Paper Powhatan Pop-Up Village

Are you as excited as I am about how many p-words I managed to fit into that title???? I figured since it has been so long since I've posted anything that actually has anything to do with school people are probably beginning to think I am an impostor, and that I should share some evidence of where I go for 9-12 hours at a time Monday through Friday.....

We are currently studying three Native American tribes: the Lakota, Powhatan, and Pueblo to be exact. Last week the students created pop-up Powhatan villages to represent the various land features and cultural facts they need to know. Nothing special, but always a crowd pleaser!

 This is my example (the kids' projects were much better but they took them home before I could remember to take a picture). I also had the kids label everything in the project (James River, Eastern Woodlands on the tree, Appalachian Mountains on the mountains, canoe, and longhouse). Many kids used their construction paper scraps to put deer in the forest and fish in the river, among other interesting details. I even had a student who drew things on the inside of his longhouse before gluing it in place.

Again, it's nothing special but the kids really enjoy the project and they always have good conversations as they explain their projects to passing adults in the hall and while waiting for late buses (the latter of which I may have to indulge in a rant real soon).

On a side note, if you are a teacher in Virginia (or if you teach any of these three tribes) I have put my blood, sweat and tears into making Promethean flipcharts for each tribe. If you have Promethean software and would like any/all of these flipcharts leave a comment below with your email address and I would be happy to send them to you :)

More Pigeon

So last week I shared my Thanksgiving Pigeon book and I have one more Pigeon story to show you. Every year our grade level uses the "make your own book" kits to publish a hard-back class book. I forget the name of the company we use, but they send the kits to us for free and each classroom gets a free copy. Last year we were working on our book right around the same time we were studying Ancient Egypt so we created.....

 (Also inspired by the book, "You Wouldn't Want to Be an Egyptian Mummy")

I basically used the same format from the Thanksgiving book and had the kids add facts about Egypt in the scarab beetles on each page. We had been looking at nonfiction books as mentor texts and the kids' favorites were the ones that mixed fact into a fictional storyline. I didn't take pictures of every page, just the standout pigeon pages.

 The bus driver took the pigeon on a field trip to the Smithsonian!

We talked a lot about the pigeon's eyes, and how putting the pupil in different places could show different emotions. 

I love this one! Feel the emotion?

Illustration technique: showing motion by drawing multiples of the same character 

Can you tell what the pigeon wants to be next? I guess I totally spaced on taking a picture of the pigeon dreaming of being a Terracotta Warrior. My bad.

I promised you the Pigeon!

I know it is waaaay too early for this but the sudden turn in weather has me anticipating my hands-down favorite holiday... Thanksgiving. Last year after using many Mo Willems books as part of an illustration/author study my class decided they wanted to create their own pigeon book. Since it was close to Thanksgiving, we decided to write "The Pigeon Wants to be the Holiday Bird." The kids decided it would be funny if the pigeon wanted to be the Thanksgiving day turkey and we brainstormed all the things he might say to convince the reader to let him be the turkey. Then they used their illustration skills to illustrate each page. I know what you're thinking... this is totally plagiarism... I checked Mo's website and he had all kinds of pigeon stories submitted from students and classes around the country posted on the site. So here's our Thanksgiving pigeon story. Be prepared for LOTS of photos. And if you make it to the end, I'll attach a copy of the blank pages if you want to use them with your class.

 (i did this one...)

(i did this one too...)

Hope you liked it! Click here to download!

Fun citizenship project

So my school is in the process of becoming authorized as an IB PYP school. If your saying "HUNH?" right now, PYP stands for Primary Years Programme. And basically it means we have a global focus to our teaching, technically we shouldn't have block scheduling (although our county requires it so we have to get a little creative), and standardized testing doesn't exist (these PYP people are in lala land because we definitely give those tests). Anywhoo, this is a project I incoporate into my citizenship unit that gets the kids to think about giving back to their community, and puts their lifestyle into perspective as far as availability of free education, clean water, and general good health goes. I start by reading this book:

I got it from the Scholastic book fair last year and it is perfect because it is written and illustrated by a class of students in Missouri. Each page discusses the students' dream for our world (ex. everyone can go to school) and gives facts related to that dream. It also then tells the students what they can do to help make that dream come true. After reading the book, I have the students brainstorm their own dreams for our world. They choose one, and create their own page to add to the book. Here are a few examples:

 Because it is early in the year when I do this, I don't have them add in the research piece, but I'm thinking about saving the projects for the end of the year and having them then add some research and a "what you can do to help" section. Not sure about that yet.

In other news, I sat in on an interview this week for a new second grade teacher and we had success! I felt really good about her interview and took her to meet the team and take a tour of the school afterwards. She accepted the position and will start at school on Monday! Yay!