Monday Made It {Magnet Board, Frames & Planning Ideas}

     I am finally starting my list of things I want to make for my classroom so I am linking up today to Monday Made It with 4th Grade Frolics. My first little project was a magnet board to hang in my room. The white boards in my classroom aren't magnetic so I was excited to find this idea on Pinterest.

This is just a pizza pan from the dollar tree covered with scrapbook paper and duck tape around the edges.  I then had my dad drill me two holes in the top so I could put ribbon through it and hang it up!


    The next thing I did was simply paint some wooden frames with purple glitter paint.  These frames were on sale at Michael's for .79! They are light even that I will be able to tack them on my bulletin board and put book recommendations from my students in them.  The picture below is an idea of how the bulletin board will look when it's being used. I'm also going to have students actually write out why they recommend those books.  It will be like an extra credit bulletin board and each week three new students will get to hang up their book recommendations.

     I'm also starting to create my own lesson plan book.  One of the first pages on the inside will be a page I created based on the book Teach Like a Pirate.  It is just a sheet that gives me ideas for activities I can use in each lesson to help my students become more engaged.  I don't mind sharing this document, however it didn't show up as pretty when I imported into Google Drive.  If you would like to take a look anyway, you can find it here.   This will really help me as I start to Plan like a Pirate.  If you are getting a head start to lesson plans for next year, link up with me below.

       Also, don't forget to go visit 4th Grade Frolics to find out what everyone else is making!

Why study history?

    I have been thinking hard about how to start my first social studies unit. In my county our first unit is about history and geography. Our goal is basically to get students to understand why and how we study ancient civilizations. Last year I started by defining social studies words we would be using all year and then making a foldable about people who study history. This year I want to start by explaining why it is so important for us to study history. Below is the lesson plan I have came up with so far. If you have any suggestions for making it better I would love any advice. At the bottom is a link up to my new linky party called Plan like a Pirate. If you have a lesson plan you would like to share feel free to add it!

Why study history?

Goal:  What are some benefits to studying history?

Warmup activity-  Describe a past event that you have learned from and how you changed after learning from that event occurring.  For example, I now keep an extra pair of shoes in my car because I once broke the straps on my flip flops and had to walk around bare foot.

 

Lesson:  Students groups will become “reporters” that will be figuring out how a person in history shaped the modern day world.  Each group will get a bag with clues and their job is to come to an agreement as a group about how the person or event in their bag shaped history.  

Example bag:  A picture of the destruction of Pompeii, definition of a seismologist and an article about volcano eruption warning signs

After students have had about 10 minutes to discuss with their group, have students share their findings with the rest of the class.

Show what they know:  Create a class anchor chart that lists why studying history can be beneficial.  Ask open ended questions to help them.  Example answers:

1. It helps to shape our identity.
2. Helps us see viewpoints of other people.
3. Encourages you to ask important questions
4. Promotes good decision making skills
5. Can learn more about other subjects while studying history

Closing:  Have students turn and talk to share their warm-up activity further explaining how learning from the past is important.

                                   

Plan like a Pirate

    After reading Teach Like a Pirate I am on a mission to create more engaging lesson plans. I will admit that most of my lessons for studying ancient civilizations last year included brainpop videos and edhelper articles. Reading TLAP made me really question what I was thinking. Now I am on a mission to create engaging lesson plans and I would love to collaborate with other bloggers who want to do the same.  This is where Plan Like a Pirate comes in.  This linkup is not for a certain day but for whenever you create an engaging lesson you want to share with others.  It can be any grade or subject that you want to link up.

Get the code to place the linkup on your own blog.

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