We've Got Mail!

We are learning about the United States in second grade right now.  As I was planning for this unit way back in August, before school started, I joined the Postcard Exchange organized by Cheryl over at


I purchased a plain mailbox from Hobby Lobby so that we could start getting our postcards.

Then I jazzed it up a bit!

Look!  We've got mail!

After we read the information on the back of our postcard and discuss the picture on the front, we record the information in our Book of the States {pick up your copy here}

We started by adding information about our own state:

The students have the half page copies in their book (trying to save paper!) but I am creating one with them on full-page sheets in order to keep in our classroom library when we finish.


















After we fill in the information, we color in the state on our map:

All of the above are included in my Studying the States packet:

Daily 5 Update

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As I mentioned in earlier posts, I am starting Daily 5 this week.  My own version of The Daily 5, that is.  This weekend I created the chart that I am planning to use with the rotations.

The pocket chart was purchased at Lakeshore.  I had some smaller ones from the dollar spot at Target but they weren't quite big enough.  To start out, I am not having the students choose their own stations.  I'll be assigning the centers that they go to.  This chart shows the names of the students in each color group, and which station they will be visiting during each "round." I only have enough time for three rounds, but we have Writer's Workshop and Word Work time during different parts of the day.  These are strictly reading centers.

I created all the tags with some wonderful clipart from the wonderful Ashley Hughes!

 Here are some close-ups:

And I finally finished working on my mailbox!  We are also starting our postcard exchange this week.  Well...we'll start recording our info for the postcard exchange.  I already have all of the postcards!  But the kids don't know that yet.

I purchased the plain mailbox from Hobby Lobby:

Then I started to paint...

And here's the finished product:

I can't wait to bring it to school tomorrow to share with the kids!!

Me On the Map

In Social Studies, we are studying globes and maps.  Second graders, cute things that they are, have no concept of the world.  And rightfully so.  Most of my students haven't been out of our small state.  It is hard for them to grasp how big our planet, continent, country, state, town, etc are.  It's a huge concept!  Last year, I found an awesome idea from:

The product is:

It was actually the first thing I ever bought on Teachers Pay Teachers!

We started by reading Me On the Map by Joan Sweeney.  It's a very basic, simple book that helps students understand their place in the world.

Then the students create a flip book with words and pictures based on their planet, continent, country, state, town, street and ending with a picture of themselves.

They turned out really great!

Then they draw a picture of themselves standing on the Earth.

And the finished products!

Sorry for the awful picture {the sun was really bright and I didn't feel like pulling down the shades}.  I think my students now have a better grasp on the difference between a continent and a country, etc.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

I love December in my classroom!  You are thinking, lady you are cah-razy.  I know, I know.  

But...BUT!  

I get to do a Christmas Around the World unit in Social Studies.  My {absolute} favorite!

I use Christina Bainbridge's Christmas Around the World 

And this year I'm combining in with What the Teacher Wants' Holidays Around the World unit.

Today we started by making our suitcases:

I made my own {as an example} too!  Love to color :)

Next week, we start our "virtual field trip" and the kids are so excited to add to their suitcases!  I told them that if they were well-behaved, we could do extra Social Studies.  Bribing them with extra work, haha!

TGI{almost}F! 

Did anyone else know this??

I was reading this book out loud to my kids the other day:

And I had no idea that there were 5 members of the Bear family now!  Honey is the newest member!  Did anyone else know this or have I just been totally out of the loop??

Anyways, I've created a Social Studies project for my students.  In the past, we have done the Flat Stanley project.  It's a lot of work and my students loved it, but I decided to switch it up this year.  We participated in a Postcard Exchange with some lovely bloggers out there!

I haven't told my students that we have received some of our postcards yet.  I plan to pick up a small mailbox from Hobby Lobby and have 1 or 2 cards "delivered" each day.  I'm so excited about it!

I created student booklets to record the info for each state.

We used these to research our own states:

     

Want your own copy of any of these products?  Just click on the pictures!

 I can't wait to start delivering their postcards!

RI - It's For Me!

Last week, we had a mini-week.  We were supposed to have vacation but lost due to Hurricane Irene.  So I came up with a mini-unit for the students to work on during our three days.  We researched our state!

First we brainstormed things we already knew about our state:

Then, we did our research and recorded our findings:

 We used many different books to find our information.

We even located our state on different maps!

Last, we put all our information into our All About My State booklets:

The finished product!

I was a little nervous about this project since it was very different than anything we've ever done before.  It was definitely a challenge for my little ones to do actual "research" but, boy, did they surprise me!  Not only did they do a really great job, but they loved it!

Up next:

Learning about American Symbols.  Click the picture to grab it over at TpT or here at TN.

Hopefully they enjoy this just as much!

All About My State Freebie

In my class, we have been doing the Flat Stanley project.  Learn about it {here}.  We also got some Flat Stanleys sent to us as well!  I really wanted to help my students learn about their state through this process. So this week, since we only have 3 days of school, I thought we would do a mini-unit on our little state, Rhode Island.  To help my students keep track of their research, I created a worksheet for them to record the information they find.  I'm sharing it as a freebie!  Click the picture to get it.

Then, I thought it would be fun to put all our information into a booklet that they could keep.  We'll send some with our Flat Stanleys too.

Check it out in my {TpT store} and my {Teachers Notebook Store}.

Oh, and speaking of my state, all of RI is on vacation this week except my district.  I'm not bitter or anything.