Rockin' Inside the Earth: A Rocks and Soil Thematic Unit Grades 1-3

One of my favorite thematic units is teaching about rocks and volcanoes. My students learn so much from this unit and it is jammed packed full of engaging, hands on activities that will spark their interest. I usually teach this thematic unit in the spring, but there are bits and pieces of it that I teach through out the year. I can't wait to share with you some of the great activities that I've created for this unit! It includes lesson plans with mentor texts, craftivities, interactive notebooks, poetry, vocabulary cards and science experiments. So, let's go rock hunting!

I've created 17 days of lesson plans with mentor texts, materials, directions, and examples.  They are very user friendly and easy to follow.

I've created many craftivities that include building the layers of the earth with play-do, an edible dirt cup, painting a pet rock, the parts of a volcano, a rock cycle spinner, sorting the three types of rocks and living on landforms. Each craftivity also has a writing template to extend the lesson if you wish. 

The edible dirt cup is so easy! Just layer your cup starting with chocolate pudding, crushed Oreos, green coconut and on the top put gummy worms! The students will LOVE this! This is such a fun and easy way to teach the layers of the soil. 

Creating the layers of the earth is also fun! All you need is red, yellow, green and blue play-do. Show your students how to roll a small red ball of play-do and then layer the other colors on top starting with yellow, then green, then blue. With a couple inches of floss, slice the ball in half and open up the ball to show the layers inside. This is so cool and amazing. What a great way to learn about the core, mantle and crust! 

Oh how I love Pet Rocks! How fun and super easy too. Ask your students to bring in a small rock that they have found at home. Put out some tempera paint with different sized brushes and paper plates for each table group. After the paint dries, students can glue on their googly eyes. These pet rocks can sit on the students' desk during your unit and then take them home! The students can also complete an interactive notebook page about their pet rock's properties. 

                                                       
                     

I've also created lesson plans for science experiments. My favorite one is the erupting volcano. This is so easy to do. All you need is vinegar and baking soda. I like to use the yellow solo cups and cut out a hole at the bottom of them. I put a baby food jar inside the solo cup with a teaspoon of baking soda. Make sure to put them inside a plastic bowl, so when the eruption happens, it will not go everywhere! Students will pour about 2 tablespoons of vinegar really fast and see how the baking soda erupts like a volcano. This is so fun and the students LOVE it! 

Another science investigation is observing different types of rocks. I have these AWESOME rock kits that we ordered many years ago and they have the different rocks labeled and a short blurb about each one. I have a class set of these so each student can be a rock hound! I've also created a template for the students to record their information and illustrate their rocks. 

I've also created some interactive notebook activities for poetry, math and science. 

I've created anchor charts for the layers of the soil and of the types of landforms. 

I also use vocabulary cards to help my students learn new academic vocabulary. I display these on my chart stand, pocket chart and even in my theme center! 

And, speaking of my theme center... this is where I display posters of rocks and volcanoes and put all different kinds of rocks on display for my students to observe and write about. I also put out rock games, activities and books to read. 

I hope you have gotten some great ideas about how to teach your rocks and soil unit. If you're interested in checking out my packet, click below. 

Rockin' Inside the Earth: A Rocks and Soil Thematic Unit Grades 1-3

Love, Kara 

Linking Literature with Stellaluna: Grades 1-3

If you have the book Stellaluna by Janelle Cannon and you haven't found the right activities to use with it... well you're in luck! I've created a packet that has a lesson plan, craftivities, interactive notebooks, vocabulary cards, and writing templates that go along with this book. They are fun, engaging and allow your students to LOVE literature! 
During the month of October, when we were using owls and bats to teach with our genres, Stellaluna was a perfect fit for teaching the students what Fiction was.  We talked about how Fiction is a fake story and that the characters typically are drawn like cartoon characters. The characters also can talk, wear clothes or do things that a real person could do. And, fiction stories have a problem, solution, cause and effect.  So, I created a lap book that goes along with these Fiction traits. On the cover we glued Stellaluna on top of a moon and then labeled the parts of a bat. The students LOVED doing this craftivity! They used toothpicks as her fingers and googly eyes. I had the students pick a colored file folder that they wanted to use. I just LOVE these! 

