Landforms and Spring Break! - Around the Kampfire

Ahhhh, Spring Break! We were off last week and I thoroughly enjoyed every second of my
restful and semi-productive 9 days! I say semi-productive because I didn’t get as far ahead
in planning for school as I wanted…..

(My school bag still sitting where I left it the Friday afternoon that began my break!) I used to
bring this home every.single.day overflowing with things to work on or grade. Needless to say,
I’m trying to find some balance!

But… I did accomplish my Spring Break bucket list! I had 3 goals for the week…

Goal 1: To get the mirror that’s been sitting in the corner of my bedroom up against the wall
(for 7 months!) hung up ON the wall! (Check!)

Goal 2: To get my hair done! (Check!) My daughter is a hair stylist and when she started cosmetology school several years ago I thought, “Oh, yes! I’ll never have roots again!” Well, nothing could be farther from the truth! Between her busy work and social life schedule and my crazy schedule it’s hard to find the time. But we did it!)

Goal 3: To finish my landforms unit! (Check!) Last year I decided I would put together all of my landforms, oceans, and continents ideas, projects, and resources into a complete unit with lesson plans, assessments etc. Unfortunately, I decided this after we had done the unit and I didn’t take pictures of any of our projects. When I make units I like to include pictures of not only the completed projects but the process that got us there. I like to include any anchor charts we’ve made, and whatever else we do to give teachers ideas and help clarify the activities. So I held off until this year and made sure to get pictures of our islands and narrative writing projects.

I’ve been doing this in my classroom for a few years now and my kiddos LOVE it! They love building the landforms and even my most reluctant writers get so creative with the writing project!
I love it because I can combine writing, science, and ELA standards! Especially now with Common Core, I’m teaching more cross-curricular than ever with what seems like less time than ever, so I like to be able to hit several standards at once.

Along with a two-week lesson plan and assessments this unit includes a culminating landform building,

map making, and creative narrative writing project.

I spend a lot of time working with my kiddos on being able to verbalize what they know.
“Telling” about their knowledge is the first step to being able to write about it.
I’ve included a ‘Geography Jabber’ activity to help support listening and speaking standards
as well as student’s ability to later respond in writing.

There are 2 versions of the flap book that are very versatile.
They can be used for researching and writing facts about a particular continent,
ocean, or landform,
defining and illustrating, comparing, or classifying.

Graphic organizers and charts in color for introducing lessons,
as well as black and white student versions.
This unit also includes 3 pages of assessments.