Sunday, March 17, 2013

Happy Birthday Maine!


 
A large part of our social studies curriculum is focused on learning about our state. We study the geography, history, government, and economy of Maine. Friday, March 15 was Maine Statehood Day, because on that date in 1820, Maine became the 23rd state to join the Union. In honor of the occasion, we had a Maine Birthday party. It was a great way to review some of what we've learned about our state as well as just have some fun!
This was my morning message on the SMARTBoard.  Students took turns dragging each number to the correct spot.
 
Students colored Maine symbols to glue onto a party hat.

 
The hats came out awesome!

 

 
We had a special snack of Maine foods, (or in some cases, foods meant to represent Maine products.)

Our menu consisted of blueberries, (our state berry), Goldfish crackers, pretzel logs, apples, B&M Baked Beans, potato chips, Moxie, (which was invented in Maine), apple juice, and Poland Spring water. We used to have baked goods like blueberry muffins, but due to food allergies, we can no longer have them. The kids did not seem to mind at all and some even came back for thirds! There were a lot of purple teeth in the room!
 
We did the birthday chant that we usually do when it's someone's birthday.
 
We played "Pin the Tail on the Moose"!
You can't see everyone's tail in this picture because some of them were really far away. After being spun around 3 times while blindfolded, you can get pretty dizzy! Connor got so turned around, he almost walked out of the room! Abby had the tail closest to the correct spot.
 
We also played Maine Jeopardy, boys against the girls. It got pretty intense! I adapted the rules a bit. First, I did not require students to answer in the form of a question. Second, while each team took turns choosing a category and point value, both teams had the opportunity to answer every question.
 

We used iPads to write the answers using the free Show Me App. Each team discussed possible answers and had to come up with one answer for the team. The kids had a ball! It was quite competitive right up until the end, when the boys pulled out the win. Mrs. Clark found the cool free Jeopardy template on the Smart Exchange and we just added our own questions. We will play again with questions from other subject areas.
 
All in all, I would say that our celebration was a success! Happy Birthday Maine!