History and short Vowel B-I-N-G-O how can you go Wrong?

I know Thanksgiving has come and gone, but I thought this would be a nice thing to share. We did a huge unit on Thanksgiving in November. I decided to teach primary sources using a fantastic web site made to teach children not only about the real "first" Thanksgiving, but how to be a historian. 

The children were engaged, but honestly I wish I had 21 iPads to make the lesson that much more fun! We compared the research to our trade books and discovered a few facts, that were just not facts!

 

I was really excited when I found these Sentence Shuffles on Teachers pay Teachers. The best part was, that the children had to piece together the sentences and then decide if it was a fact from a primary, secondary source  or implied history. We made so many good sentences too! Some children were even fact checking in books or the internet to see if it was from the Winslow letter (primary source) or not!

 

As usual they are using their interactive journals, this time the one in Social Studies to record their facts and  all the sentences. They worked together for a full 30 minutes without any monkey business! It was almost sad to tell them to re-group and go over the results!

 

After our history lesson was over we had to pack it all in and switch classes. I know, right? Second graders switch classes too! As part of our School's Improvement Plan we trade our kids around everyday during, what we call RE Block (Reading Enrichment). I have to privilege of working with the lowest quartile, yes truly it is a privilege! I say that because I feel like I can see the most growth with these kids. The kicker is none of them are in my homeroom, and I bond with these sweeties just as fast. The down side is when they achieve a certain level I have to release them to another group. A little bittersweet! I love to see them grow, but still want to hold their hand a little longer...but I let them bee! They buzz out of my class so fast!

They usually come in and we get started on coding words in phonics, then we do a comprehension skill and on certain days (Wednesdays and Thursdays) we play a phonics based game. Today I let them be the boss of B-I-N-G-O (short vowel Bingo that is)!