Out of this World

In my Social Studies class this year my students have an interactive notebook.  Our version of the notebook may not technically follow the definition of an interactive notebook, but we have adapted it to fit our needs and I do have to say it is working pretty well.

This year I have a twenty minute drive to school.  I have been used to a five minute drive, so it has been quite an adjustment.  I do have to say though, there is a lot of planning that you can do while driving 20 minutes by yourself.  It has done wonders for preparing my day.

During one of my drives, I was trying to come up with an idea of a visual to help students identify and differentiate between the Earth, continents, countries, states, and cities.  I needed something for students to complete that would fit easily into their composition notebook, also known as their Social Studies notebook.

Here is what we did:

Students made five envelope fold foldables that nestled inside of each other. In order for the foldable to fit within the notebook, I cut the paper to the following dimensions:

Earth: 8-1/2" square

Continent:  7" square

Country:  5.5" square

State:  4" square

City: 2.5" square

After students made their foldables and glued them inside each other, they then illustrated  to match what  each foldable represented.  On the very center of the foldable, inside the city, students drew their home.  Some simply sketched themselves while others cut out a school picture of themselves and attached it.  They were very creative!