Landforms FREEBIE (Save for next year??) and Destruction

Well, the countdown is still on... 7 days.  Well, 5 days and 2 halves, but I still have to wake up, shower, dress,and drive to school, so 7. Definitely 7. 

And boy, are we ready!?!  I'm trying my best to keep it all under control, but then there's days like today,and you're just not sure that the days are ever gonna pass. 

Have you ever had a destructive class?? You know, that class that, no matter what, will tear up anything and everything in their path? 

I have. I do. That's my class.

I LOVE my class... I truly do. It's been one of my favorite classes to teach, but they would tear up an anvil, as my grandma used to say.

We have more books in the "Book Hospital" than ever...more game pieces that are missing their friends...more broken crayons, pencils, and erasers that have been dissected like the kids have been playing "Operation".  Every day when it's time to clean up, it's like a war zone. 

Oh, and remember the cute fishing poles I made for our "Fishing for ABCs" center? Yep, broken. They were out and amongst the kiddies for a total of 12 hours, and one is in half, and 2 have had their strings (lines) ripped out. 

Then, on top of all the destruction, I had three boys get caught in the bathroom standing against the back wall and trying to "perfect their aim".  Yep. Awesome.

But, we're making it.  And thanks for letting me vent.  Sometimes it just feels better to get it all out.  My teammates have definitely had an ear full today!!!

Now, on to our latest craft....Landform Books!!
  I know, I know...some of you are enjoying your last days or day of school...or your first days of summer, but you can grab this and keep it for next year if you want.  Never too early to start planning, right?!

 

One of our social studies standards is for children to identify landforms....mountains, valleys, plains, plateaus, deserts, coasts, and islands.  

So, we read these awesome nonfiction texts about each one...

 

We did one book a day, and then created one piece of our landform book. At the end of the week, we had all the pieces for us to put together...

 Every day, as we went along, the kids also filled out their vocabulary sheet. I stapled that to the back of the books when we put it all together...

And, done.. Easy right??  The kids love this & it's very simple. 

If you would like the patterns for each part AND the vocabulary sheet, just click the picture to download the zip file FREEBIE. :)

 **For the record, my room mom accidentally ran the peninsulas (which USED to be part of our standard) instead of the islands, & I went with it.  The pattern in the file is that actual island :)

I hope you can use this sometime. It's a unit that I really enjoy teaching & my firsties always have a good time with it.

That all being said, I would like to say that my heart, thoughts and prayers go out to those affected by the awful tornado in Oklahoma. Words simply can't express how much my heart hearts when watching all the news coverage and seeing all those sweet faces.  No matter how destructive my little ones might be, I definitely had to hug them a little tighter today.

As always, thanks for stopping by.