Mrs. Thomas' Teachable Moments: Social Studies

Goodness, friends! I can't believe it's already #Friyay! We are starting a new six weeks when we return on Tuesday! Don't hate me because I get a three day weekend! I'm gonna be outta there like

That also means summer is just around the corner! I can't believe my 4th graders are about to leave me and become big 5th graders!

What amazing things did you do in your classroom this week? Did you nail an amazing lesson? Were your kids on fire this week? Do you feel like you made a difference?

Here are 5 things going on in my little world that I'm awfully proud of! 5, because it's Five for Friday with Doodlebugs!

Student Gifts!

I have the sweetest students who are always writing me notes, asking to help me, and drawing me pictures.
The other morning, one of my kiddos brought in this beautiful picture she painted for me on a little canvas! It was so touching because she is not usually very outspoken and is one of those kids that I'm not ever sure if I am connecting with or not. Well, this sealed the deal for me! I love it!

Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad!

We learned about the important Battle of San Jacinto this week in Social Studies. My kids were pumped about it and I could barely get through the lesson because of all the questions they had for me! I don't know about you, but I find classroom discussions to be so fun and a way to make them feel like they, too, are in charge of their learning.

We finished up by making these amazing pennants from The Little Ladybug Shop. You can snag them by clicking here or the picture below!

They were a great way to assess their knowledge over the battle in a fun way, and it made for cute classroom decoration!

Front of pennant

Back of pennant

Skittles Dot Plots

We learned about dot plots in math this week. I'm not gonna lie - never in my life have I heard of dot plots, nor do I know where in the real world one would ever want to use them, but, the state of Texas says I am to teach dot plots, so teach them I do!

I wanted a way to spice up this skill, and I candy gets my kids motivated! I asked them each to bring in a bag of Skittles by Thursday, and I had no idea there were so many varieties of Skittles! Luckily, it really didn't matter the color/flavor.

It reminded me of when I did my graphing unit in 2nd grade with m&ms! (You can get it for FREE in my store!)

Draw It! Write It!

I also updated my vocabulary activity called "Draw It, Write It!" I love having an engaging way for my kids to learn new vocabulary and to gain a deeper understanding of the words. I originally made this when I was in 2nd grade, but now that I teach 4th, I needed it to be a little more challenging, so I updated it to have several versions that can span many grade levels, and can be used to differentiate instruction.

It works well at small group, centers, independent work, homework, partner work, etc, etc! You can pick it up here!

Kindergarten Round-Up!

On a personal note, we registered our twins for Kindergarten this week. I feel like I was just this huge -

Headed to the hospital!

and now look at them...all big and ready to be onto the next chapter!

That is my week in a nutshell! I'd love to connect with you! Leave your comments below and tell me what you were up to this week! What was the BEST thing that happened to you, or that you made happen this week?

It's already Friday again! The hours are long, but the days are short!

It's time to link up with Casey from DoodleBugs again for a little Five for Friday!

This week kinda flew by for me. The twins had dentist appointments on Monday. I don't know about y'all, but when I was growing up, the dentist office was not a bright, cheery, colorful place with a tv above my chair, sunglasses so I didn't get blinded by the light, nor were there hygienists that explained everything and made sure I wasn't scared!

Here's my big kids loving the dentist!

This week we talked a lot about food webs. Today we did the most fun food web simulation! I cut out about a cajillion (what?....That's a number...Don't judge me!) green squares that was grass. Then, I assigned about 13 of my kids to be grasshoppers, 4 to be shrews, and 2 to be hawks.

The grasshoppers began the game by collecting as much food for energy as they could.

Grasshoppers gathering food.

About 10 seconds later, the shrews entered and started eating the grasshoppers. The grasshoppers had to pass their energy (green squares) to the shrews, and then exit the game.

Energy being passed from a grasshopper to the shrew.

10 seconds later, the hawks entered and started eating shrews and grasshoppers. The energy consumed (green squares) by the grasshoppers and shrews were passed to the hawks if they were eaten.

Hawks, shrews and grasshoppers Food Web Activity

Then I stopped the game and we saw the results of how the food web had been carried out! Each time we played, both hawks survived, a couple of shrews, and maybe one grasshopper. It was a great, kinesthetic simulation that I am sure the kids won't forget and we solidified that concept!

I live in Texas, and our state flower is the bluebonnet. Every March, for about a month, we get the most beautiful bluebonnets and everyone takes pictures in them. It's a Texas tradition. I've done it every year since the twins were born! Here's our pictures for this year!

One of my favorite things about my school is our Character Houses.

We have six character houses: honesty, kindness, respect, perseverance, empathy and responsibility. Each student is assigned a character house in Kindergarten (or whenever they move to our school) and they stay the same one until they are finished with 4th grade and move to middle school. All of the houses are mixed within the grade levels, so every class has a handful of each character trait.

The kids can earn tickets for their house by being caught using our character traits.

At the end of every week, we tally up how many tickets each house earned, and the winning house gets to spin our big wheel to see what kind of prize they earned.

Then, at the end of the six weeks, we figure out which house had the most points by each teacher entering their points onto the Google Drive spreadsheet, and they earn a fun party!

All of the kids and teachers have their character house shirts, and we wear them on Fridays!

Our awesome PTA has even painted our character houses in the hallway! They are on little life saver rafts because our school is right by the lake. So cute!

Last week we had a day where you were supposed to wear as much of your color as you could. Here is our AP!

Isn't she a sport! She was outside after school doing car duty!

We also just finished up our Alamo unit. We did a novel study in Social Studies over a book titled "Journey to the Alamo" written by Melody A. Cuate. It's a fictional piece where three kids journey back in time to the Alamo right as the Texians are about to battle Santa Anna and the Mexican Army. My kids were GLUED to this book!

You can get it by clicking on the picture below.

I had the kids do several activities with the book, but this one was my favorite. The kids each chose their favorite person from the Alamo and researched facts about his/her person. Then, they created their person with construction paper and put the facts inside! Didn't they turn out precious?!