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Teaching Timelines: August Calendar

7/28/2019

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The classroom calendar is a perennial wall hanging in almost every elementary classroom across the country.  Many are decorated with seasonal pattern cut-outs such as red apple, yellow apple, green apple (can you tell I taught Kindergarten?) or fall leaves in various color patterns.  Teachers use the calendar as daily tool to show holidays, school events, a way to count to the 100th day of school, and classmates' birthdays.  However, for so many of us, the challenge of carving out time is an ever present battle during instruction.  

A couple of years ago, while I was teaching timelines in class, I realized that I needed to be more intentional with my calendar time and could incorporate quality literature while connecting them to the classroom calendar and the larger timelines that I teach in class.  I have streamlined my calendar design and added new history makers for students to learn about.  I have tried to share not only my favorite grade level books, but some other strong pieces of literature for upper grades.  I use these books as part of our regularly scheduled read aloud time.  Additionally, I have MANY Youtube cues that I continue to add to for each month (I will share more later).  

If you are interested in using this in your classroom, the August file can be found on my Teachers Pay Teachers site for FREE for the month of August.  Additionally, if you are interested in any of the book recommendations, please click on the images below to go to my Amazon Affiliate store.  
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Landing on the Moon-50 Years Later

7/20/2019

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Be honest...when you were a kid, how many of you thought it would be cool to be an astronaut?  If you didn't, you certainly had a friend who did.  The picture above was taken in the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History's gift shop while on an adventure with my nerdy history friend Jessica.         I couldn't resist.   My kids are going to love it, particularly as we have a year long space theme (among other themes) going on in class this upcoming school year.  I am busily researching STEAM projects we can explore in class.  

So much of my social studies instruction is based upon teaching timelines that having a focused theme on space exploration will be a timely touch.  I have to admit that I am a bit partial this year as I am celebrating the same number.  I am still searching for the perfect t-shirt to add to my collection for teaching history.  I'll keep you posted.

As always when teaching timelines, I LOVE finding new children's literature to support our studies.  Whenever there is a big anniversary celebration coming out, authors are quick to think ahead and write for the event.  Recently, I have become obsessed with the new line of Little Golden Books of historical events/characters.  I recently picked up the new Statue of Liberty on our last visit.  I was pleased to see a new one focusing on the first moon landing.  Additionally, if you are unfamiliar with Chris Gall, he published a book on America The Beautiful that has incredible illustrations to use with your students and I am excited to get my hands on Go For The Moon.  Admittedly, I don't have either book YET, but have added them to my Amazon cart.  Please click on the images below if you would like to order from Amazon as well.  I am Neil Armstrong is a new addition to Brad Meltzer's series.

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As I mentioned earlier, almost all of my social studies teaching centers around teaching timelines.  I have discovered over the last many years that students find great success when given the ability to organize people and events via a master timeline.  I have many mini-timelines that merge into my GIANT anchor chart and the history makers from this mini timeline are then embedded into the larger.  Please enjoy the images below as a small sample of the MEGA pack that can be found on Teachers Pay Teachers if you are interested.
space exploration Mega Pack
Lastly, no major event would be complete without a GOOGLE DOODLE! Yes, I love them and this one is particularly grand.  The eagle has landed!!
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It's National Haiku Poetry Day!

4/17/2016

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This is one of my favorite times of the year (ok, I have many)!  My first graders are now independent enough that we have projects going on all over the classroom.  In honor of Poetry Month and National Haiku Poetry Day, we will begin our class book of Moffat USA haikus.  Above is a sampling of some of the pages in years past created by the students.

I will be formatting the planning pages and accompanying Moffat images soon for my TeachersPayTeachers store so that others may join in in creating one in their classroom.  For a very professional look, I then upload my images to Shutterfly and make the book available to my students' parents to purchase.  It's a great end of year project!  Enjoy!
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Happy BIrthday Nellie Bly!

5/5/2015

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History Calendar for Elementary Classroom on TPT (Nellie is featured in May)
Happy birthday to Nellie Bly, female journalist and role model!  Nellie lived during a period in American history when women were not allowed to vote and one of the only true "suitable" jobs for a woman was that of a teacher (not that that is a bad profession). Instead, Nellie went on to do undercover reporting and eventually went on to break Jules Verne's fictitious "Around The World In 80 Days" calculation. She completed the journey in a record breaking 72 days!   She did not like to take "no" for an answer.  Nellie's  own motto being "Energy rightly applied and directed will accomplish anything." It is such a simple motto, but one that I truly admire and strive for daily.  Happy birthday Nellie!  You are an inspiration!
Google Doodles has done it yet again!  It ALWAYS thrills me to see one of these pop up while researching.  I admire the individuals that possess such creative abilities and appreciate the fun historical information.
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Nellie Bly Resource Website
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Go Google!  Happy 113th Birthday to Langston Hughes for the beginning of Black History Month!

