American Symbols Made Easy!

Which Is Your Favorite American Symbol?

I asked my kindergarten and transitional kindergarten students that question after we finished our unit on American symbols.  CLICK HERE or on any image to grab this flag writing template.

Everyone expressed their opinion about which national symbol was their favorite. 

Opinion Writing:

We reviewed photographs of American symbols.

Illustrating where the stars would normally go.

Kindergarten students had to tell me which symbol was their favorite and why.  This was one of the opinion pieces we wrote.   They wrote the words "I like" and they copied the name of their favorite national symbol.

Copying from their dictation and my printing.

The bald eagle was a favorite for many of the boys.

Then, they dictated to me why they liked that symbol, I wrote it on lined paper, and they copied it on our special flag writing template and illustrated it where the stars would normally go on the flag template.  We were sure to add blue background to the illustrations and red stripes between the lines on writing so the pages look like American flags.

These are the T.K. papers before we mounted them on construction paper.
Kindergarten students added an additional sentence telling why they liked that symbol.

Opinion Discussion:

My Transitional Kindergarten kids also told me which American symbol was their favorite, they also wrote "I like" and copied the name of their favorite symbol.  Then, we discussed why each student liked the symbol they chose, but we didn't write why.  

The Statue of Liberty

Mount Rushmore

The Liberty Bell

They illustrated their favorite symbol the same way that the kindergarten students did.

The Capitol

The White House

The Lincoln Memorial

The Statue of Liberty

The bald eagle

The Washington Monument

Time to Display Our Work:

After we mounted each flag template to a piece of 9"X12" red, white, and blue construction paper, we put them up on our magnetic board with magnets.  They look so cute!  My favorite illustration is Mount Rushmore.

We have to use magnets to hold the work up on the magnetic white board.

Click the image to get this template.

Perfect For Memorial Day:

I usually do my National Symbol unit during February, but this is also a great project to do for Memorial Day.

You can find our American Flag Writing Template by clicking Here. 

Let me know how your kids liked it.  :)

See you all tomorrow.

Palma :)

Yes, I Confess.... I Teach Shopping.

But You Can Learn Sooo Much From Shopping!

In our class, we "shop 'til we drop" every month with a new store.

Those of you who have been to our workshops know that we LOVE to set up classroom stores where students can pretend to buy things with plastic coins.  Our newest store is the Garden Shop where students may "buy" seed packets, potted flowers, or even a palm tree!

Buying flowers.

Getting Started:

The Dollar Tree (and other dollar stores) have little potted silk plants, seed packets, and even little one-foot squares of pretend grass.  I even found the bulletin board trim there to decorate our shop.  

The plants came potted, but I potted the flowers with foam & moss.

The Lilies were not part of the store.  They were real. 

The watering can was donated by a parent.

Loved the little patches of grass.

The Kids Helped Too:

I put out scraps of colored construction paper, scissors, glue, and pictures of plants.  They got busy making props for our store.  It was a wonderful cooperative center where kids exchanged ideas and developed oral language skills.

Getting creative and talking about it too at our Creation Station.

Making signs and props for our garden shop.

Putting It All Together:

We set out the patch of grass, seed packets, and plants.  We decided on prices too.  I added the palm tree that I picked up at a garage sale.  I'll use it for our beach-themed graduation and again at the beginning of the year when I introduce the story Chicka-Chicka-Boom-Boom.

We priced the plants.

This little guy wanted to measure our palm tree.

We Also Planted An Outdoor Garden & Indoor Plants:

Planting corn.

Our outdoor garden was started a few years ago from a $1000 grant I received from The Southern CA Kindergarten Conference.  You can apply for next year's grant by CLICKING HERE for the application.  Our garden is organic and we plant edible plants every year.

Planting strawberries.

Inside, we will be planting beans in our FLOWER POTS after listening to the story of Jack & The Beanstalk.  We will place 5 beans into the zip-lock bag and the staples will keep the beans from falling to the very bottom where they might get soggy and moldy.  You can find the FLOWER POT template by CLICKING HERE.

Click the image

The download includes complete directions.

Attach the bag on the back with tape.

Spray the paper towel with clean water before the kids drop their 5 beans in.
Make sure the kids wash their hands before touching the beans and
soak the beans overnight before the kids drop them into the bag.  

We will also plant seeds in our eggshells.  These will all look great for Open House.

Saw these on Pinterest and pinned it to one of my boards.
Our eggs are filled with potting soil & are ready for planting.
Check out all of my Pinterest boards by clicking the image above. 

You can check out all of my Pinterest Boards HERE.

Stop by our Facebook Page this week and enter our drawing for our

Beginning of the Year Bundle.

Click the image to see our FB page.

Look for the blue tab at the top of our Facebook page, click it, and 

follow the directions in the Rafflecoptor.

Find this blue tab on our FB page, click on it, & enter the drawing.

This is the bundle you can win:

You get all 5 products in this bundle.  Click the image to read more about it.

See you all tomorrow.

Palma  :)