Scarecrows In Autumn 

I LOVE teaching about scarecrows, autumn leaves and corn during November! They are so fun and the students absolutely love all the stories!  Check out all the scarecrow, autumn and corn fun that you can have with your students! 

In this packet students will learn about the scientific method, the 5 senses, autumn, types of leaves, scarecrows, seasons and growing Indian corn with hands on engaging activities in reading, writing, poetry, math and science! Included are lesson plans with mentor texts, craftivities, interactive notebooks, science investigations and vocabulary cards. It's jammed packed full of FALL FUN! I can't wait to share it with you! Grab your Apple Cider and read on! 

I've created 16 days of lesson plans including mentor texts, materials, directions and examples. (And cute graphics of course!)

There are vocabulary cards to help your students understand the new words for this season. These cards include autumn words, scientific method, types of leaves, corn life cycle, parts of corn, and parts of a leaf.  All of these cards are in the lesson plans and there's always a fun activity to follow up with them.

I've also created interactive notebook activities in math, science and poetry. I LOVE using interactive notebooks because it allows me to make observations and anecdotal records of how the students understood the skill... and the students LOVE them! They bring their notebook to my table when they are finished, and I grade it right there! Easy!

Interactive Science Notebook

Interactive Math Notebook

Interactive Poetry Notebook

I couldn't forget about craftivities!!! These are so much FUN and the students LOVE making them! And, they make your hallways look so beautiful and festive! In this unit there are four craftivities: My Leaf Man, Corn in the Cornfield, My Fall Tree and My Scarecrow Adventure. All of these craftivities are explained in detail in the lesson plans. 

Craftivities

To expand these craftivities I've included expository and narrative writing pieces with brainstorming, first draft, and final draft templates. The students write an expository piece about Autumn, and a narrative piece about their Scarecrow Adventure.

Also included in this packet are fun and engaging science investigations: Using your 5 senses in Autumn, We're Going Leaf Hunting, and Growing Indian Corn. All of these investigations are explained in the lesson plans and have either an interactive notebook activity or a student observation log to expand it in more depth. Growing Indian corn is my favorite. The students get to predict and hypothesize which natural resource that their Indian corn will grow the best (water, soil or sand) and record their observations in a student journal. My students LOVED this investigation and we even entered it into our science fair at school in November! 

                                            
Another one of my favorites is the Leaf Investigation. I took my students outside to the playground and we hunted for leaves. We made leaf rubbings, labeled the parts of a leaf, made a Leaf Man and graphed our leaves. This was so much fun and so much learning that goes along with it! And, the best part was... we got to go OUTSIDE!!!!!!

Isn't science fun? I just love using science investigations in my thematic units. With mentor texts, craftivities, interactive notebooks, writing and investigations... who wouldn't love school? I wish I was in first grade again! If you are interested in checking out my Scarecrows in Autumn Thematic Unit, click below: 

                Scarecrows in Autumn: Thematic Unit 

                                             Happy Fall Ya'll! 
                                               Love, Kara