2/1/2015

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I'm extremely excited to teach in the month of February!  Between Black History Month, Mardi Gras, Presidents' Day and Laura Ingalls Wilder's birthday, we have a ton of great learning coming up!!  I am thrilled every time I go to Google and they post one of their doodles.  You never know when they will show up and they never fail to inspire me with the level of creativity in the piece.

I have been working very hard on some new products for my Teachers Pay Teachers store for Black History Month.  Please take the time to look at African American History Characters Powerpoint and Timeline and Characters in African American History Timeline,  Quotes and Primary Source Cards. Both products are appropriate for all elementary grades and offer information on a wide variety of people.  Geography and math are easily incorporated for cross-curricular studies. Both products are on sale through February 3rd.
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Happy Birthday Jackie Robinson!

1/31/2015

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For as long as I can remember in my teaching career, I have enjoyed quality children's literature.  This is still one of my greatest joys and an argument for why we need to be teaching history to young students.  History is one GIANT collection of amazing stories and how easy it is to discuss character, setting, problem, solution and sequence of events.  I say this now more than ever!  The fabulous books on Jackie Robinson are no exception and the diversity of formats is wide.

Below is a Youtube link to my favorite Jackie Robinson book.  It is written by his daughter, Sharon, and illustrated by the talented Kadir Nelson. Enjoy!
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The Jackie Robinson image above is featured in my History Calendar product on TPT.
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Happy Birthday FDR!

1/30/2015

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If you have not discovered the Time For Kids Biography series of books, take the time to check them out!  There are over a dozen titles easily found on Amazon or the book store. As research shows that students need to be reading 50 percent non-fiction text, these books offer valuable information in a highly engaging layout including many text features. Additionally, for those schools that participate in the Accelerated Reader program, the book has a corresponding quiz.  I often use these books on the document camera to highlight important tidbits that we are focusing on.  
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NOTE: The FDR image above is from my History Calendar packet found on TPT.
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National Dog Day

8/26/2014

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National Postal Museum
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Owney on Teachers Pay Teachers
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The timing for National Dog Day happened to be rather perfect.  It's the time of year in first grade that we begin our studies about writing and social studies by learning about Owney, the Railway Mail Dog Mascot.  

I discovered Owney and his wonderful story by reading a picture book and I immediately wanted to know more.  I discovered that Owney now "lives" at the Smithsonian's National Postal Museum.   They have a TON of resources for download including videos, photographs, books and a song. Download it all, it's wonderful.  

Two years ago, I created our own Owney to cut and create in class and added his metal tags that are available from the Smithsonian.  It is one of my favorite projects!  

In honor of National Dog Day, I have uploaded that creation along with some Owney trading cards and other resources to Teachers Pay Teachers and it is FREE!!!  SHARE AWAY and ENJOY!!!
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On This Day In History...Annie Oakley's Birthday

8/13/2014

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Happy Birthday to Annie Oakley!

For three years, I was fortunate enough to study with a TAH (Teaching American History) group of teachers.  It changed how I look at history and made me even more passionate.

One year, as we were learning how to use PhotoStory, we had one particular instructor who LOVED Annie Oakley.  I, myself, find her very fascinating and love to weave her story in with my tall tales units in my classroom.  The image on the upper right is part of my new timeline/primary source trading cards that will be up on TPT soon. 
 
In the meantime, look at some of my favorite book recommendations and other TPT products from other authors to learn more about Annie.
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STRONG CHILDREN by Frederick Douglass

8/4/2014

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With school starting across the country, we all understand the importance of this quote. Whether your school has already started, you are just stepping back into the bare room or are staring at that empty planner, all of us approach our day with the understanding that we are helping to build strong, curious and productive citizens. We take our jobs very seriously and Frederick Douglass knew the importance of childhood.

This photo is taken from one of my TPT timeline sets.  I use a ton of primary source images in my classroom to familiarize my students with how to analyze them and prepare them for intermediate grades when they will be analyzing them for state testing.  
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    Christy Howard
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    Passionate about photography, travel and teaching social studies to young learners.

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  • Moffat's Blog
  • About
  • My Support People
  • Geography in the Classroom
  • History In The Classroom
  • Diverse Kids
  • Honors and Continued Work
  • #Blog365
  • #historymakers