America Unit Wrap Up!

A couple weeks ago I posted the start of my America Unit and I planned on posting each week after that...I am not quite sure what happened haha! So here is a little wrap up of some other activities we did during our unit and let me tell you...this unit may have been my children's favorite unit this year!!

Throughout the unit we continued to write in our 'All About America' books. The children had a total of 7 pages included in their book by the end of the unit - The American Flag, Statue of Liberty, Liberty Bell, Bald Eagle, White House, George Washington, and Abraham Lincoln. 

 They were SO proud of these books and so excited to take them home to share with their family!

We had lots of centers going on throughout our unit! In our last math chapter we were working on numbers 11-20.  This is something my children definitely needed extra practice with. I have a handful of students that are still writing their numbers backwards, so this center was the perfect practice for them...Washington's Roll and Write!

 We have also been working on unscrambling sentences. I saw a HUGE difference in my children's ability to complete this center independently during this unit then from our last unit.

 Write the room...always a favorite! This time I actually put this center as a part of their 'read to someone' center.  After they wrote all of their words, they had to sit in the library and read the words to their buddy.  I love watching them read together!

 We are continuing to work on addition and subtraction.  Not going to lie...my students are getting awesome with their addition facts! ;)

 We also used this Label It sheet from Deedee Wills February Writing pack. I love her writing centers pack!

During the America unit I tried something new...QR codes! This is a listening comprehension pack from Mary at Sharing Kindergarten on Presidents.  Before centers started I demonstrated how to use QR cards. The children were super excited to get started!  

 I made sure to show them how to rewind as well.  This way, if they missed an answer for their recording sheet, they could rewind and listen again.  My students actually did really well with the QR center for their first time.  I had some students that had to rewind a couple times because they kept missing answers; however, that just showed me that we need to continue using centers like this (and I already have my next QR center for weather ready to go).

We added the Presidents poem into our poetry notebooks.  I am proud to say that my entire class knows ALL of the presidents!!  

Loved this picture of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, I just had to share it! SO cute!

This last activity was something that I totally 'winged' one day and it ended up being my absolute favorite!! It is nothing new and I am sure you have done this activity in your class before, but it was awesome!

In our social studies text books the previous day there was a little section where the children had to write about what they would do if they were the president.  After we wrote in our books I had each child stand up and read what they would do.  Then I decided to give each student a small piece of paper and let them vote on one person who they would like to be the class president for the day (after hearing what they wrote). I explained to them that voting is a secret and it isn't something we should discuss.  We even talked about how you don't just vote for someone that you like the best, it is important to think about what they are going to DO for YOU! After they voted I tallied up the ballots and one of the little girls won who wrote, 'I would put bad people in jail and give free money to all the good people.'  So for the rest of the day the kids had to call her President Rebecca :)  At the end of the day they asked me who was going to be the class president tomorrow?  So I told them that we could do this one more time, BUT if they wanted to win, they needed to think about what a good president would say.  I told them they may want to go home and talk to their parents and brainstorm some good ideas!

Sure enough, as soon as I opened my door the next morning, the first little one said, 'My mom told me a great idea of how I can become the president!'  I was so happy that they got their parents involved! 

 During writing they all filled out their sheet I found free HERE at First Grade Fanatics.  Then, each child stood up and read what they would do.  They had the cutest ideas!!

The student below ended up winning and he gave total credit to his mom for the wonderful idea: "When I become president I will give an iPad to everyone and make a water park at the school."  (I think the kids are over getting sand in the shoes at the sand park everyday!)  He was so cute after he won, he drew plans for the future water park!

"When I become president I will make better food at restaurants and schools and give free money."  I think they thought the free money from yesterday would be a sure win on this day! haha

Now we are moving on to our Weather Unit, but we sure did learn a lot during our America Unit!!