Sweet Treats: Black History Month Books & Freebie

Hey, y'all! It's Kristin from School and the City. Can you even believe that we are approaching the end of February?!

I hope you have enjoyed all of the treats from the other Primary Peaches so far this month. I've got some more fun for you!

As you know, February is black history month. This coincides perfectly with the civil rights unit that I am teaching right now! I love integrating social studies into my literacy block by finding kid lit that matches up with our social studies content. 

Here are some of my absolute FAVORITE children's books to use during black history month:

Ruby Bridges... I just love her and her story. I love the class The Story of Ruby Bridges, but I also love Through My Eyes which was, of course, written by Ruby herself. 

Martin's Big Words is my favorite MLK book. I love reading it on BookFlix, because the reader has such a deep, booming voice that keeps the kids completely engaged.

The Daring Escape of Ellen Craft is one of my favorite books that I use to teach the underground railroad. It's about slaves that disguise themselves to travel north to freedom.

Of course, you can't forget about the Who Was... (or Who Is...) books!

But my favorite of all is...

HENRY'S FREEDOM BOX

I ADORE this book. It's about Henry "Box" Brown, who was a slave that MAILED HIMSELF to Pennsylvania, a free state!!!! It's a true story! We talked about how desperate Henry must have been to put himself in a box for 27 hours in order to escape his current situation.

I brought in a box for kids to test out, and even wrote the address (from the book) on the outside. Each student took a turn sitting in the box and tried to get comfortable for a few minutes. Afterwards, they reflected and wrote about the experience and what Henry's experience may have been like.

Just for you... an exclusive freebie to supplement Henry's Freedom Box. 

For more fun ideas to use during Black History Month or while teaching the underground railroad, please visit my blog by clicking the image below!

Enjoy the rest of your February, and come back tomorrow for another Sweet treat!

For even more ideas from The Primary Peach, be sure to follow us on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook to catch all the latest news and updates!

4th Day of Winter: 4 Science and Social Studies Activities

Ready for some more great ideas?

The Primary Peach gave to meeeeee...

It's Jivey and Valerie, from Georgia Grown Kiddos, here to bring you some science and social studies FUN! First up, Jivey is going to share some things you can do in the upper grades.

SCIENCE: If you teach the weather cycle, this freebie will be great for you! Already taught it? No worries! It will be a great review, and you'll get in some awesome test prep, too. Your kids will be amazed at how snowflakes form and how different each one is, as well as how "Snowflake Bentley" was able to capture these unique crystals on film! Although it's geared for 4th-8th, 3rd-grade teachers, you could do this with some scaffolding and assistance in small groups very easily! You can read more about using this set of paired texts in this post!

SOCIAL STUDIES: Do you love teaching about the American Revolution as much as I do? Then you will LOVE this book! When Washington Crossed the Delaware is a very different kind of Christmas story, as Washington and his men crossed the icy Delaware River to surprise the Hessians:

It has beautiful pictures, as well as real quotes from some of the famous men of the time. You can also provide a little comic relief with this silly Sesame Street skit:

YES EVEN THE BIG KIDS LOVE SESAME STREET! My kids died laughing every year when I showed this!

Now, Valerie is going to share some science and social studies excitement for the young ones!

Hi y'all!  Thanks Jivey for the intro and sharing the day with me!  I have a super exciting activity for anyone, but especially the young ones!  I warn you; I love to make a mess and let the children play with it and get everything they can from the activity.  I saw this yesterday, and it pretty much sums up my approach to the day.

Now, on to the fun!

SCIENCE: I am inspired by Growing A Jeweled Rose to make this "learning experience".  It is Santa Toothpaste. Children can see and feel what happens when 2 or more solutions are combined.

To make Santa toothpaste you will need the following items.  Make sure you read through to the *tips list.

1 cup 6% or higher Hydrogen Peroxide*
1 squeeze dish soap*
desired amount green or red food coloring
desired amount peppermint extract
desired amount glitter, sparkles, fun add-ins
3 Tablespoons yeast*
6 Tablespoons warm water
empty water or similar bottle

*Tips:

• Dish soap- use a light colored liquid if possible, so the food coloring shows more true color.
• 6% Hydrogen peroxide is sold in beauty supply stores and pharmacy stores
• Using regular hydrogen peroxide will work, but it will not be as dramatic of a reaction.  (that is what I used)
• Use fresh yeast packs.  It will take 3 small packs to make 3 tablespoons
• Complete the activity somewhere you can spray off (we did ours on the driveway) or can get messy.

Directions:
Combine the following in the water bottle, careful not to shake the bottle,

• 6% or higher Hydrogen Peroxide*
• dish soap*
• green or red food coloring
• peppermint extract
• glitter, sparkles, fun add-ins

Once you have combined the solution, gently swirl the ingredients together.  

In a separate container, add the warm water and yeast together and mix until there are no lumps in the solution.

Add the yeast solution quickly to the bottle of the first solution.  

The reaction is quick so be ready!

SOCIAL STUDIES: Santa needs help!!  You need social studies skill review.  Here is a solution for you both!  Santa is lost and will need the children's help to travel around the world.  This social studies freebie uses the continents and oceans as a way to help Santa find his way around the world. Click on the image below to link to the download.

Make sure to come back tomorrow for three MORE ideas- this time for seasonal writing!

PIN FOR LATER:

For even more ideas from The Primary Peach, be sure to follow us on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook to catch all the latest news and updates!

