Monday, September 3, 2012

My Community Scrapbook Project


We are about to begin one of my favorite units--community!  Each year, we go all out and make a huge  3-d map of our city, complete with the most adorable kid-created milk carton houses.  I hope to share pictures of the finished product by next week.  This year, I have added a community scrapbook that I hope the kids will love and keep forever!  As we study our community, we will glue in maps, go "shopping" at local stores, add menus from local restaurants, create paper cars and driver's licenses to learn about our major highway, and more.  I can not WAIT to get started with this project!


Here is an example of the "Shop 'Til You Drop" page.  The kids will glue in a paper sack, and cut out food pictures from a magazine.  They will pop the bag out and put their "purchases" inside.  They will also glue a logo from a local grocery store to the front of the bag!  

***Parents...this is where I will need your help!  Please send in magazines for us to cut apart!  
P.S.  In case you are wondering, HGTV Magazine ROCKS!*** 


They will also draw their favorite restaurants.  I think I might go around to a few local restaurants and ask them to donate bags, fry boxes, etc.  to glue in our books.


So, that is my paper car.  It doesn't look like a car at all!  Oh well.  Also, 280 never has just one car.  I need to add many more to make it look like the crazy traffic jam it always is--sad, but true!  For this page, I also want to take pictures of all the kids, and shrink them down so I can add their real photo to the driver's license. So fun!  If I were a kid, I would probably totally cut that out when I got home, and pretend to "drive" my bike like a car.  HA!  I don't want to tell them that, though. 

We are also beginning a cool little project to get our families out into the community!  Meet "Flat Chelsea" and "Flat Chip":


These little cuties are going home with my first graders this week.  They will take a picture of themselves and their new flat friend somewhere in our community, and then write about their adventures!  I know they will be so excited to know they can take these home tomorrow!!!  

Teachers, what is your favorite idea for teaching communities?  
I will give away one of my scrapbooks to the 10th person to comment!!!!









54 comments:

Georgeanne said...

What a cute idea!

Lisa said...

We used to do the milk carton houses, but we recently switched to paper sack houses. It is much easier for the kids to make their houses more unique and their little hands do better with the bigger surface to decorate.

♥ Owl in a Vowel Tree ♥ said...

This is so cute! I love it :) I like to have the kids make dioramas as a take-home project. I love this idea though!! :)

thepolkadotowl@gmail.com

Lyndsey (A Year of Many Firsts) said...

SARAH! This is precious...as always! LOVE YOU AND YOUR WORK! :)

Gladys said...

Toooo cute! I'm crossing my fingers I'm the 10th comment!

Gladys
teachinginhighheels@gmail.com

Amanda said...

Last year, we took the kids on a tour of four community places (library, ambulance hut, newspaper, and police station). I guess everyone is waiting to be the 10th commenter. :)
repete_21@yahoo.com

Sarah Cooley said...

Lisa! That is SO smart! I love that idea! I might try that this year!!! Thank you!

Beth said...

I'd love to have your scrapbook - too cute!!
dbtrout@hotmail.com

Sarah Cooley said...

Lyndsey, you are precious! Thank YOU!!! :)

ashleythurston said...

So cute!!!
Ashley.e.thurston@gmail.con

martha brown said...

This is a great idea -- I'm going to do this for sure!

Kate said...

Hope it's me!

Kate
dancinqueenks23@aol.com

Kate said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
aes17 said...

Love it! Looks adorable!
asponn@evdio.org

Sarah Cooley said...

It's you! :)

Cole said...

This is even cute for 2nd grade!

nadostaler@yahoo.com

Cole said...

This is even adorable for 2nd grade!

nadostaler@yahoo.com

We Teach Like A Rockstar said...

What a cute idea! I love it!!! Amber ~ Kindergarten Rocks Blog

martha brown said...

This is a GREAT idea. I love it!

miss m said...

I LOVE this!!!!!! Will you be selling the pages and Flat Chelsea/Chip on TPT? I will be your first customer! : )

I adore your work, so many great ideas!

K said...

I'm not the tenth, but I still want to comment about how cute this is!!! Will totally do something similar with my Firsties! Will this be sold on tpt?

Sarah Paul said...

LOVE this! You always know how to make everything so cute and fun.
Sarah
Sarah's First Grade Snippets

Sarah Paul said...

By the way, is this available to purchase? :)
Sarah
Sarah's First Grade Snippets

Sarah Cooley said...

Thanks Sarah Paul!! Yes, it is on TpT!

Sarah Cooley said...

Thank you! Yes, it is available on TpT!

Rachelle said...

LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS!!! How cute and creative, yet VERY relevant!

Amanda said...

Wow, such a cute idea!! I love it! :)

Amanda
First Grade Garden

Grandma Merrell said...

Even if I don't win can i get the ideas for each page please. This is such a hands-on GREAT way to teach about the community the child lives in. It is so personalized that it will be a fun momento!

Amanda said...

Ummmm... I can't even wait to use this with my kiddos to link to prior learning when we jump into our third grade community unit!!!! Cute!!!!

