travelteachlove

Yard Games or Math Practice?

May 30, 2017 No Comments

Last Friday was definitely a FriYAY type of day! It all started the weekend prior when after a moment of weakness when I went to Target. I just can’t resist the dollar section! Besides picking up blow up yard dice I’d seen on several Instagram posts, I also found the most amazing wooden yard dominoes. It was just the thing I needed to create a global math game lesson. I already own Molkky (a yard game from Finland), but I bought another copy of the game from Amazon. This proved much easier than finding space in a suitcase and lugging it across the […]

Classroom Connection, Social Studies, STEAM, Travel

STEM Challenge: Landmarks From Around the World

May 22, 2017 No Comments

It was another busy week as we wind down to the end of the school year. One of my favorite activities this week was a global STEM Challenge. I mean come on, what’s not to love combining travel with STEM? I found a couple great resources to do this activity. First I bought STEM building cards on TpT from one of my favorite sellers, Brooke Brown of Teach Outside the Box. It was a bundle set, so we will have other STEM goodies to use, but for Friday’s lesson the landmarks were our focus. After looking around on TpT more […]

Science, Social Studies, STEAM

Build a Joey Kangaroo a Home

May 16, 2017 No Comments

Students had a blast last week in the STEM lab. I connected our social studies curriculum to STEM through a lesson where students made their own kangaroo pouches for a “lost” kangaroo joey. We started by reading about Australia in a small book I created to give students some background knowledge. You can pick up your own copy in my Teachers Pay Teachers Store. One of the chapters covered animals found in Australia, in particular marsupials that carry their young in a pouch. After reading, we watching a few YouTube videos of kangaroos hopping about, with baby joeys going in and out […]

Classroom Connection, Social Studies

Classroom Virtual Travels to Australia

May 8, 2017 No Comments

Last week we wrapped up our in depth travels around the world with Australia as our last stop. While I have not been to Africa or Antarctica, which were the two previous continents, I have been to Australia and could share my experience with students. To kick off the week we started by locating Australia on a map and read a general facts page. This lead to questions and discussion, and comparing Australia to other continents we have studied. In addition to this we watched two videos by Travel Kids about New Zealand. I liked that the videos cover […]

Classroom Connection, Social Studies

Student’s Seven Continent Bulletin Board

May 5, 2017 No Comments

We have been studying the seven continents for quite a while now. In fact, we have finally made it to our last continent for in depth study, Australia. During our continent study, students picked a country to research. The whole second grade is participating in this research project and in June parents are invited to a continents performance. We have representation from each of the seven continents, with the exception of Antartica, for obviously chilly reasons. Since most students are close to finishing their research on their country, I thought it might be fun to do a little side project. We […]

Classroom Connection, Science, Social Studies, STEAM, Travel

Finland STEM Boating Challenge

April 30, 2017 No Comments

What a week back from spring break! It was go, go, go from the moment we returned. We received our eggs to hatch, students wrote a class book of poems to send off to Student Treasures to be published, we started a new unit in math on money, Thursday was poem in your pocket day, and we had boat building and a big boat race on Friday for STEM. There was a lot to be excited about but the STEM lessons were some of my favorites. We kicked off the STEM lesson with a social studies connection. I wrote a small […]

Classroom Connection, Social Studies, STEAM, Travel

Simple Machine STEAM/STEM Lesson Brings Amsterdam to Massachusetts

April 21, 2017 No Comments

With a loud and clear love for travel, it was probably no surprise to my students that I would find a clear connection between travel to another area of study, STEAM. It all started with our study of Europe. After talking about places around Europe, I gave students a small book I wrote about Amsterdam (which you can grab for free on my TpT store). The book gives general information about this major city in Europe based on my travels there. One particular section of the book, about gables on homes and buildings in Amsterdam was the link to STEAM. I still remember […]

Classroom Connection, Social Studies, Travel

Let’s Explore Asia

April 17, 2017 No Comments

Before April vacation we were able to explore two more continents, Asia and Antartica. First up, Asia. Having traveled to Thailand a few years ago with teachers, I was excited to share pictures and videos from a small section of such a large continent. In addition to that, it was fun to share the class book my student made from the year I traveled there. After learning all about Thailand, students wrote about their favorite facts creating a Student Treasures book. (Side Note: If you haven’t heard about this free student publishing company…check them out!) Bridging our study of Europe […]

Classroom Connection, Social Studies, Travel

Let’s Explore Europe

April 9, 2017 No Comments

Our classroom travel through Europe started out much the same as with North and South America. If you haven’t had a chance to read those posts, you can check them out here: North America, South America. But now, back to Europe. First we had to identify Europe on a map, read a fact sheet, and highlight important information. At this point, students knew the drill, and what to expect for the first day studying a new continent. The rest of the week brought a few new activities. First, I stumbled across a YouTube series called Travel Kids. It was a great fit to include in lessons […]

Classroom Connection

Flexible Seating Update

April 9, 2017 No Comments

Well, it has been almost a full school year with flexible seating and wow, what a difference! As with anything I have made changes and tweaked things along the way to make the seating work best for our classroom. It has been interesting to see what seats students gravitate toward, and how different seats are popular for different activities. Here are a few things I have learned using flexible seating this year. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE having different options for students. More options for seating means more happy students. I truly believe students are better able to focus and get […]