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Sparking Motivation: Teaching Trunks

Hello friends! Boy, oh boy… it has been quite a week! It would have made for a very interesting Five For Friday, but my honey took me out for sushi (hooray!)

and then we spent some time with our BFFs, and Friday came and went………. so instead, I’m going to share part of my week with you in this post because it is DEFINITELY going to be a motivator in my room!

My BBB Joanne at Head Over Heels for Teaching has this wonderful linky every weekend, and I get so many GREAT ideas from her and others. That’s what I LOVE about blogging! I’m always able to try new things with my students that keep them excited for school!

That’s also what I love about conferences. No, not parent conferences. 😉

I went to the Georgia Social Studies Conference this week hoping to get some great ideas for some ways to keep Social Studies exciting in my classroom. I was sad to see that this year, there weren’t a lot of sessions for elementary like in the past, but I was still able to come away with some great things. (…including a free t-shirt and an insulated cup… score!) One of the ideas I am going to get right on is Teaching Trunks.

The lady who presented this was actually an 8th grade teacher but she used to teach 4th. She has gone on eBay and state museum sites, and then of course collected things when she travels, and has so many awesome artifacts to share for her Social Studies topics!! The trunk came from my favorite store in the world: Hobby Lobby- she used the 50% off coupon and got it for $10! Heck yes! So I will be checking eBay and museums, etc for my Colonies unit, Revolution unit, and Westward Expansion unit. I think my kids will LOVE getting their hands on things that they would never get to see otherwise, and it’s a way to make history come to life! It’ll take some work, but if I keep at it, my trunks will rock in a few years!! 🙂 If you have any suggestions of places to contact for any of the topics I listed above, I’d GLADLY take them!

Or even better, those of you that live near landmarks that go with these topics, I would totally LOVE artifacts and brochures, etc, that you could get your hands on- I would gladly pay you through PayPal!! And I’d be happy to do the same for any of you- for example, I’ve got access to all things civil rights with the MLK Center in Atlanta! :o) That’s what bloggy friends are for, right?