Elisabeth said...

What a darling idea!!! LOVE it!!! Our school is close to a post office and an ice cream shop. I've always wanted us to walk and tour the post office and then go to the ice cream shop.



Jane said...

Very cute! Awesome idea.
~Jane
rsmiramo@smsd.org

Rachel Lamb said...

Our kids make an Itty Bitty City using milk cartons. We also make Hot Spots in Claremont where the kids take a pic of themselves at the favorite place in town. They are adorable!

Rachel Lamb said...

Our kids make an Itty Bitty City using milk cartons. We also make Hot Spots in Claremont where the kids take a pic of themselves at the favorite place in town. They are adorable!

Rachel Lamb said...

Our kids make an Itty Bitty City using milk cartons. We also make Hot Spots in Claremont where the kids take a pic of themselves at the favorite place in town. They are adorable!

D and K said...

Love this!! What an amazing idea ;)

Unknown said...

love this idea, I have been trying to come up with an idea to do a community projects with first graders, after years of teaching second grade. thank you!

Sarah said...

SUPER SUPER SUPER CUTE!!

We have our community unit in February!! LOVE LOVE LOVE!

Thanks for sharing something that is likely sooo motivating to students!!

Sarah
shetrick@gmail.com

Ashley Sanderson said...

that is absolutely adorable!! :)

ashley

ashleysanderson1@hotmail.com

flyinghighinfirst.blogspot.com

travel teach and love said...

I love the Flat Chip and Chelsea idea! Last year in grade two we had the students take a stuffed toy around everywhere they went for a week. They had to take photos and make/present the project. The kids all had a ton of fun.
- Amanda {avphilli@gmail.com}
Inspired in Second

Holly Gerlach said...

Our kinder team actually made an entire "Kinderville" city and we constrcuted roads, billboards, traffic signs, lakes/trees/etc. The kids brought in there community building and we "built" the city outside and the rest of the school was able to see our beautiful display!
LOVE your scrapbook :)
Holly
Learning Adventures with Mrs. Gerlach

Denyelle said...

I love this idea so cute! We actually used poster board and had the kids create their own "Community Big Book". The componets of the big book covered what they see in their community, where they can go in their community, who they see in their community, what sounds they hear in their community and a map of their community. We broke the students into groups and had some groups create a big book for a rural community, some worked on one for a urban community and some worked on one for a suburban community. They students type some portions of it, drew other portions of it, and wrote some portions of it. They turned out sooo cute and they students really enjoyed them!

amy said...

I love the Community Scrapbook!! I was wondering is Flat Chip and Chelsea be available for purchase?! I love the idea of taking pictures out in the community! :)

amy said...

I love the Community Scrapbook idea!!! I love Flat Chip and Chelsea... Are you going to offer them on TPT? I think it is a great idea taking pictures with them out in the community!!

Unknown said...

I love this idea! I will be starting a community unit with my students next week and this scrapbook would tie it all together. This is my first year teaching first grade and I am a bit overwhelmed right now. I keep telling my self that it will get better once the routines are in place.

Janine said...

What a great idea! How can the rest of us get this? I would love to have it for our community unit.

faithfulinfirst.blogspot.com

Katie said...

Hi Sarah! I just bought your community scrapbook on TpT. Any suggestions for some community read alouds to go along with this unit? Just trying to compile a list. THanks so much!

MissCoffey said...

Such a great idea! I pinned this for my unit (doesn't start until April). I hope you are able to post some examples of your kiddos with their flat friends. I love that idea!

Mrs. Hocking said...

I love your community scrapbook and the Flat Stanley people. Could you please e-mail them to me elliskirsty1@gmail.com

Unknown said...

I LOVE this idea! Our mascot is a bricklayer named Yohan who is quite popular in the community... the kids would have a blast taking him around town! I just purchased this book on TpT and can't wait to use it. So adorable! :)

Rhiannon
www.slidingintofirstgrade.blogspot.com

Kindergardian said...

I purchased your scrapbook and am doing it with my students right now. It is adorable.I love the idea of flat Chelsea and Flat Chip. What a great way to get family involved and make Social Studies fun - something there is too little of in 1st grade now!

Elyse D'Andrea-Happily Teaching said...

Hi there!

I bought your community scrapbook and am excited to start using it tomorrow! Today we went on a walk outside for a community scavenger hunt and looked for things l like a pool, a mailbox, apartments, a store, etc...so much fun!

I noticed "Flat Chelsea" and "Flat Chip" aren't on sale in your store. Where did you find that cutie clip art that you used to make them? I really want to use your idea....love it!!!

Elyse
Happily Teaching

Amy said...

Thank you! Found you on Pinterest!

Unknown said...

hello i love this idea i would like to know how i can use it to were can i download it or buy it please!

Anonymous said...

Where can I get a copy of this scrapbook? We are learning about communities in my Year 1 class, and this is a wonderful teaching tool!

Ashley
halo_2003@msn.com

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