Cover of Lap Book 

Inside the lap book we glued the sequence of events and characterization 4 square.  They illustrated Stellaluna and colored the background. 

Inside the lap book

Other activities that you could have your students do are Author's Purpose and Synthesis.

Author's Purpose and Synethsis

I also created some vocabulary cards with parts of a bat and the life cycle. You could use both of these to display on an anchor or pocket chart next to the story.

Parts of a Bat

The Bat Life Cycle

Another craftivity that you could have your students do is labeling the parts of a bat and then writing an acrostic poem about Stellaluna.

Acrostic Poem and Craftivity

I've also created some writing templates both in color and black and white! One prompt could be to write an expository piece about bats called "I"m Going Batty!" and the other could be a narrative about "If I Were Stellaluna..." Both of these you could staple into the lapbook, or glue onto the craftivity.

Expository and Narrative Writing

Some interactive notebook activities I've created are:
The Bat Life Cycle and Bats Can, Have and Are...
Also in color and black and white.

Interactive Notebooks

I hope you got some really good ideas on how to implement Stellaluna into your curriculum this fall! It's such a fun story and it really has a lot of great teachable moments! If you are interested in checking out my Linking Literature Packet, click below:

Linking Literature with Stellaluna: Grades 1-3

Love, Kara

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Meet the Teacher Night was a HUGE success!!!! 

Mrs. Rickman and her family!

As I was preparing for meet the teacher night, I thought about all of the previous meet the teacher nights that I had gotten ready for, and by far this one was the best! Why... do you ask? Because we are opening a BRAND NEW SCHOOL!!!! The students, parents, grandparents and alumni who came to our meet the teacher night were wowed with our new classrooms, spaces, gym, cafeteria, courtyard, and library! It is truly amazing and I feel so blessed to be able to teach with such wonderful people and to be opening such a beautiful new school! History is in the making!
I'd like to share some photos of my meet the teacher night with you and hope that you can maybe use some of these ideas for your meet the teacher night next year!
Outside my classroom door, I had a podium with a sign in sheet and a scavenger hunt. On the scavenger hunt, the students and parents had to find their desk, transportation tag, unload their school supplies, grab a lollipop and take a family photo!

Sign in and Scavenger Hunt

I set my crates outside my classroom with supply labels. The crates are perfect for organizing all the students' supplies and they look nice at the same time!

Crates for supplies

Inside my classroom I had everything set up and ready to go! On my horseshoe table I put a pot with blow pops and a chalkboard sign that said "Thanks for POPPING in!" Each student could pick their own flavor! They got so excited!

Thanks for Popping in! 
I put Helping Hands on my whiteboard for my wish list. Some of the things that I asked my parents for were: Room Mom, Parent Helper, and extra supplies. A lot of my hands were gone by the end of the evening! 

Helping Hands

On each student desk I have their behavior/communication folder with paperwork to take home and a bag of ready confetti!
This is a bag of glitter and sequins that I give the students with a note that says to put it under their pillow and it will help them have sweet dreams the night before first grade! 

I'd also like to give you a tour of my classroom!
Here is my carpet area, with my author's chair, big book stand and easel for easy teaching! I LOVE this space!

Carpet Area

This is my word wall that I made from ABC Circles with Chevron border and ribbon. I just LOVE it! I plan on clipping the words on the ribbon with small clothespins.

Word Wall

This is my author study center on the back of my easel. Our first author study will be of Kevin Henkes! All of the books I put inside the colored baskets.

Author Study Center

This is my theme center, paired up with science and museum. If you are interested in my All About Me Thematic Unit, click here: All About Me: A Back to School Thematic Unit Grades 1-3

Theme, Science and Museum Centers

This is my math center with my math workstation baskets and my touch dot math posters. I have BUMP games, dice games, graphing games and tally games. If you are interested in my BUMP math workstation packet, click here:
BUMP: Math Workstation Games for Every Month

Math Center

This is my center rotation board and my math workstation board. If you are interested in checking out my Literacy Center Packet, click here.
Launching Literacy Centers: Grades 1-3

Center Rotations

This is how I display my math graphs for All About Me, and how I keep track of my students' transportation. On each ribbon are colored clothespins. I put a label on each clothespin with the child's name on it according to how they get home. This works great because it's such a BIG visual for me and if I have a substitute! 

