One Semester Down, One To Go

Posted on November 28, 2015 by Stephanie's History Store

Well there was a huge learning curve for me this semester but I feel like I’ve kept my head above water. I feel like I have a good grasp on what type of work challenges my kids, what is a good match for them, and what is an easy/fun type of activity to do when we all need a break. While I know the nature of the beast working with middle school kids is that there will always be things to learn about their inner workings and drama between the girls and whatnot, I am SO much more comfortable with this age group than I was the day I started with the co-op.

My kids enjoyed the Elizabeth I review activity (the “after” picture is below–in the last few minutes of class some of the girls took some liberty in giving Elizabeth a crown and cloak….and the description of activity is HERE) and we will do it again for George Washington when we get to the Revolutionary War. I have to figure out how to work it into our Music Theory class so that the kids that aren’t in Geography also get to do this.

Queen Elizabeth I review

Our explorer lapbooks turned out great! The parents were really happy with them, the kids want to do them again, and the best part is the kids DEFINITELY learned new material while working on them! (you can read my lapbook posts HERE and HERE). To make sure we do justice to the parents’ chosen curriculum, how the kids respond to the material, and the activities I had pre-planned, we will probably end up doing a lapbook every other big topic (so our next one will be for the Revolutionary War). That seems to be a happy medium for everyone/everything, especially for me since they are a pain in the butt to prep for (no offense to lapbooks).

successful lapbook front exterior

successful lapbook back exterior

successful lapbook inside

As much as I’d like to bask in the successes of our first semester, it’s back to reality on Tuesday and I still need to finalize the primary source assignment the kids will be reading to get a first hand look at the English Civil War. I hope you all enjoy what’s left of Thanksgiving break!

Trying Something New….Again

Posted on November 15, 2015 by Stephanie's History Store

This is our last week before Thanksgiving Break so I figured I’d try something new with my students. One of the really nice things about this home school setting is that I more or less have a lot of liberty in choosing (experimenting really) with the activities the kids do. We only have one week to talk about Queen Elizabeth I and since it’s right before break I know the kids will only be half focused, so instead of something big like a primary source analysis, or starting something that would take more than a week like a lapbook (I don’t want them to have work hanging over their heads over break), I had to think of something short, sweet, to the point, but (hopefully) engaging.

At my daughter’s daycare, they recently traced the kids’ whole bodies on butcher paper and they kids got to decorate them however they wanted (lots of fingerprint and stickers, haha), so that actually ended up being my inspiration for this Queen Elizabeth I activity.

I traced my daughter’s body on paper from her art easel and I will hang that up in our classroom this week. I compiled biographical information on Queen Elizabeth I, I will divide the students into pairs, and each pair will read the mini-biography and find certain pieces of information. One pair will find two places Elizabeth visited and write those locations in the traced feet. They will also write a sentence or two explaining the purpose of Elizabeth’s visit there. Another pair will find two things Elizabeth accomplished during her reign, write one on each traced hand, and also provide an identification for them. Another pair will find two beliefs she had and write them in the traced head with identifications. The last pair will find two items Elizabeth “said” (orders she gave, laws she made sure got passed, etc) and write and identify them by the traced mouth. Lastly, each student will decide what they think was most interesting about Elizabeth I/her reign and write that in the torso.

I think the kids will like it, I’m just hoping it doesn’t take more than an hour. I might have to trim down the biographical information a bit just in case. Or, I leave it as is and just give the older students more responsibility. I have time to decide, we’ll be doing this activity Tuesday.

For reference, here is the “after” picture. The activity went over pretty well, you can read about it HERE.

Queen Elizabeth I review

Why Use TpT In Your Curriculum?

Posted on November 8, 2015 by Stephanie's History Store

Especially for secondary teachers, the decision to make their first purchase on Teachers Pay Teacher can a difficult one. It is essentially expected, an unwritten rule if you will, that secondary teachers should make their own resources and curriculum supplements. Well, here are 33 reasons (including one by me) why secondary teachers (and their students!!!) would benefit from TpT resources.

TpT and secondary teachers

Lapbooks Round 2

Posted on November 7, 2015 by Stephanie's History Store

Well round 2 of lapbooking was a (mostly) huge success and we will for sure be using them in Music Theory next week! This time around I had 20 explorers for the kids to choose from (no duplicates) and they made a lapbook about their explorer’s life/times/accomplishments/failures/etc. They were able to format the lapbooks however they wanted, so since each kid would be putting theirs together differently, I started class by immediately going into the academic requirements for the lapbooks then letting the kids pick their explorer and start working. I wanted them to have as much time in class to put them together and start researching as possible. However, looking back, I think it was a mistake to not prep them first for actually putting their lapbooks together themselves (beyond what I had introduced at the end of class the previous week).

