I soooooooo love the summer!  Don’t you?  Even though I am off, I still cannot sleep in…even though I want to! I’m still up at the crack of dawn!  Oh well….what are you going to do! So since I am awake, I wanted to share with you how I taught U.S. American Symbols this year in my classroom.  In May, during the school year, we had to teach our unit on U.S. American Symbols during our Social Studies block. Typically this unit is pretty boring to teach so I knew it was time to spice things up with a new unit…

In came….U.S. American Symbols and Tourist Attractions with The Traveling Tourists!

U.S. American Symbols & The Traveling Tourists

I actually couldn’t wait to get this unit in full swing and it was exactly what I was hoping it would be….FUN, INTERACTIVE, MOTIVATING…and EDUCATIONAL!  

So the basic premise of this unit was for my students to learn about all of the U.S American Symbols and important landmarks in North America..and have fun doing it!  So I created Travel Brochures for each American symbol and landmark that I wanted them to learn about.  Each brochure has a picture of the U.S. symbol or landmark and a paragraph or two of information about it.  The front cover of the brochure says “Welcome to ____________” (wherever the symbol or landmark is) and it shows a map with an arrow pointing to where it is located on the map.  Here is an example of one of the Travel Brochures…

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Getting Started…..

So here’s how it all went down 🙂  I organized my desks in groups of 5 and 6 (I and had an uneven number of students this year).  The children were told they were going to travel on DiGilio Airlines (that’s my name 🙂 to different destinations in North America.  At each stop in their travels, the must stamp their passport and write the name of their destination.   I created these passports for each of my students.  If you look closely you can see a translucent symbol of an eagle and flag on the first page of the passport.  They look so authentic!

I started each group of children at a specific destination (we started with 4 destinations).  They stamped their passports and then read the Travel Brochures with a partner.  After they did a Partner Reading of the brochure, they had to orally share two facts they learned about the U.S. Symbol or Landmark.  Then they needed to write about it in a specific flip-flap book that would be adhered to their suitcase.   This whole unit took us about a week to finish.  We traveled for 3-4 days and then we did our opinion writing at the end.

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Inside the Traveling Tourists Suitcase

This is the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial Flip-Flap Book where they wrote 2 facts about each one. Here is a little snapshot of the flip flap books inside the suitcase!

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Inside this unit is a total of nine destinations they visited and learned about.   Here is what their suitcase will look like when they have traveled to each of their destinations.  

This is a completed Sample….

I wish I could have taken pictures of my little ones as they traveled to the 9 different destinations, but I am not allowed to 🙁  But I have to tell you…they LOVED this activity.  When they came in to class the next few mornings they would say to me, “Where are we traveling today, Mrs. DiGilio?”   They are too precious!  I love when they excited about their learning.

  After we finished all of our traveling, we wrote opinion writing pieces on The Most Important American Symbol OR The Most Interesting Tourist Attraction.  The students then wrote their reasons for their opinions on a graphic organizer and then wrote their paragraphs in cursive and they were attached to the other side of the suitcase.  

Here is a student sample…

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This was BY FAR one of my favorite units to teach this year!  It was interactive and fun.  This activity really helped my students that need that movement throughout the day to stay focused and productive.  I was so impressed with how well they all did.

My U.S. American Symbols Flip Flap Book®

This year I am adding a bit of an assessment piece to this unit!  They will complete my NEW U.S. American Symbols Flip-Flap Book to demonstrate the knowledge they gained throughout the unit!

This is what each page of the U.S American Symbols Flip-Flap book looks like! I am so excited to add this assessment piece to the mix!  FUN, FUN, FUN!

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So I hope this gave you some ideas on teaching about U.S American Symbols and Landmarks! 

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