I pass my old students daily in the hallways and it never fails to
amaze me how BIG they get! They often pop in to say hi
and my current class loves it when
"big kids" visit! Mostly so they can pepper them with
questions! Most often they ask "What was your favorite
thing you did in second grade?" and making landforms
is high on the list! Our Continents, Oceans and Landforms project
We start by reviewing continents and oceans (first grade
spends a lot of time on this)then learning about and defining
different types of landforms.
We worked with vocabulary, classifying landforms as water or land features,
labeling continents and oceans on maps, and defining different types of landforms
in our literacy centers.
Next we used Crayola Air Dry Clay to build imaginary islands.
Our islands had to have at least three landforms.
They could be completely made up but needed to be
in a real ocean near a real continent.
We made these on a Friday so they could dry over the weekend.
On Monday we painted our islands.
Next, we made maps of our islands. We just finished our unit on
map skills and I love this PowerPoint from Teacher's Clubhouse!
I use it every year and keep it up as a reference while my class makes
their maps, map keys, compass roses.
Students named their islands and drew maps that featured all of their landforms,
a map key and compass rose.
We carried this topic over into our literacy centers and writing block.
This is my favorite part! My kiddos did some very creative writing and wrote
imaginary personal narratives about life on their islands.
First we brainstormed a list of adjectives to help set the tone, make
their writing stronger, and give their reader a more vivid mental picture.
We did some prewriting to solidify our ideas. Next, we
orally rehearsed our ideas turning them into a story
with a partner.
We wrote postcards home to Mom and Dad from our islands too!
After all of these elements were finished we glued the prewriting
and final drafts into a folder with our postcard on the front and
maps on the back to share with parents at our upcoming conferences.
My kiddos begged to take their islands home as soon as they were finished
but I didn't dare send them on the bus with a teetering paper plate!
This way we could discuss their writing during our conference and
Mom and Dad could carry the island home!
These projects are keepers I tell ya!
Click on any of the images if you'd like to do this project with your class.
You can find all the landforms reference charts, assessments, printables,
literacy centers, lesson plans and templates for the writing project
in my TPT shop and best of all it's on SALE for the rest of the week!
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literacy centers, lesson plans and templates for the writing project
in my TPT shop and best of all it's on SALE for the rest of the week!
Happy teaching friends!