Integrating Social Studies and Reading

 Hey guys! It is Science and Social Studies Saturday and I am squeaking in at the last minute with a post! Fingers crossed I can get this done before midnight! LOL!

I wanted to share a few ideas on how to integrate Social Studies and Reading. In second and third grade there are a TON of historical figures to study.  They are perfect for a biography study!

 Biographies are a great introduction to informational writing because they tend be sequential and follow the life of the person studied, with a clear beginning, middle, and end.  It has a somewhat similar story structure to narrative. This makes it more familiar to most students.

However, the big elephant in the room?  Grade appropriate text.  Yah.  Finding stuff on Mary McLeod Bethune for a third grader to read independently is not so easy! LOL!

So here are a few suggestions.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE using science and social studies books for  reading mini lessons.  They still cover the content, and can also touch on those important people.  I will say, I usually do NOT read a biographical book about the individual in reading  until we have explored the person a few days in social studies.  That way, students have a bit of background before plunging into informational text.

However, there are lots of great LITERARY texts about time periods or experiences that can be great to build background, too.

I love reading Freedom Summer before learning about MLK and Jackie Robinson.  

You can read the lesson I did with that book here.

I haven't read this book (yet), but it looks like a great way to introduce the struggle of not being able to do something or follow your dream, because of something outside of your control (race, gender)- and then breaking through barriers!

In the beginning of the year I use the book, More than Anything Else to teach a Hopes and Dreams lesson.  I love, love, love, it.  However, the book could also be read later in the year as a preview for not being able to do something (learn to read) due to race.

You can get that lesson, free on my blog here.

I have found it really difficult to find text on many of the figures for my students- especially when I taught third grade.  Here is a list that I put together from my Informational Writing Unit. They are for research, but you could also use them for read alouds.

 

Click here or on the pictures to get your free copy! 

Here is the full unit. You can check out the unit in my TPT store here!

I think my biggest struggle is to find grade appropriate texts the kids can read independently.  Some of the books on the list above may fit.  Unfortunately, whenever you are dealing with informational text, often the readability is just stinkin' so high!

Even the little readers provided by my district were WAAAAYYY too high for many of my students.

I decided to write some leveled, guided reading texts about the figures so there could be more accessible texts for students.  So far I have written two packs: one on Jackie Robinson (2nd) and one on Susan B. Anthony (3rd). 

Each pack contains three, leveled readers (about a beginning, middle, and end of the grade level) as well as other activities.

I am hoping to write more of these  because I know that teachers need them! I also have a little, EXCLUSIVE freebie for you from the Susan B. Anthony pack! Just a few writing activities that can be done with my pack OR without it :).  Hopefully it helps!

Just click on the picture to get your freebie!!! Hopefully , this post gave you a few ideas on integrating!

Social Studies Saturday!

Hey y'all! It's Jivey from Ideas By Jivey, bringing you some Social Studies FUN today!

Every Saturday on Primary Peach, one of our Peachy Authors will be bringing you some science or social studies ideas!

Today, I'm going to share about a fun way I have my students keep track of what we learn during our Westward Expansion Unit, and it's a great project grade!

We make ABC Books! 

You could do these with any unit, but there are SO many topics in Westward Expansion, it works out to cover all of the letters. Here are some of their fabulous pages!

They really enjoy showing off what we learn. I have them work on it through the whole unit. When we finish something that is in their ABC Book, they go ahead and work on it... so they aren't working from A to Z.

It's so funny to see what they remember from what they learn... case in point: BUFFALO.

Ha! Yes, that is correct. They used buffalo chips (poop) to burn fires. :o)

Would you like to use this ABC Book in your classroom? Grab it here!

And of course, if they worked so hard on it, they should get a grade! Click here for an easy-to-use rubric to grade their ABC Book!

I hope you'll enjoy these freebies in your classroom!

Remember, you can do this with any science or social studies unit! Another variation you could do of this is Alphaboxes. It's like an ABC Book, but all on one page. You could also have the students brainstorm for each of the letters and create their own list to turn into an ABC Book or Alphaboxes!

See you soon!

Using the Trading Card app to teach Social Studies

Hello Fabulous Followers!

It's Erin from The Elementary Darling. Welcome to day three of our blog :) 

We are so excited that you have stopped by !

Today is our first post for Technology Tuesday and I will be talking about how I use the Trading Card app for my students to learn Social Studies!

Just a little recap, I teach first grade Advanced Content and Gifted students. I am constantly looking for new ways to make Social Studies interesting. I know we aren't the only grade with a ton of people to learn about, so this app allows for some creativity while learning. One great thing about the Trading Card app is that it is FREE! Free, my friends, you can't beat that! It is also made by readwritethink.org so you know that it is going to be a great resource!

Basically you can use this for SO many different things, but the feature that I want to show you today is the "Real Person" feature. As you can tell from the picture, you could use this for characters in a book, a place you are learning about (Georgia of course :)) or any other wonderful topics!

First you click the card you would like to make. I chose Real Person. Then type in your topic name into the card title. This week we are learning about George Washington Carver.

Next, you  create a new card.

Then, you type in your information. Some of the information may be harder for younger students, so for my kiddos I skipped the quotes section. They can even change their card design, which they love!

Front of the card

Back of the card

These can be emailed or saved. If your students have access to send them, it really would be a great way to share with other students. Since my students are young, I had them complete this activity on paper before they typed them. It helps us organize our thoughts. 

I created a freebie just for you guys! I hope you can use this for one of your lessons in the future!

(Please excuse my terrible drawing skills, the students haven't finished their papers yet.) ;)

Get your freebie here!