Life in a Longhouse Village, Main Idea, and Paper Books

One of our first social studies units focuses on the Iroquois, Native Americans of the Eastern Woodlands.  My favorite book to use with this unit is Life in a Longhouse Village by Bobbie Kalman. 

Since we were not going to have time to use this book as a whole class read aloud I set it out as a reading center.

We have been focusing on main idea and details a lot lately, as well as supporting our thinking with details from the text.  This was the basis of my reading center.

Students created little paper books (directions below) based on the assigned pages for the week (pages 8-9) on Sharing One Room in a longhouse.

They created a new title for their book on the cover and included an illustration and their name.

On the inside they wrote the main idea for the section.

For each following page they included some supporting details for the main idea.  I think they turned out pretty cute!

Need directions for making a paper book?  Check out James Darrow's directions here.

I love little paper books.  So cute, quick, and easy.  How else do you use paper books in your classroom?

New Products Posted and TPT Flash Sale

I wanted to take a moment to give you an up close and personal peak at two (kinda) new items in my TPT store:

My Iroquois Unit and my Common Core Aligned Interactive Math Notebook for Multiplication and Division!

My Iroquois Unit contains lesson plans, reading passages, worksheets, activities, vocabulary posters, quizzes, rubrics and more.

 Take a look at what's included.  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

My Common Core Aligned Math Detective Notebook for Multiplication and Division lines up with Engage NY's Module 3 for fourth grade.  It contains all the printables and foldables you'll need to meet the Multiplication and Division Common Core Standards as well as photographs of finished notebook pages to use as a teacher's guide, and a quick print version to save on paper and time.

Here is a quick peak at a few of the notebook pages you can create with this pack.

You can also purchase my notebook pack for Place Value and for Metric Measurement.  I'm just beginning to work on one for Fractions as well and hope to have it up in my store in a few weeks.

You can snag both of my new products, plus many more, ON SALE now at my Teachers Pay Teachers Store!

Teachers Pay Teachers is holding a flash sale.  Enter code FB100K at check out to receive an additional 10% off your purchase!  As a special October treat, I'm offering an additional 10% off all items in my store! 

Hurry before the sale ends!

Native American Extra Credit Projects

We have been studying Native Americans these past few weeks.

One of my favorite teaching activities is a Jigsaw.  Students split into groups to research different aspects of Native American life an history.  They created posters and then returned to their original groups to share what they learned.  At the end, I had all groups gather back together so present to the entire class.

I assigned an extra credit project for students to further research the Iroquois at home. Here are some of the great projects and presentations students have already begun to bring in (and the project isn't even due until Tuesday).

Here are some Native American recipes:  corn bread, fresh gathered nuts, and venison stew (in the background).

One student decided to bring in some Native American props and music to share with the class.

Another student created a diorama of an Iroquois village.

My students are so creative.  I can't wait to see what other projects come in on Tuesday!

Oh, and before you go...pop on over to The Peanut Gallery for a Spooktacular Halloween Giveaway!  You can win a product from my store plus loads of other great resources.  Check it out!