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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What I'm Loving Wednesday & Pinteresting!

I'm loving having time to blog.  I'm probably spending too much time on blogger right now but I just can't help myself.  I started a middle school bloglovin linkup for anyone with a 5-8 blog.

I'm also loving getting to try new recipes.  Today I made sun dried tomato chicken and penne pasta.  All I did was use Lawry's Sundried Tomato & Garlic Chicken seasoning mix and bake the chicken and pasta for 45 minutes.  It was super easy and pretty tasty.  Next time, I need to remember to add more water than what the package on the mix says.

Finally, I am loving image-maps.com. I made a graphic to link up to all my social networking sites. I then used image-maps.com to get the code to map each link on the graphic.  I highly recommend this site, it is free and so easy to use!

Now to link up with my other addiction besides blogging, Pinterest!  To join in with this linky party, just click the button below and share your favorite Pinterest finds of the week. Mine are very random this week.

Book Whisperer Chapter 5

     As many of you know from my numerous posts about The Book Whisperer & Teach Like a Pirate, I'm really enjoying reading right now. For any teacher who is teaching reading The Book Whisperer is a must read. All teachers can benefit from Teach Like a Pirate no matter what grade or subject you teach.  Lorraine at We Read, We Blog, We Teach is hosting a book study on The Book Whisperer that I wanted to participate in.

This week she is covering Chapter 5 which is called What Does Reading Mean to You?  Here are my thoughts on this chapter.

    While reading this chapter I thought about myself as a reader and how my love for reading has grown on my own.  During school, I can't really remember a time when a teacher encouraged me to read what I wanted to read.  The most vivid memory I have of reading was making my first C on a test based on The Island of the Blue Dolphins.  From that day on, I didn't care to read for fun.  I just wanted to try to please my teachers on their tests.  What is really discouraging is looking back on my first year of teaching last year and realizing that I was doing the same exact thing for my own students! Thank goodness only one year of teaching has gone by and I can start encouraging my students to read.

 

This quote from the chapter made me think about my approach to teaching reading last year.  My approach was skills-based and I admit that my goal was mainly to help students read well enough to pass the test. Miller has encouraged me to take a different approach to teaching reading next year.  I will be reading more on my own and talking to my students about all the great books that are available for them to read and learn from.

 

Miller goes on to talk about ways we can show our students that we are enthusiastic about reading.   One way we can do this is by showing them that we read everywhere.  Talk to them about reading at home and what you like to read.  During class read while they are reading.  Next year I plan on reading both books my students will be interested in reading, and books that I enjoy reading myself right in front of them.  I want them to see that I don't read just because I'm a reading teacher, I read because I enjoy it.

This quote comes from Miller's suggestion to create your own reader's notebook.  She suggests reflecting on what you are reading to help make recommendations to students and friends.  I am going to start doing this immediately.  Now to find a cute notebook to record in!

Have you read The Book Whisperer yet? If so, join in on the book study at We Read, We Blog, We Teach.

Finally, don't forget to join in on my middle grades blog hop if you teach 5th-8th grade.

Middle Grades Bloglovin Hop

    I noticed on another blog that there is an elementary blog hop going on today now that Google Reader has shut down.  I wanted to create one for middle grades so that we could easily find each other on Bloglovin.  If you want to join in then add your Bloglovin page below.  You can find the exact link to your Bloglovin page by going to look at the html code for your Bloglovin button.  The first link in the code is the link you will want to use for this Bloglovin hop! After you have added your blog, post the Middle Grades Bloglovin Hop button to your own blog for others to find.

   If you have been reading Teach Like a Pirate then you may be working on lessons that your students would buy tickets for.  I know I will be working on making as many as I can over the summer and I can't wait to share them with everyone.  I'm also hoping to be able to "hop" to other blogs and find great lesson ideas.

July Currently

Well hello July,  oh how I have been waiting for you!  I have a lot to look forward to this month so I am hoping that it goes by very slowly.  

Currently I'm listening to silence because my niece and nephew just left for the day.  As much fun as they are, it is so nice to be able to think whenever they leave.

I'm loving the books I am reading this summer.  I finished The Book Whisperer and am in the middle of Teach Like A Pirate.  My next book will be Drive.  I'm really trying to get inspired for the next school year!

I'm trying to think of some more activities I can do with my nephew during the summer.  He is six and easily gets bored.  He doesn't need to play on the computer all day so I'm looking into some fun ideas we can do together. Suggestions welcome!

It has been rainy and cloudy here a lot lately so I'm wanting more days of sun so I can get in the pool.

I'm needing to start packing for Belize so I don't get stressed out at the last minute.  Since it is a mission trip I have to pack specific things that I may have to go out and buy.  For example, we have to wear shorts that go down to our knees.  Many of my capris are thick denim and Belize is a hot place so I may have to go out and buy more more shorts.

My tip is to add photos to your blog posts.  Writing is great but to draw in a reader they want to see pictures of what you are talking about.  I know I am most likely to come back to a blog again when I've connected with someones pictures they posted.

Click on my currently picture to be taken to Oh' Boy 4th Grade where you can find other bloggers currentlys!

Monday Made it & played it + What I'm Reading!

   For today's Monday Made it link up I'm going to share what kind of things I've been playing with my nephew to keep him occupied during the summer.  My sister doesn't like pictures of her kids on the internet so excuse the lack of faces in the pictures.  My nephew will be in first grade next year so I try to play educational games with him.

     The first thing we did today was collect flowers and make our own hopscotch game.  To involve learning I had him count me out how many flowers each square in the game needed.

     The second thing we did was paint rocks.  We talked about what colors mix together to make other colors.  He loves to paint so this was a real hit.  Once they dry we will probably play some kind of pretend game with our new pet rocks.

     The most fun we had today was creating our own store.  He love anything pretend and I was able to get him learn a lot without him even knowing!  We first sorted books by category and then I had him label what row each category of books were on.  This helped him practicing writing numbers.  I then acted like I was a customer and asked him to suggest certain books for me.  When I was ready to pay I had him write me out a receipt showing the amount I owed.  We then switched roles and he was customer.  He had to count out coins to correctly give me for the books he was buying.

   


 Coming up with so many different games everyday can be be fun, but exhausting at the same time. Anyone else have suggestions for fun summer kids games? Make sure to link up with 4th Grade Frolics.

I also wanted to share what I was reading for the What are you Reading Monday linkup.  I'm currently reading an awesome professional development book called Teach like a Pirate by Dave Burgess.  I'm sure many of you have heard of it but if you haven't read it yet then it is a must this summer! I'm learning a completely different way to think about teaching.  It is a very inspiring book.  

I'm also reading Strategies for Teaching Learners with Special Needs, which is a textbook I read in college.  I'm going back over it to remember strategies to use when teaching in an inclusion classroom.  If anyone has any other suggestions for teaching students with learning disabilities I would greatly appreciate it!

Finally, don't forget that Google Reader shuts down today! Follow me on bloglovin to stay updated.