Texas Symbols

Texas

Social Studies Lessons

Howdy there! For a few weeks we talked about various Texas facts such as the symbolism behind the Texas flag, Texas symbols, customs, and etc.

Our class discussed the symbolism behind the Texas flag first. We created a KWL chart and asked the students what they already know about the flag and what they want to know. A lot of the Know's consisted of the features of the flag. We gave them some time to ask some questions about the Texas flag, we prompted them by asking questions such as "Do the colors on the flag have meaning?" or "Who created our flag?".

We read some stories about the Texas flag from books from our school library and then our students were able to answer some of the questions that they asked. We were able to complete our last section of our KWL chart.



Completed KWL Chart

Within the next few days we created a Texas class flag out of butcher paper.

Before filling in our flag we read another book on the Texas flag and discussed where each color is on the flag.

To complete the flag we had each student to place their handprints on the butcher paper.

Bulletin Board Display in our Classroom

The following week we discussed the different Texas symbols.

We read vairous expository texts about Texas symbols. I glued on the pictures to the chart paper and I had the students help me label the chart. I would ask them what the name of the symbol was and what category it would go under (state bird, state flower, state plant, and etc.).

Our students completed their very own pictures of bluebonnets by using their fingers and paint.

Completed Bluebonnets

The following day our students created books about Texas by writing sentences about facts that they know. 

We pre-cut the outline of Texas and glued the sheets of paper to make the book.

On February 24th it was Go Texan Day! We spent some time reading about cowboys and creating our own mini books about them.

After reading a book about cowboys, each one of our students were able to create their very own cowboy and cowgirl. Before starting we talked about the different kinds of clothing that they wear. We even got to look at pictures of real cowboys and cowgirls to give them some ideas!

We reviewed our Texas symbols the following week by reading a book called I Spy in the Texas Sky  by Deborah  Kadair.

After reading the story we took a tally of their favorite Texas symbol. They completed a sheet by drawing and writing their favorite symbol so that we could create our very own class book! Bluebonnets were definitely the class favorite!