My on my have I been a bad blogger. Life has seemed to have gotten away form me a little bit, and something had to give. I hate that it was this, but sometimes that is the way to cookie crumbles. Even today, I am just popping in real quick to do an overview of the unit we are working on now, but then it is back to life again.
This week's feature is Texas' statehood. Now, this is a really broad topic, because it goes all the way from the late nineteenth century to current day. At this point in the year I just try to let students in on what Texas becoming a state was all about. We leave symbols, monuments, and other attractions for later in the year.
At the request of one of my awesome readers (Thank you Kristi!) I have created a PowerPoint that covers Texas becoming a state, the Mexican-American War, and the Compromise of 1850. This allows students to connect their prior knowledge from the Texas Revolution to how Texas developed into a state.
We take notes over the PowerPoint and talk about how the Americans felt in comparison to how the Mexicans felt. We also create a new map in our journals of what is now the modern Texas and the United States after the Compromise of 1850. Students are always really surprised to see that the United States was still taking form, and didn't just start off the way it is today.
While not directly about Texas' statehood, I like to introduce a few books with fun facts about Texas that we will go back to later in the year. Mostly, this topic is a little dry and I want to make sure that students remain interested.
With this book: 
I have students choose a fact to illustrate and share with the class. Students try to top each other for most interesting or unique fact. It is really fun! Another great book to read that I use during this time and again when we do symbols is 
. It is really fun to play a memory or guessing game with this book where students try to either guess or remember what each letter stands for.
I have students choose a fact to illustrate and share with the class. Students try to top each other for most interesting or unique fact. It is really fun! Another great book to read that I use during this time and again when we do symbols is . It is really fun to play a memory or guessing game with this book where students try to either guess or remember what each letter stands for.
Like I said, just a quick little pop in. I will be back, soon... hopefully! Hope everyone is having a great week!
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