Booking Across the USA: Utah!

Welcome to Utah!

Utah is known as the "Beehive State" because the early settlers of my state worked tirelessly to build and farm so they would be able to survive in the desert mountain valley.  The settlers likened themselves to bees who work together for the greater good of the hive colony and are known for their perseverance and hard work. I was inspired for my beehive craft project by a blog post done by:

The post about her bee themed craftivity can be found here. Here's the beehive I created: 

My thought was to add bees around the beehive and have each student write a way they can contribute to the class "hive" and post the bees around the hive.  I think this would be a great activity for the beginning of the school year in your discussions of class community.  At home, post ways children can contribute to the household.  I created some bee themed cards that would work perfectly for your students to write down their contribution commitments to add around a hive bulletin board.  You can grab your free copy of the cards here.

My own children brainstormed some ideas with me and here's a sampling of what you might do.  Sorry it's laid out on my counter. 

I'm so excited to be part of the Booking Across the USA blog event!  My fifth grade Social Studies Curriculum is all about the history and geography of the United States, so this project has been super fun and I'm looking forward to all the ideas from each blogger about his/her state.  Thanks so much to Blue Apple Books for providing books from the Travels with Charlie series to inspire and inform our posts.  I received Travels with Charlie: Way Out West and LOVE it!  I plan to purchase all the books in the set to have available in my classroom library.  You could just get the one that pertains to your state, or like me, want all 4.  In addition to Way Out West, there is Travels with Charlie: Across the Midwest , Travels with Charlie: Travelin' the Northeast and Travels with Charlie: Down South .  Each state has it's own page and some great information and facts about the state.  The state map on the opposing page is colorful and highlights the attractions mentioned in the book along with a few additional pieces of information. Each map also contains a hidden picture of Charlie so students can do a little hunting to find him on each map.

Be sure to visit the Booking Across the USA homepage to be directed to the information and ideas from bloggers in the other 49 states. Thanks to Jodie from Growing Book By Book for organizing this event!

Thanks to Blue Apple Books, you have an opportunity to win a set of all 4 books! Here are the guidelines and entry form:

GIVEAWAY GUIDELINES To enter the giveaway you will need to complete the Rafflecopter section below.  That’s it!  You have from 5/14/14 at 12:00a.m. (EST) until 5/20/14 at 11:59p.m. (EST) to enter.  One entrant (must be 18 years or older) will be randomly drawn and sent an email (make sure to check your junk folder) on or about 5/21/14.  The winner has 48 hours to respond with a mailing address (US only).  If the information is not sent by the deadline, another entrant will be selected.  Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Christmas Holiday Craft Idea

I realize this is a little last minute, but for those of you who might need a little something more to keep your students busy and learning these last few days before Christmas, this might be just what you need.  This is an idea from a Kindergarten classroom at one of the schools I work with.  Green paint hand prints form the tree and then a sponge star at the top.  The berries could be done with the eraser of a pencil and the trunks are just painted in.  The teacher displayed them so cutely in the hall as a large tree.  I've also included the poem they used for shared reading and inspiration for the craft.  The poem can be sung to the tune of "I'm a Little Tea Pot."  If you don't need a little something before the break, tuck this fun little idea away for next year.

Synonym Feelings

A few weeks ago, as a team, we were thinking about what we could do to put in the hall for April.  We like to do an integration art piece as a team each month that hangs in our hall.  So, here's what we came up with.  We used the book My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss as our literature inspiration and the topic of Synonyms.  We read the book to students and discussed the synonyms for traditional feeling words and recorded our lists.  Then, students chose a color and a traditional feeling.  They used a splatter paint technique on white paper and let it dry.  Then with a black marker, they wrote several synonyms around the painted page and glued the traditional feeling word somewhere on the page.  I backed them with black construction paper and laminated them, but you certainly don't have to do that.  One of our teachers made these shades of meaning cards with paint color strips. (She said I could share it with you.)  So, this is a great way to integrate art and language.  I've included a printable of the feelings bubbles here for you to use in your own projects.   I'd love for you to come back and let me know how you use this idea.  How do you teach synonyms in your classroom?

Also, If you're a fellow blogger, check out Charity's challenge to be a 5 star blogger here.