Rockin' Teacher Materials: lapbooks

9:00 AM

Happy New Year! I am still on break and relaxing one more day before we head back tomorrow. We have a teacher work day and then the tiny humans are back on Tuesday. Like most of the human race I always have great intentions for the New Year. I am a person who likes to implement too many new things, so I am here to tell you choose 1-2 new things to implement in your classroom for the New Year.

I am always thinking ahead and NOW is the time for you to be thinking about February and Black History Month. Why?! February is such a short month that if you start thinking about it now, I promise it will seem less stressful later. So this post is all about prep for February and making your life easier.

Ok here's some ideas for you and what I will be doing, but I am going to start NOW so that I am ready.

So if you are overwhelmed, stick to my advice and choose ONE of these activities!

1. Biography Puzzles: These are printable and you have FOUR people to research and learn about. There are 4 weeks in February... coincidence?! Study one person per week by reading aloud a picture book (yes older kids still like these) and working through the reading, writing, and puzzles as a class, partner, or individual. This is a super LOW prep option. This can also be an independent study. Have students choose maybe 2 people and then they have 2 weeks to work on them.

2. Biography Lapbook: The great thing about this is that it can be used for ANY person to research, so if you don't get around to this for February, you can have in your back pocket for any person!

Tip: If you have younger kids and any parent help, have a parent cut out the shapes and help you assemble OR send this home for a project that will be ongoing. Parents can pick-up and do the prep at home for you!

First I have students choose from a list 3-4 people they are interested in. I did NOT have them choose MLK. We do so much with him that he wasn't a choice. Once they narrow down their person, we start with the timeline.

I use Pebble Go for my students because it is super easy to navigate. It's a research site that our school subscribes to. Most schools or libraries have a kid friendly database which is easy to use for Biography research. I would check with your Media Specialist or look online for an option that is user friendly. Your media specialist may even have some books he/she can pull for you OR ask your local library to pull them now for you!

After students chose their person; they took notes about the character traits (I did a separate lesson on this) and chose a few vocabulary words. I used this dictionary and some picture books. Check out my other blog on Character Traits.

Here's a picture of one of the finished products.

I also gave my students scrapbook paper that I had laying around to use to glam this up! Don't be afraid to send home some portions of this as homework! There are a lot of parts so maybe you don't have time to do them all. You could easily pair this down to make it more manageable for you!

Check out this also for Biography Projects for Research. You have templates to assist your students in their Biography Project to present. This would be a great alternative if you don't have time for the lapbook and you are able to give students CHOICE!

3. Last is a NO PREP Digital Escape Room on Civil Rights. It has some of the same people as the above #1, so you could do both or just stick to this one.

This has video, reading passages, and puzzles to solve. So if you are short on time- I would highly recommend using this as your resource.

Remember this is YOUR year. I will be making a plan and trying my best to stick to it.

Cheers for the New Year!

Biography Lapbook Fun-CCSS for Writing

7:51 PM

With all of the research requirements in the common core, I wanted to create experiences for my 2nd graders that were meeting those requirements as well as being meaningful to my students. I decided I would have them write a biography report. This is how we got it started.

We have an awesome resource available to us at our school called www.pebblego.com. I had the kids explore all around the biography section. I then gave them some guidelines for which people could be chosen. (I decided on African Americans and women) Of course, you can use books or other resources as well.

The kids then explored the people from the categories I chose. (Little do they know, they were learning a lot about a lot of different people! hehehehe) They then wrote down their top 3 or 4 people they would like to research. (I just had them write their choices on sticky notes.)

I went through and made sure to choose something from their list, but figured it out so they all were researching someone different. Oh, and I also took MLK out since we do so much with him.

We started our research with the timeline. I gave the students their timeline note page (included in this pack) so they could record the important dates and events.

Pebble Go has linked vocabulary that tells the kids what that word means. They record the definition (in their own words) on the vocabulary recording sheet.

The children then research their facts. I had them do most of this part at home so parents could help with the ‘in your own words’ part.

The only section that was left to complete was the character traits part. I put pages of traits and definitions into page protectors in 3-prong file folder. The kids had a mini-dictionary to refer to the definition of the various traits.

We completed this during guided reading groups. That way, I was able to work with a small group at a time. The children chose traits that they thought represented their person. They then wrote what their person did to earn the trait.

Now we were ready for the fun part . . . the organization of all our information. I’ve recently gotten ‘into’ lapbooks and have seen all sorts of neat ones around. However, I haven’t been able to find one that would work for anyone that we wanted to research. So, we got down to work. The kids chose a colored file folder.

We then folded each side so they met in the middle. I was amazed at how well they did. They then glued a piece of construction paper in the middle to make it sturdier.

I had a few of the foldables that were required for each lapbook and also provided extra booklets they could use for extra information.

After I showed the kids how to fold and assemble their foldables, I showed them a sample I made. I then put out some fun paper from my scrapbook table at home. You know, the one that has all the stuff and not very many completed projects? The kids got started on their research foldable. I was flabbergasted at the mess we created!