Here is a photo of my geography center, big book center, and my finger puppets center underneath my calendar. I put crates against the wall and stuck my centers inside them! It worked perfectly!

Calendar Wall
This is my poetry center with my Focus Poem, parts of speech and punctuation ladders, and pocket chart poem. If you are interested in checking out my Poetry Packet, click here:
Acrostic and Focus Poetry for Every Month and Holiday Grades 1-3

Poetry Center
This is how I organize all of my writer's workshop papers. I bought a banker's box from Office Max and it has really done the trick! Each compartment has a number labeled on it, so I tell the students which number they need to get according to what step they are on with the writing process. I LOVE this shelf!!!!!!!!
If you are interested in checking out my Writer's Workshop Packet, click here:
Just Write From Your Heart: Writer's Workshop Mini-Lessons Grades 1-3

Writer's Workshop Paper Organization

I hope you got some great ideas for your Meet the Teacher Night in the future! I wish everyone the best first day of school ever....its hard to believe that it's already here!
Love,
Kara 

  Autumn Is Un-be-LEAF-able! 

If you LOVE teaching your science curriculum through investigations and experiments...check out my new packet for the fall! Autumn lends itself to a lot of fun and engaging investigations from weather, to apples, to pumpkins, and fall leaves! 
I LOVE teaching science investigations with the scientific method. I've created some vocabulary cards to help the students to learn the scientific method: 

Scientific Method Cards

I know you've probably seen these cards before, but I like to match the borders around them to go with the science investigation... I know, silly right?

For the scientific method, the students can start with asking questions about fall leaves:
Where can I find fall leaves?
Where do they come from?
Why are they different colors when I find them?
How many different kinds of leaves can I find?
What kind of tree did these leaves come from?

Then, they can start filling out their foldable for their interactive notebook:

I've also created a lesson plan that shows what mentor text to read before investigating. This helps the students understand more about the leaves and where they come from. I've also included questions you can ask your students.

Lesson Plan 

After reading the mentor text, then students can hypothesize about what kind of leaves they will find, what colors they will find, and what shapes and sizes. 
Now, this is the fun part! The students get to go out to the playground and find as many leaves as they can! Just give them a baggie and turn them loose! It's so much fun to see them leaf hunting and getting so excited about science! I've created a step by step investigation process to follow with materials and directions.

Investigation Process

I LOVE taking pictures of my students hunting for their leaves.  This gives them a great opportunity to have class outside, and who doesn't like to have class outside in the fresh air????

After the students have found all their leaves, then we go back into the classroom and I show them how to do a leaf rubbing. They LOVE this activity and they draw it inside their science notebook. After rubbing the leaf, then we label the different parts.  I've created a template for your students to use for their leaf rubbing and labels that they can glue onto their picture. I've also created a diagram of the parts of a leaf so the students can have a visual. 

Diagram of a Leaf and Interactive Notebook Template

You can also have the students graph their leaves that they found. They can sort them on their desk, and count the different varieties. I've created a graphing template with problem solving questions. I've created both of these templates in color and black and white

Graphing and Problem Solving

Another extension of this investigation is writing about the leaves that the students found. I've created two writing templates: Autumn Leaves and Autumn is Un-be-LEAF-able. Both of these templates are also in color and black and white. Here, they can write about the changes that leaves go thru in the Autumn and what has to happen for these changes. They can also write about their experience leaf hunting. The possibilities are endless! 

Expository Writing

I hope you have gotten some great ideas about trying an investigation on fall leaves. It is so fun and the students get so excited to go outside and hunt for leaves. It allows for a hands-on, engaging experience that some students have never had before! If you are interested in checking out my Autumn Leaf packet, click below. Have a wonderful school year! 

Autumn is Un-be-LEAF-able: An Investigation with Fall Leaves


                                              Love, Kara

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