After our usual intro to class, I started with the requirements like, “your completed lapbooks must include where he explored, what his fate was, relations with local natives, if anything/anywhere was named after him, etc” (there were 19 things they had to include). Once the kids had the requirements written down (because they were going to be finishing them at home), I had them come to the front table in pairs and pick out their explorer, gather the supplies, then they got started. When they were seated with all their supplies I reminded them they could arrange the lapbooks however they wanted, and except for 3 of the features which we had already gone over, could include whichever pieces of information they wanted on whichever parts of the lapbook. Well, my giving them 97% free reign in the creativity department didn’t go over as well as I expected.

lapbooks in action

They struggled way more than I anticipated with having the flexibility to be creative. I thought they would have thought, “awesome, I can do this however I want” but I can’t tell you how many kids asked “what should I put here” or “where should this piece go” to which I consistently responded “whatever/where ever you want.” Since we had done them in a predetermined way last week, I think they maybe thought lapbooks were supposed to look a certain way (even though I had been telling them repeatedly the final product can look however they wanted them to look, as long as all the academic requirements were met). Two pieces in particular seemed problematic to them: the long rectangle with 6 flaps and the index card type piece. After half the kids asked what to put on those pieces, I got the attention of the whole class, and I emphasized again that except for the venn diagram, quote bubbles, and 4 square, they could put any of the required information on any of the lapbook features. I said if you need a direction to go in, I had envisioned the 6-flap piece having requirements abc and the index card having requirements xyz, but I did tell them one more time that they could decide for themselves what they put where.

making their lapbooks

So probably half the class time today was just spent on them putting their lapbooks together (which honestly was totally fine, they were going to have to do a decent amount of research at home to get all the information to complete them anyway). The kids were quiet for most of class, other than to ask me questions. I actually said to them at one point, “you guys can talk and socialize while you work,” and they chuckled, but then went back to being completely engrossed in their work.

Side note: For the students that finished assembling their books before class ended, I had a few reference books with me so they could start researching their explorer, and I was VERY happy to see that they all knew how to use a table of contents and the index of the books. One of the most frustrating things for me was when my sophomores didn’t know how to use an index, but then here is a room full of middle schoolers and they’re rocking it! That was a really nice surprise this week…my faith in the future was a smidgen restored 🙂

I do think the more we use them the more comfortable they’ll be with having a certain degree of flexibility so I definitely see the potential here. We’ll see how they do with them in Music Theory next week (they’re each going to make a lapbook for a composer)…maybe the 3rd time will be the charm in terms of getting a handle on them, then we can use them more frequently and make them at a higher level next semester. If you’re interested, you can read about round 1 HERE.

making their explorer lap books

making their explorer lapbooks

My First Experience with Lapbooks

Posted on November 1, 2015 by Stephanie's History Store

I honestly think one of the most important qualities of a teacher is the willingness to also be a learner. To keep up with changes in kids, society, education, and to increase your mastery in your content area (or to add mastery of a new one), you really have to be constantly learning and open to learning.

Well, my most recent learning experience was with lapbooks. I was asked to incorporate lapbooking into my Geography/History class and I of course said yes, but inside I was freaking out. They wanted me to start the next week, and I had never even seen a lapbook in real life. Not to mention I was really excited about (and proud of) the curriculum I had already designed and since I only have 1 hour a week with these kids in class I knew I’d have to make some major curriculum changes.

I first turned to some TpT friends to learn about lapbooks. They pointed me in the direction of resources, they calmed my anxiety, and based on one of their recommendations I was even able to begin using them for mini-units instead of completely replacing everything I had planned. Things quickly got even more interesting: none of my students had lapbooked before either! I did not hide my inexperience with lapbooks from my students. I told them up front that we would be learning about them together.

To make the transition a bit smoother, I decided that the first time we do this we would all make the same lapbook. This one right here:

front flaps of our first lapbook

interior of lapbook

back of lap book

I thought if the format and material were the same we would all jump in feet first but holding hands. After assembling the lap books, as a class they helped each other remember the who/what/where/when/how/why type information and filled all that out, then they did the personalization parts individually. We usually do 2 or 3 activities each class so I was holding my breath that they would stay on point with just one task all class and they did! In fact, they didn’t even realize it when class ended! I think they really liked how hands on it was, that they could in a way pick and choose what information they included, that there was room for their opinions, and that they saw the potential in where the lapbooks could go. Talk about a huge sigh of relief!

When we wrap up our Exploration/Explorers Unit this week my kids will lapbook again to review the whole unit. They will design them themselves this time and they will each be responsible for different parts of the unit’s information–come back next week for that post. You can see below round 2 of our lapbooks are almost classroom ready, I just have to print out a few more options for the kids to choose from. We will then set up the completed lapbooks around the room and the students will recap their explorer or topic for each other.

first time using lapbooks

So after talking to teachers who have used them before and finally seeing them in real life, turns out lapbooks themselves aren’t all that intimidating, but figuring out which features to print out and use was overwhelming…there are a TON of options out there…and doing the prep work was time consuming…but, overall it was quite a hit and I have to say, I’m looking forward to using them again! Click HERE to read about my round 2 with lapbooks. I think I will even have my Music Theory kids make lapbooks for the composers in our next unit.

The features on this lapbook and those from my post next week are of course from TpT (Kathy Hutto), from fellow co-op teachers via pinterest, chalk spot, homeschool share, and homeschool helper.

Stephanie's History Store

History Teacher, Wife, Mom, Traveler, Foodie, Reader

Monthly Archives: November 2015

Why Use TpT In Your Curriculum?