a Biography Template for my students.  Our Social Studies adoption, has numerous 1 page biographies throughout the book.  I thought it would be helpful to have a template for my class to use with any biography they read.  With MLK Day approaching, I thought there was no better time than now to get creating.

You can get this one page biography template on TPT.  

Simply click on the image above to head straight to my store.
 

Veteran's Day

I don't usually post twice in a day, but I just had to post a couple goodies for Veteran's Day.  The first is an acrostic FREEBIE.  Simply click on the image to download.

I also created Patriotic Pennants for Veteran's Day.  There are 3 different patterns and also a blank pennant for students to create their own.  You can get them in my TPT store for $1.00.  I thought they would look perfect strung together and placed in the hallway or classroom.  Click on the pennant below to head over to my store.

 

A huge thank you to all of our veterans!!!!

M&M Election Winner...

We finished up learning about elections last week.  They described their candidates (M&M's), created campaign posters, voted, and graphed their results.  It was a great lesson on adjectives, as well!

And the winner was... the PEANUT BUTTER M&M.

If you want to check out the forms we used, check out my previous post here.

Here are a few of their posters:

 

Sweet Elections

 *** This resource was updated (March 2014).  All the new pages are shown in the images below.

This upcoming week is election week.  I wanted a fun activity to get my class excited about elections and voting.  We just got finished voting on our favorite character pumpkins, so they are really excited about the voting process.

 

I still have candy on my mind after Halloween and all, so what better way to learn about elections that with candy.  We are going to have our very first M&M Election.  The recording forms are all open-ended so you can choose which M&M flavors you'd like to include.
I chose these 4 flavors-
Peanut
Dark Chocolate
Candy Corn (Halloween Flavor I got on clearance)
Pretzel


Students will taste test each flavor and then record their observations/descriptions about that candidate... I mean flavor.

Then, they will create a campaign poster for their favorite candidate (yep.. I mean flavor).  They will draw a picture in the middle and around it they will cut/paste adjectives that describe their favorite M&M.  I plan to have my students share their posters and give mini speeches to try to persuade the class to choose their favorite M&M flavor. 

Next, students will get to cast their vote for their favorite candidate...I mean M&M.

Finally, votes will need to be counted and then students will graph the results.

And the winner is.... well, if it were up to me it would be dark chocolate.  But, we'll have to see what the verdict is next week. You can check this resource out by clicking here.