America Unit: Week 1

The America unit is definitely one of my favorite units to teach! We learn about the American symbols for the entire month of February.  

I started the unit off this year with a KWL on America/American Flag. 

After a couple days of reading books on the American Flag we began to learn about the Liberty Bell. Since I love making our KWLs on the white board (even though I know it looks like a mess!), I had to erase the American Flag KWL to make room for our next one. So, I transferred all of my students knowledge onto an anchor chart that I will leave hanging for the remainder of the unit.

When we wrapped up learning about the American Flag, students added their new knowledge into their 'All About America' nonfiction books.

After reading America Is...by Louise Borden, we water colored the United States (just like the children in the book). 

They had a blast with this!  I think anytime I let them use paint they stay quiet and on task ;)

When they were finished drying, we cut the map out, glued it onto red paper, and added a title.  They are currently hanging on one of our bulletin boards and they look great!

In reading, I have really been focusing on sight words and CVC words with my beginning reader group.

They played I Love America, which is very similar to Bam! These games are their favorite!

We also made our very own American flags to display in class.

Each student had to cut 7 red stripes.

Then they added the blue canton.

And used their finger prints to make the stars! 

They are so proud of these flags. They keep asking me when they can take them home!

We also worked on listening for middle sounds.  These 'Monument Middle' cards had the wrong middle sound and students had to figure out which middle sound to change it to. They did great!

 In math we are currently working on numbers 11-20.  In this activity, Patriotic Ten Frames, students had to count the number of images on the card and record the number on their activity sheet. 

 Then, they had to fill in their ten frames correctly.  This will definitely be a center I continue.  I still have some students writing their numbers backwards ('61' for '16').

 In word work students matched up their beginning sound pictures to the correct letter to build the White House!  

Next week we are focusing on the Statue of Liberty and 

Bald Eagle! 

All of these activities can be found in my American Symbols Unit or February Word Work Unit on TPT.  The American Symbols Unit was just recently updated and I added over 50 pages.  If you already own this pack, make sure to download it again!