NEW UNIT STARTS ON MONDAY! New unit means new seats, new groups, new vocabulary, new centers, and new bulletin boards! All my favorite things!
This new unit is on Landforms and Geography, with a hint of Geology. I am taking this morning to dive into the unit and the associated texts to see what we can do. The hard part about having two non-fiction units in a row is coming up with creative ways to practice providing text-based evidence and opinion writing.
A geography unit should be ALL hands on and involve building these different landforms instead of looking at them in a book - so that is the barrier I am facing this morning. Any suggestions?
The one thing I know for sure is that our new reading center is going to be Yogi's Book Choice. With this center, students are going to have the opportunity to read books of their choice (typical read to self center), but also have the chance to incorporate yoga movements. They love doing yoga brain breaks, and I think that this center will be an opportunity to do this structured movement. Also, it will give them a complete space to themselves. Read to self sometimes turns into "cuddle puddle reading," or "giggle goose time," and Mrs. Terlop isn't having any of that. We're getting ready for 3rd grade after all!
By the end of this unit, my hope is that students are utilizing the read to self space as a safe place to move and read. Their Cornerstone project will consist of them making an island that represents themselves. Below is a preview of my example: Terloptopia. Each of the landforms on my island are named after gemstones (to bring in that geology aspect of the unit)!
Monday can't come soon enough!
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