Literature Focus Unit EDU 315 By: Traci Truax

 Turn of the Century by Ellen B. Jackson  We Were There Too!: Young people in U.S History by Phillip M. Hoose  If I Were a Kid in Ancient Egypt: Children of the Ancient World by Cobblestone Publishing  D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths by Ingri d’Aulaire & Edgar Parin d’Aulaire  You Wouldn’t Want to Sail with Christopher Columbus by Fiona McDonald, David Antram, & David Salariya  Colonial Kids: A Guide to Life in the New World by Laurie Carlson  Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder  Children of the Wild West by Russell Freedman  Meet Molly by Valerie Tripp  My Name is America: Journal of Scott Pendleton Collins by Walter Dean Myers  Dandelions by Eve Bunting  The Greatest Skating Race by Louise Borden  Star of Fear, Star of Hope by Jo Hoelstandt

 Students will take part on a thematic unit on history. This unit will integrate reading and writing with social studies science, mathematics, art, music, and physical education.  Students will develop an understanding of the way people lived during different centuries in history (homes, clothes, schooling, words from other cultures, entertainment, historical figures).

 Students will read various literature focusing on certain time periods.  Students will read their journals to a partner  Students will read their short stories to a partner  Students will go to the library and find pieces of literature having to do with the time periods discussed to read independently  Students will read their stories about historical figures  Will also read books about their historical figure to gain knowledge on that person for their story/opinion of what that person might think of the world today

 Students will keep a journal (“Time Traveler’s Journal”) of their journey through time  Students will write a short, narrative story about someone/something from the various time periods  Students will write one journal entry as though they are a famous person from history  Students will pick one person from history and write what they think that person would like about the world today using facts about that person’s interests

 Groups of students will take turns going into the “time machine” and presenting their findings, as well as making guesses as to what part of history they are about to study from the clues given in the time machine  Students will act out parts of history, their readings, or stories read in class  Students will participate in grand conversations

 Students will listen to the teacher read stories, journal entries, and historical facts  Students will listen to each other  Time machine presentations  Personal writings such as their short stories and journal entries  Active listening during grand conversations  Students will listen to CDs provided by the teacher  Students will listen to pieces of music from different time periods

 Students will view artwork from different times in history  Students will view photographs from more recent time periods  Students will view the time traveling word wall  Students will view the time machine and the items within it  Students will view the artwork made by their classmates  Students will view the performances of their classmates (reader’s theater)

 Time Machine  Class will make time machine from a large box  Teacher will place “artifacts” in time machine for students to retrieve  Large timeline made by class  Includes descriptions of each time period  Each section of the time line is to be decorated in accordance to the time period  A class time traveling journal made on tag board paper and displayed on the bulletin board.

 Students will use addition and subtraction to decide how many Greek “troops” to send in Grecian battle math activity  Students will discover properties of geometry in Egyptian pyramid activity-what shape is at the base of a pyramid. How many triangles are there in a pyramid shape. Identify shapes in other 3-D shapes.  Students will use ruler to complete the pilgrim home activity-students will be given directions to draw a pilgrim village (includes a garden, a log home, a church, and a pen for the animals). Students will use rulers to measure the specified measurements set up by the teacher to make their pilgrim village blueprint.  Students will keep track of money earned from their wild west ranches-teachers will give students cut outs of different ranch animals and crops. Students will also be given money. They will then have to budget their money (teacher will give them bills every few minutes), trade, buy and sell things from each other to make successful ranches.  Local Drug Store activity- students will be given a certain amount of money to spend at a 1940’s drug store set up by teacher. They are to keep track of the money they spend, cashiers will count back change. Then, students will be given the same amount of money to spend in a modern drug store set up by the teacher so they can see how the worth of money has changed over time, as well as practice their money skills.  Students will add and subtract years to find the correct spaces on time line  Students will use graphs to show information to represent information  Bar graph to show the increasing human population throughout time  What number of students would want to live in which time period

 Think like an Archeologist Interactive Internet Game (see technology)  Archeology activity-teacher will bring in a couple boxes filled with dirt and buried items. Students will use various tools to dig up the items. Students will then do their best to restore the items to their original state  Students will play the dinosaur fact game (see technology)  Class will make their own mummy  Make a Mummy Interactive Internet Game (see technology)  Students will take part in an electricity experiment (see technology)  Students will observe older models of the solar system and discuss how they compare to our solar system. Students will then break into groups and each group will be responsible for presenting one planet (name, number of moons, rings?, distance from sun?, distance from earth?, life?, etc)  Students will keep a log of how technology has changed throughout their time travels (year of inventions, what invention does, is it still used today, how it was made, etc.)

