Oh Give Me a Home- Kansas Day in our Classroom

This week was completely and utterly nutsorama in my room.  Along with the 100th day of school, we also celebrated Kansas Day on Tuesday which is one of my very favorite things that we cover.  We are technically located in Kansas, but our district is very close to the Missouri border and completely urban.  When I ask questions like, "What does Kansas look like?" they have no stinking clue!  Most of them haven't experienced the Kansas that other people think of- wheat fields and prairies and cattle.  They've always been in the city and their families don't have the need or funds to just go out and see other things.  When I show them photographs of farms they are shocked!  They have no idea what a crop is, or that wheat actually grows from the ground.  It's so funny to see their reaction to what seems so natural.  I have a new student who just came to us from Abilene (which is in the middle of Kansas) and she looked around at them like they were joking when they didn't know what those things were.  Dumbfounded.  So funny.  This anchor chart took a LOT of background building to complete!

I put up this little bulletin board to get them thinking and offer some real images of the land to help them visualize it.

 

Anyhow, my first grade team and I always do a rotation during Kansas Week where we see each class and do some kind of Kansas Symbol activity. For the past few years I've done the sunflower and I just think they're adorable!  We also make a little Kansas Map where we mark the capital and our city, a state flag, symbols flip book, a paper Kansa Teepee, and a dang KU Jayhawk that I hate... I went to KState and it seems almost traitorous to let them do it, but it is one of those things I don't have much of a say in.  They try to convince me that we're all "Kansas Jayhawkers", but I'm not buying it.  Anyway... Here are some pictures of the bulletin board we threw together. 

The music teachers put together a little program based on the book, "S if for Sunflower: A Kansas Alphabet". They were awfully cute in their bandanas and cowboy boots!

 

 

 

Big Sale Tomorrow on Teachers Pay Teachers!  Don't miss out- my tiny little store will all be on sale. And shopping has to be more exciting than this dang Harbaugh Brothers game... Seriously? Ravens and 49ers?  Lame.