American Symbols and Citizenship

We are deep into our study  of American symbols and citizenship.  I will be the first to admit, when I saw the outline of what our district wanted us to cover in this unit I was a little stressed... which seems so silly now!  We are having so much fun learning about our country.  As usual, they are amazing me with their potential to learn complex concepts.  They are so naturally curious... as long as we find a way to make it exciting they will buy what we are selling!  (Okay, enough of my pep talk to myself.)

We started off our unit with an introduction of vocabulary.  I made some big, bright vocabulary cards to anchor my instruction. 

I always make up motions, facial expressions and special voices for each of our vocabulary words.  (I am SUCH a dork.  The kids eat it up but it is embarrassing when adults walk in the room!)  For example, when we look at the freedom card we throw our arms up in the air, wide over our heads and call out "FREEDOM!!!"  Then we talk about how freedom is the right to make choices and how the little boy in the photo must be appreciating his freedom by thinking about all the choices he has in life. 

 

Once we set the stage for the unit, we began learning about citizenship.  We had lots of fun with this "citizenship sort".

 

 

The sorting cards sparked some great conversation and the kids were really proud to see how many of these citizenship traits they exhibit all the time.  Then we began doing some very simple close reading activities and writing in response to our reading. 

 

Once we were comfortable with our role as a citizen in our country we moved on to learning about American symbols.  I introduced the symbols we would be learning about with some more bright, detailed posters.  Each student created an American Symbols booklet and we did lots of reading & writing about the symbols we would like to visit and why.

 

 

My favorite moment of this entire unit happened during our Statue of Liberty writing experience.  I was so confused when I was reading their lists because THREE different students wrote that the most interesting thing about the Statue was that she is holding an iPad.  Finally, I just had to ask... One of my little girls looked at me like I had two heads and said, "Don't your remember Mrs. Taylor?  She is holding a TABLET."  I could not stop laughing.  It was actually one of those laugh out loud moments.  I never saw it coming... and then, try as I might, I could not figure out how to help them understand that it is not that kind of tablet.  Every time I tried to explain it I would end up giggling.  So... they may, or may not, think that Lady Liberty is keeping an eye on her Facebook as she overlooks the harbor.  Lord, I love first graders!

 

Grab my Being a Good Citizen Unit HERE, the American Symbols Unit HERE, or the entire 138 page American Symbols and Citizenship Bundle  (at a great discount!) HERE.  Happy Teaching!