Anchor Charts

Part of my back to school prep included making these beauties...anchor charts! I LOVE anchor charts because A. they were so much fun to make and B. Opal and Mae have a quick reference to concepts they have learned.

These babies didn't cost me a dime because I already had all the materials I needed. I used PVC pipe to make the stand. It took four coats of acrylic paint plus a clear coat along with washi tape to decorate the stands, but I'm happy with the final product.

My husband got me a little laminator machine a few years ago, so I ran my charts through that, punched holes in the top, attached them with a clamp ring and viola desk sized posters for school!

I wish I could give you a close up of the charts, but the majority of them are not my own creation. If you hop over to A Primitive Schoolhouse on Pinterest, you will see anchor charts that I have pinned for this pinspiration project! Click HERE to see my board.

Civics Lesson in a Voting Year

I know many of you have been prepping for the upcoming school year. For me, this past week has been nothing but prepping and planning. I'm going to start school in two weeks, so I've been a busy worker bee.

History requires A LOT of planning since I do not use a curriculum for this subject. According to our state's history state standards, Opal has to learn about civics and what better time to teach about democracy than an election year! After searching for some lesson ideas, I just knew I had to share with you my amazing finds.

I think I've grown tremendously in my interest and knowledge of the democratic process as I have gotten older. I used to be of the mindset that they should raise the voting age to 25, and sometimes watching the news, I still feel the voting age should be raised. I might get a lot of flack for that statement, but I don't think many 18 year olds are capable of understanding the issues surrounding voting until they have grown up and lived on their own a bit. Sure there are a few young people who are very well versed in worldly and political issues, but not many. In fact, only 10 states require students to pass the US Citizenship test. I wonder how many adults can pass that test today?

However, with the voting age being 18, I want Opal and Mae to be well versed in civics and understanding the democratic process so they can be informed voters when they are eligible to vote.

So in my history planning, I hopped on the Internet and searched for activities and lesson plan ideas to teach civics.

I ran across the edutopia website in my search for lessons. This WEBSITE had a plethora of civics sites and ideas. I urge you to look through all of the links. Some require you to be a licensed and practicing teacher in a school, but most of them are completely free resources.

I looked through a bunch of the links, but the one I found to be most valuable for my classroom was the iCivics website. You can access it HERE.

This website is free for ALL educators and they do not require a school email address. As a homeschool teacher, I was able to use my regular email and gain access to the site. I was able to save tons of PDF documents and PowerPoint Presentations. They have full lesson plans as well as games for kids to play. This educator give iCivics two thumbs up!

Please leave comments on how you plan to teach civics in this election year!

Disclaimer: I am in NO WAY affiliated with the links I have provided. The websites I mentioned and linked did not ask me or pay me for my endorsement. I urge you to make your own judgments of the links I referenced in my post. It's my hope that I can make your search easier by referencing the sites I found to be valuable when I conducted my search!