Fabulous First

I created this "guidebook" about Ghana to accompany my language arts unit on African folktales. If you are reading Anansi tales or other African folktales with your students, this guidebook is a wonderful way to incorporate geography into your study. Use the book to prepare your students for a pretend "trip" to Ghana!

This download includes a lesson on writing color poetry and a graphic organizer for students to use to plan their poems. Can be used with the book "Hailstones and Halibut Bones" or other books that include color poems. Perfect for National Poetry Month and Poem in Your Pocket Day!

I use this self-reflection sheet for parent/teacher conferences. Students can draw and/or write their responses. It's often helpful to start out a conference with input from the student!

This resource is a great supplement to the book Nii Kwei's Day: From Dawn to Dusk in a Ghanaian City, by Francis Provencal and Catherine McNamara. Using the first page, students can reflect on what they have learned from the story. The other three pages allow students to reflect on information related to Ghanaian culture that they have learned about in class: markets, kente cloth, and adinkra symbols.

This e-book is an easy way to introduce engaging information about the history of chocolate to young children. Could be used to enrich a unit on Mayan culture or add historical context to a make-you-own chocolate activity!

I have been teaching literature-based country studies for a number of years. Engaging students in an interdisciplinary exploration of another country’s stories, culture, and geography is an excellent way to help students develop a empathy, understanding, and a sense of global citizenship. During these units, my students love “traveling’ to new places, taking pretend plane rides, viewing virtual city tours, and exploring images and artifacts from other countries. I created these “travel tips” as

Help your students organize their thinking about the five food groups! This notebook can be used to supplement a unit on nutrition. As students learn about healthy eating through different activities and read alouds, they can draw examples of each food group and record interesting information.

This "Me Map" can be used as a self-assessment too in preparation for Parent-Teacher conferences. It can also be used as part of a Character unit in reading workshop. After filling out character maps for characters from story books, students can fill out maps about themselves!