Showing posts with label arkansas history. Show all posts
Showing posts with label arkansas history. Show all posts
One of my favorite mini-units to do after testing is Arkansas History.  In fact, I've even done this the week of testing because so many of the activities are just coloring and cutting and gluing--which are great to spread out and do on the floor after a full morning of sitting quietly in a desk filling in bubbles. ***rolling eyes***

In Arkansas, we can get FREE coloring books with our state symbols in them.  After a morning of testing, we grab our crayons and find a friend to color with and spread out on the floor to color!  No, it's not super academic, but it's mindless and just what my firsties need after an exhausting morning of testing.

The other thing I love about it is it gives me time to pull small groups.  Here's a look at how we use this mini-unit during testing week to learn about Natural Resources in Arkansas!

For my first graders, natural resource is not a new term by the time we are learning about it with Arkansas History.  Our third content unit is all about economics.  So, now we are just focusing on the natural resources in our state.

First, we read through our Arkansas, Arkansas, What Do You See digital booklet. (The powerpoint shared reading file comes with the unit.)  We talk about the natural resources and symbols as we read.

Then, students color in their state symbols book.

Or, they can work on their Arkansas, Arkansas, What Do You See booklets. For this option, we do 1-2 symbols a day to write and color on.  The writing can be as simple as copying a sentence you write together.
 

While they are working, I pull a small group to glue their natural resources on their map.  Yes, this can be done as a whole group, but after testing, it just seems like this works better for exhausted littles!


These make great hallway displays at the end of the year, too!  You can find this activity and many more in this Arkansas Unit for K-2 kiddos!

Want to see more of this unit in action?

Read about our state flag craftivity and map puzzles here.  And find all of the Me On the Map actiivties here.
State history often gets shoved to the back burner in elementary school.  And that's a shame because our little learners need to have a good understanding of their place in the world!

I love teaching Arkansas history at the end of the year, but really it works any time of year.  I've already blogged about part of our Arkansas History unit with Me On The Map project and our 7 Continents song.  Today, let's take a look at some of my firsties favorite hands on activities and crafts!

Map Puzzles

When we were learning about our country, we spent our snack time cutting apart and putting our USA puzzles together.  This was a real challenge for some of my kids, but so SO good for them.

When they finished their puzzle, they glued it to our "Find My State" printable and added a star over our home state, Arkansas!

We did the same thing when we learned about our state!  Once laminated, these also made great station activities!

State Flag Craft

While we were learning about our state and its symbols, we made an Arkansas flag after studying its history.  We learned what all of the shapes and colors and parts of our flag meant.  Then, we used 3 simple shapes (that I precut quickly with a paper cutter) to make their on Arkansas flags!

My firsties really enjoyed this craft.  And it was really good practice on listening and following directions! ....especially when adding the stars!  And my firsties always seem to need a little extra help in the listening department! #canigetanamen

I think they turned out so super cute.  We just glued straws to them as the flag pole, but they also would make a great booklet cover for the Arkansas, Arkansas, What Do You See? booklet in my Arkansas packet!


The end of the year was an absolutely perfect time for our Me on the Map unit.  It got the kids up, moving and engaged in some fun and meaningful activities!

And I got to make some pretty beautiful anchor charts...which is always a win for me! :)

We spent the last few weeks of school studying Arkansas history and our state symbols.  We started by reading Me on the Map and talking about what our map would look like.  We charted our maps from big to small together...




Then, we used a little total physical response to give my firsties a better visual on how the size of the places we live are related.  They *loved* this chant!  I even challenged them to find out their address if they didn't already know it so they could do a complete me on the map chant--and I had a TON of kids come back the next morning showing me their personal chant including their addresses!  I love it when kids get excited a motivated to learn more on their own!

For almost all of my integrated units, I like to have an ongoing project to carry us through the unit and help us record our new learning.  We made mini me on the map anchor charts for each kiddo.  We began researching the places we live started with our biggest place {Earth} to our smallest {our house}.  We spent a day or two on each place--except for our state which we studies for much longer with our Arkansas History Unit. We read pebble go articles {they have some GREAT articles on me and my world that connect super well with Me on the Map!} during readers' workshop.

On days we had time, we wrote about what we learned during writers' workshop...just keepin' it real...it gets *hard* to find time for everything at the end of the year, doesn't it??

And during our snack time--which was also my science and social studies time because time was just that crunched!--we completed our me on the map chart page for the place we researched and wrote about.

The kids adored this project.  And they loved continuing it a little bit at a time throughout our unit.  They colored the map for that day and wrote the name of our "place."

Then, added a star sticker to where we are on the map.

To finish assembling the flipbook, simply stack all the circles as shown below and staple it at the top.  You can prep them by stapling before hand and have the kids fill out the appropriate circle each day!

And here are a few imperfect real pictures of our city and house maps, which we didn't add stars to just because I thought it'd be hard to figure out where each house was in our city.  I do wish we had added a star to map our school on the city map though! #nexttime



I used a "blank" (for the most part) version of this me on the map flip chart because, honestly, I needed some extra time to do end of year assessments and the blanker it was, the more time it would take! Again, just #keepinitreal.  But there is also a "cuter" version of the same flipchart that kids could definitely finish a lot faster if you are crunched for time... ;)

All of these activities, plus many more I'll be blogging about soon can be found in my Me on the Map Mini Unit and my Arkansas History unit.  I already have several requests for other units based on different states and I'll be working to add those to my store as well.  If you have a custom request for this unit or others, you can send me an email at thefirstgraderoundup@gmail.com and I'll be happy to work on it.  Follow my store to be the first to know when these packets are released!
   
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