What we have been up to this week... Landforms + FREEBIE!

Hi everyone!
I hope you are enjoying your weekend! Here in Texas, the weather has been CRAZYYYY!!! Temperature has dropped below the 50F, and that's too cold for this Peruvian teacher!! You would think I would be OK since I have lived in Nebraska for a year and 4 years in Maryland...However, this South American teacher got too use to of the warm Texas weather ;) We have been around the 20s and 30s in Central Texas, so consequently I have been eating soup and drinking hot chocolate!
It was raining in low temperatures yesterday, so I took some pictures of how freezing this poor city looked like!

Now, back to school!! :) We have been talking about landforms the past week during Science... We will also be working on landforms next coming week, so I'll be posting more pictures of other activities by next week...

First, we have talked about different examples: Mountains, Hills, Valleys, and Plains. We wrote the meaning of each word with examples and non-examples in our journals.

We also created a construction paper representation of each landform; here are some pictures of my students work and I've posted a picture of my master sample. I saw a picture on Pinterest (Click HERE to take you to the picture I found) and decided to make my own since I added a few more details and I included the landforms we were learning. I honestly show them how to cut their own without any pattern; However, if you would like a copy of what we did, I have posted a FREEBIE on my TPT store... I included the landform vocabulary words in Spanish AND English... click HERE to take you to the product :)

For our lab day, students were working in groups and built a sketch with play-dough. Before we started, we reviewed each landform and its characteristics. Then I advised them to use a specific color for each landform. However, I reminded them that this was their project and they had to decide as groups. I did not tell them how to make the mountains or any landforms, I basically check around if they needed more guidance and let them take ownership for their own work. They were soooo engaged and were working soooo well in groups that made this activity so smooth :)
Here are some picture of their work as they are putting it together:

On the second week of landforms, we add a little bit of sweetness to our project. I have looked on Pinterest several pins with different ideas, so I combined those ideas to make our own landform activity. We used Graham cookies, green frosting, light blue frosting, M & M, fish sprinkles, and Hershey Kisses. As the play-dough activity, I let my students decide how to create their landforms, as long as they include the landforms we have been learning about.

At the end of the week, we also compared Hills and Mountains by creating a Foldable that contained a Venn Diagram. We wrote similarities and differences in between these two landforms. Students worked in partners writing their draft on a paper and then, creating a final product on this foldable.

Hope you find these lessons helpful and you would be able to use them in your classroom as well :)
Thank you for stopping by my blog, see ya next time! Stay warm if you are in Texas or another state that have cold weather during these days! :/

Be sure to check other Freebies on TBA (Teaching Blog Addicts) for Friday August 28, 2015.