All About Tennessee Interactive Notebook Lesson

Hey, Guys! Today is a lesson about Tennessee and boy do we have a lot of ground to cover.  In 5th grade, before the state standards changed, students had to know about the 3 Grand Divisions of Tennessee.  5th-grade teachers are no longer required to teach on that topic.  However, students are required to know Civil War battles, especially the ones that occurred in Tennessee.  Well, if I don't teach it, then how will they know places such as the capital of Tennessee, the major cities, the rivers, etc.  So I use this opportunity to teach students about Tennessee.  As a teacher, I feel that geography is an important component of Social Studies, even if the state disagrees and I know some teachers at lower grade levels do not even teach Social Studies at all.  Social Studies has taken a back seat to Reading and Mathematics.  That just makes me so sad!  In order to perk up my spirits, let's get started on the first lesson that will go in the 5th-grade Social Studies interactive journal.  I start out with where Tennessee is in the United States.  I swear I am not lying when I say I have students who do not know where the State of Tennessee is located. Once again sad!  So I use this time to start big and get small.  For this activity, we make a BrainPop book.  This is a fun research project that fits nicely in the notebook.  You will have to guide the students on what you want them to research. I like this activity because you can differentiate it to the level of your students.  I will show you what I have the students do and then you can take it from there.  This is what the front page of the book looks like.

I love using BrainPOP in the classroom and the kids love guessing Tim's shirt decorations after I give them the topic.  So in the tradition of Tim, I let the kids decorate his shirt to represent what the book will be about.  Here is my version:

     After students decorate his shirt, we move to the next page which is the first page inside.  On this page (page 1), we have a map of the United States.  Students will color in the state of Tennessee.  In addition,  on page two, I have some questions they must find on the internet such as in what order Tennessee joined the United States and the date.

 Remember we are getting smaller, so page 3 is going to be the 3 Grand Divisions of Tennessee.  Students will have to draw the Shape of Tennessee, divide it, and label it.

  Page 4 will consist of facts about the 3 grand divisions of Tennessee.

 Page 5 is the six physical regions of Tennessee. Students are required to write facts about each region on page 6.  I use Tennessee Bill from the Tennessee History website.  He has a video and does a walk across Tennessee and explains each physical region.  Students complete a map labeling the six physical regions as they watch the video.   He tries to be funny and the kids love him.  Just a quick note, when I watch any short videos (10 minutes or less )  we watch first and listen and then watch again for note taking purposes.  Yes, this does take a little more time but I swear by this method.  On page 7, students color in a map of the 95 counties in Tennessee.  I think this is one important map because lots of Civil War battles were fought in Tennessee and our textbook mentions the counties.  Students look at me all the time and say "Where is that?"  Again, geography equals sadness!  I make them point an arrow to the county in which we live.
Next page, consists of the State Flag.  Lots of times, students think the Rebel Flag is our state flag.  NO!  Students research the flag and write a short summary about what they learned from their research.
After the flag report, I have students design a license plate to represent our state.  It can have the state bird, the state tree, the state bug, the state fish, ect. You can even add your own pages and have the students write about the picture.  They are learning to do research and I find that most students that come from the lower grades have never done research.   This license plate is totally their creation.  They can draw and label the pictures, print them off the internet, use pictures of magazines but it has to be in color.

After the license plate, they must write about each item they placed on the license plate.  This will fill the next pages (one page per item).  I require a minimum of five items but they can do more if they choose to do so.  If you do not want to do a license plate, you can have your students design a stamp with the same requirements.  I have done both.  I even let them do a poster once.

After they have covered the State of Tennessee official symbols , the next part of the book is dedicated to important people in Tennessee.  Students have to know a great deal of people in the Civil War especially the ones from Tennessee.  I give the students a list of the the people and they can pick who they want to do.  They must do a minimum of six.  Each page will consist of the person's name at the top, a picture of the person, and a brief bio telling about them and why they are important to Tennessee. 

On the very last page of the book,  I have the students paste a rubric and a checklist. They are encouraged to check off the list to make sure they have done everything correctly before I grade it.  Students glue this in their journal and have the journal in to be graded.  I pick 10 random students each day to hand in their journals for grading.  This way I am not overwhelmed with 100 journals to grade at any given time.

So now your students know where in the world Tennessee is located and everything the state has to offer.  This project makes a great author night for parents as well.  Ta-dah!  Your students now know a little something about Tennessee.  See you next time for a 6th grade World History  introduction lesson for the interactive notebook.