Totally Terrific Tagxedo

     We have begun our Long Ago and Today unit in Social Studies.  The students find this unit so interesting, and I love to teach them about how things have changed.  I love to invite older guests to come speak to our class about how life was long ago.  This year, we invited Mrs. Libby Durham.  Mrs. Durham is the mother of one of our kindergarten teachers, Mrs. Elizabeth Adams. Mrs. Durham is in her eighties, but she is quite the spry young lady.  She brought lots of interesting artifacts with her when she came to visit.  Some items included a washboard, an iron, quilts, shawls, a coffee grinder, a mattress warmer (this was the students' favorite item), and long satin gloves.  Mrs. Durham talked to the students about how her life was long ago.  She included interesting facts such as having to walk to school, packing her lunch everyday because there was no cafeteria and how going to school was optional.  We enjoyed Mrs. Durham's visit so much!  This gave the students visuals of actual items that were used in the past.  We really appreciate her coming to speak with us.
     I used Tagxedo with the students to compare schools long ago and today.  After comparing schools of today and long ago, I had the students give me words about school long ago.  I recorded their words on a Tagxedo image.  Then, I had them give me comparison words to describe how schools are today.  I put those words in a Tagxedo image as well.  The students absolutely LOVED the two images formed, and I did as well.  Please enjoy our images below.

                                               

      

Me on the Map

     We have recently concluded our unit on maps.  The first grade curriculum requires that the students know their planet, continent, country, state and city.  They must also know map symbols, cardinal directions, land formations, the state's capital and the country's capital.  Needless to say, this is a very challenging unit for some first graders.  It requires them to think "out of the box" in terms of their locality.  Most first graders don't comprehend "beyond" where they are at the present moment, and truthfully, some have never even heard of any place beyond their home.
     So, to tie this unit together, I read the book Me On The Map.  The book is about a little girl who begins telling the story about where she is presently at (in her bedroom).  She then goes to her neighborhood, then to her city, then to her state, on to her country, then to her continent and finally her planet.  By the end of the book, the little girl goes backwards through the localities and ends up back in her bedroom.  I love this book because it shows the students how their location can start "small" and end up "huge."  It also shares how we are a part of a great big world!
     To tie all of these facts together, our class created our own "Me On The Map" student-made booklet.  We started small (our house), then grew to our city , then our state, then our continent using the world map, then our planet. Each time our location grew and got bigger, the circle that we pasted our location on got bigger.  Then I bound all of our circles together.  The children loved the booklet.  It was a great visual for them to see how,  as the circles got larger each time, so did the size of their location.  This was a wonderful teaching tool to tie all of our studies together! I can thank Pinterest for this wonderful idea!   Enjoy the visuals below!