One Year Ago Today

One year ago today we started working together to create products for teachers like us. The goal was to make things that we would want to use in our classroom. Things that engage the students in real learning. Things that inspire and motivate...and are easy to prep.

With those goals in mind, we created our very first product ever! It was a unit on researching weather. We have books and the internet, but we wanted to make sure that the students had access to kid friendly text that gave accurate information. And it just wasn't out there. So we made it!

Because of the books and resources we were able to gather, we decided to study:
Hurricanes! Tornadoes! Floods! Lightning!  and Blizzards!

And the kids ate it up! We as the teachers ate it up! Our administration ate it up!

It covered so many standards, engaged the students in authentic research and report writing, and all with guidance from the teacher. Check out the focus!

Here are some examples of the writing part that the students did. The resources walk them through gathering information on different aspects of their weather system. In our class, we created books. Even with 30 kids and only 3 computers, every team typed their writing! They were motivated I tell you!

                  

And of course we added an art component of making a pop up that shows the key features of their weather system. The blizzard team thought it was extra hard because their book teaches the reader to stay in, and how could they show a white out? I loved watching them struggle though it and compromise on this.

                  

They then had to present this info to the class and boy did they shine. Most groups wanted to pick a second type of weather after they did one. We displayed the information on the wall too because they loved seeing their work and reading the work of their classmates. This made a great display for Open House because the kids couldn't wait to drag their families over and show them. 

To celebrate our one year anniversary we are discounting our Weather Bundle for 24 hours only. It's the perfect time of year to learn about all the different weather systems that will be in the news this time of year.

Happy Teaching!