Landform Maps!

Before Thanksgiving break my class learned all about landforms. This is one of my favorite units to teach, because landforms are all around us! My amazing student teacher (shout out to Miss Nelson!) did a great job teaching this unit to the students. 

First, we assessed prior knowledge with a slideshow of different types of landforms: 

Then, after learning the characteristics of each type of landform, we made our own landform maps out of homemade clay. 

***Homemade clay recipe can be found at the bottom of the post.***

First, they planned out their maps and shaped the landforms: 

Next, they painted their maps according to the characteristics of each type of landform: 

Finally, students labeled each type of landform on their maps when they were dry: 

My students loved how fun and engaging it was to make the landform maps!

Homemade Clay Recipe

(Perfected by my wonderful teacher's aide who mixes 

it together for my class every year!)

• Mix together one 5-pound bag of flour with 5 canisters of table salt. 

• Add water until your dough reaches the desired consistency. It will be sticky! 

Enjoy! 

Heather

Favorite Thanksgiving Books & A Very Perky Turkey!

It's hard to believe Thanksgiving is just around the corner! Some of my favorite Thanksgiving books to read with my class are: 

  

A Plump and Perky Turkey by Teresa Bateman

Arthur's Thanksgiving by Marc Brown

'Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving by Dav Pilkey

This is the Feast by Diane Z. Shore

Magic Tree House Non-Fiction Research Guide: Pilgrims 

by Mary Pope Osborne and Natalie Pope Boyce

Thanksgiving on Thursday by Mary Pope Osborne 

What are some of your favorite Thanksgiving books? 

We made this turkey last week. Each student cut out his/her own feather and could use any colors or patterns to design it. The students were a bit unsure of why we only had them decorate ONE feather. After putting up the bulletin board, they understood why each person only decorated one. Our turkey looked much better and had a lot more personality when we combined our creative efforts and worked together! 

Happy (almost) Thanksgiving! 

Heather 

Time Savers with Blog Hoppin

I'm linking up with Blog Hoppin this week! Monday's topic?

TIME SAVERS! 

Number One Time Saver Tip:

I always prepare my resources for the next week before I leave school on Friday afternoon. Because everything is organized and in its place, I can walk out of school and not worry about getting everything together on Monday morning. I have a file folder for each day of the week. It saves me valuable time, because everything is where it needs to be when I walk into the classroom on Monday morning and every morning there after. You can read more about how I keep my classroom organized here. 

You can pick up my file folder labels in my TPT shop. 

Number Two:

Are your students always asking, "Miss so & so, what time do we go to Recess? PE? Lunch? Art? Music? Fill in the blank..." 

The display I created below saves me time by not having to answer these questions during instruction time. The students know better than to ask me what time we go somewhere. 

Number Three:

My students never question me about the daily schedule. I post our schedule every single morning so the students know what we'll be doing all day. They are definitely creatures of habit so I made a "Be Flexible" tag for our chart. I put this up when we do anything that deviates from the normal schedule - a school wide assembly, guest speaker, etc. Again, the students know better than to waste class time by asking me what subject comes next in our school day. A few seconds saved here and there really do add up!

Of course there are those days when I (GASP!) forget to change the daily schedule. They are always so quick to point out their teacher's mistakes! :) 

Number Four:

One way I save time before I even get to school in the morning is by having my lunch packed and ready to go the night before. I try to pack a few days worth of lunches and snacks on Sunday nights so I don't have to worry about it during the week: 

Of course some weekends are busier than others and this isn't always a reality. When I do have the time to prep everything in advance, it saves me so much time and energy on busy school nights!

How do you save time during the school day? Let me know! 

Heather