A Tour of our State, A Freebie, & A Little Notebooking

One of my favorite things about 3rd grade (so far) is the study of our beautiful state! At first, it completely stressed me out! Now that I am in my groove, it is so much fun to teach and the kids are all about South Carolina History!

This year, I decided to dive head first into notebooking for all subject areas! Let me tell you…at first, it will make you want to pull your hair out! Teaching third graders about designing their own table of contents was quite a task! Now, it is super smooth and very beneficial!

With that said, I didn’t want for our notebooks to be a bunch of notes that the students will never use. So, I have been trying some different strategies that engage the students in “note taking” and make our notebooks something that are user friendly…even for the parents! Here is a look inside our notebooks.

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So far, we have included important anchor charts (I take a picture and make a copy for each student), activities, and maps.

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We also keep a vocabulary pocket for each major unit! I have found that library pockets work perfectly for this section. We write our words on index cards and the students pull them out when they need to reference a certain word.

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During our study of the six regions that divide our state, the students were taken on a little tour around each region. Their “souvenir” at the end of each region was two postcards. One to record fast facts from the region and one to write a persuasive letter to someone in the school enticing them to go for a visit. We kept all of our fast facts in our backpack housed in our SC notebooks.

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For all of my SC people, if you would like a copy of the SC postcards, click on the picture below!

SC Postcards

We ended our big study of the regions with a little cookie decorating! The students were given the task to create a cookie that represented all six regions of our state. Mr. King (a.k.a. the hubs) even came to learn all about the regions! I don’t know which surprise they were more excited about…the cookies…or Mr. King! He takes directions from third graders quite well! :)

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Hard at work…

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The Finished Products…

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I would say it was a success!

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I can’t wait to see what else we can get into as we learn about the most beautiful state! Well, I may be a little partial! Happy Sunday, friends!

12 comments:

  1. Your notebooks look great, and I love the cookie idea for regions...I've seen it with landforms before, but never regions.

    Very cute!

    Halle
    Across the Hall in 2nd Grade

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  2. Very cute cookie idea! I have never been a huge social studies fan but you make it seem so fun!

    Pixy Stix and Teacher Tricks

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  3. Your ideas blow my mind . . . another great one, Hope!!! From the post cards to the cookies, you had all of the bases covered. It makes me wish I taught a higher grade (well . . . for a moment anyway). Hugs!!!

    Kelley Dolling
    Teacher Idea Factory

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  4. You are truly talented! Great work here, I'd love to bring it down a level to 2nd grade! Thanks for sharing these great & unique ideas!
    Amy Howbert
    Little Miss Organized
    amyhowbert1@gmail.com

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  5. This is amazing, as usual Hope! I loved seeing what you are doing with notebooking in third grade!

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  6. Hey Hope! Will you tell me what you used for the regions? I am about to do an edible map of the regions of GA and I have Hershey Kisses (in blue wrappers) for the Blue Ridge Mountains, and an upside down Reese's for the Appalachain Plateau and Swedish Fish for the Coastal Plain but the other two - the Valley and Ridge and the Piedmont have me stumped. Thanks,
    Sydney sydcohn@gmail.com

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  7. Fun!!! My kids love the cookie activity every year! =)

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  8. What a FABULOUS idea!! Love the paper bag sacks- Do you have the pattern to share??

    Kimberly
    Click to get 31 bags for 31% OFF!!
    The Learning Tree

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  9. Hope, I love,love your SC notebooking. I am doing it too - attempting actually - for the first time this year too. Thank you so much for the ideas and fabulous post cards. Keep those ideas a comin'.

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  10. I love notebooking! I would love a cookie too! LOL Thanks for the great ideas!

    Hilary
    Rockin' Teacher Materials

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  11. What did you use for the regions? coconut, choc chips, kisses, swedish fish, M&Ms? Anything else? Did you bake the cookies (sugar)?
    Was this only a one day project?

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