Playing Catch-up!

I'm not even going to offer any excuses for my lack of posting...I have none. I do have some things that my classes have been doing that I would like to share. So I was getting ready to share a ridiculous amount of stuff and then I got smart..I'm breaking it up into three short, sweet posts. Hey, it's better for the reader and I now have two more posts waiting in the wings. Win-Win. ;)

In Oklahoma History, I found the workbook that goes with the textbook, but a lot of the pages just don't seem 3rd grade friendly. I find the textbook extremely interesting, but again most of my students are struggling with the concepts like the Trail of Tears, getting the Plains Indians mixed up with the Five Tribes and so on. I am trying to sort of follow the textbook, but find other things for the kids to do. Some of them the kids just loved. 

One came from this pin:State Stamps with Mrs. Brown

I loved this idea, it was for 4th graders and they were each doing a different state. I had my students pick out at least three things about Oklahoma to put on their stamps, then they had to write the significance of their design to the state of Oklahoma on the back of the stamps. They loved this activity!

After discussing the Trail of Tears there was a page in the workbook that put the kids in a modern day Trail of Tears type of scenario. The kids were told that soldiers came in and told their family they were being forced from their homes. Some of the answers the kids gave to the different stages of the scenario were so funny. The very first question said they had to pick out what they would grab to take with them. One little girl said her Olaf pillow pet, one boy said the toilet, I about cracked up because this boy more than any other student I have asks to go to the bathroom all the time! Hahaha. I was a little shocked by how many, mostly boys said guns! I wasn't sure what the kids would think about this assignment since it did have quite a bit of writing, but as soon as we were finished they said, "That was fun, can we do another one?" Yes!!! They had fun doing it and I had fun grading it! :)

When we studied about the cattle drives I had them design their own brand. We looked at a lot of different types of brands and learned to name them. I told them they needed to use at least one of their initials in the design. that way when they were hanging in the hallway they could try to figure out who made the designs. I decided to have them put the brand on a piece of paper sack. When they finished making the design and labeling it, I wanted to change the texture of the sack a little so I told them to wad the paper up 20 times...they look at me like I was crazy, but then enjoyed doing it. They also had to write on the back why they chose their design. 

Here are a few of the designs.

I had told the kids that it would be fun to try and figure out who had made the designs. I have a little sweetie whose initials were LD, she came up to me and told me that she only used the D because we have lots of kids with first or last names that start with D so they couldn't figure out it was hers. Good idea right??? One problem, she had put the D in a heart! I told her she might want to change it to a different shape because I didn't think any of the kids would think Darren or Donald had made that one. ;P Here's what she did instead. :)

Have a great Friday!!!