 Time machine presentations  Historical figure research and stories  Time traveler’s journal  Identifying places on a world map  Learn how to use an atlas  Visit history museum (Heritage Center in Bismarck, ND)  Do a report on favorite part of museum and why  Students will learn how to read maps  Concepts of latitude and longitude  Map keys  Directions (North, East, South, West)  Students will keep a map tracking the places they have traveled on their journeys through time (Time Traveler’s Map)

 Listen to music from various time periods  Identify how instruments sounded from various time periods  Write a short song for each time period  Students will play Native American music using the instruments made in art  Make and play drums rhythmically

 Students will make rain sticks  Students will make medusa’s snakes (using patterns)  Students will draw hieroglyphics  Students will draw on rocks to simulate cave drawings  Students will decorate the time line  Students will make their own “pottery” out of play-doh  Students will make and decorate a tipi  Students will make their own version of Monet’s waterlillies paintings  Students will learn about various forms of art throughout history  Students will view pieces of art from various time periods

 Ice Age vs. Mammoths- Like freeze tag. 5 students will be labeled “Icers”. Their goal is to catch the mammoths. Mammoths who have been tagged will freeze. They cannot be unfrozen. The winner is the last mammoth standing.  Olympics Day!  Discus throw, running contests (short and long distance and relays)  Think Ancient Greece sports  Tumbleweed round-up game-place a hula-hoop in the center of the gym. Have lots of balls of varying sizes scattered about the gym. There will be cowboys and winds. The cowboys will try to round up the tumble weeds and put them in the corral (hula-hoop)  Pony Express- Divide students into teams of four or five. This is a relay game. Students will run from station to station (4 or 5 stations). Each station will have a task for the student to complete before he/she can pass on the letter or package. Tasks should be simple, but physically challenging (sit-ups, push ups, jumping jacks, etc.). Letters students have could actually tell students at the stations what they have to do.

 Dinosaur Fact Game ( rtrain//games/fieldguide.html) rtrain//games/fieldguide.html  Ice Age: The Meltdown DVD  Make a Mummy Game ( com/fansites/tutenstein/mummymaker/mummymaker.html) com/fansites/tutenstein/mummymaker/mummymaker.html  Think Like an Archaeologist Game ( w.history.org/kids/games/dirtDetective.cfm) w.history.org/kids/games/dirtDetective.cfm  Greek Gods ( _NeirFIkM)  Electricity Experiments( experiments.com/catelectrici ty.html) experiments.com/catelectrici ty.html  The Animated Hero Classics: Galileo by NEST family entertainment  Laura Ingalls Little House on the Prarie Audio Book on CD

 Large Group: grand conversations, library time, viewing photographs, viewing artwork, listening to music, listening to teacher read, participating in physical education games and music/art activities, listening/watching student presentations, history museum field trip, song writing, learning national anthem  Small group: time machine presentations, time line decorating, peer conferencing, reader’s theater, sharing journals (travelers, maps, tech, short stories), graph for math, drug store activity, archeology activity, making a mummy, electricity experiments, solar system projects  Individual: journals, short stories, historical figure research, historical figure stories, art projects, independent reading, word wall spelling test, field trip report, internet games

 Rubric/checklist for journal entries  Technology  Maps  Historical person entry  Rubric for Historical Figure Project  Rubrics in art  Participation/checklist for music activities, reader’s theater, science experiments, grand conversations, and P.E. activities  Spelling test from time traveler’s word wall  6+1 Writing Traits Assessment  Portfolio Assessment

MondayTuesdayWednesdayThursdayFriday 8:30-8:45 Time Machine Pre-history (Imagination Discussion) Ancient Egypt & Greece (Students present) Age of Discovery (Students Present) Wild West (Students Present) World War II (Students Present) 8:45-9:00Cave drawings, facts Art-cave drawings on rocks Read: Greek Myths, Egyptian stories. Discuss pyramids and mummies Read: Follow the Dream, Dear America: I Walk in Dread Read: Little House on the Prairie, Tom Sawyer, Read: Meet Molly, Journal of Scott Pendleton, Anne Frank 9-10:00Math (time line activity)Math (Pyramid Geometry & Greek Battle Activity) Geography (around the world tag). Math (pilgrims- measuring) Math (ranch budget activity) Math (Drug Store Activity) 10:00-10:15Recess 10:15-11:20Science (fossil making, tech log) Science (mummy making, tech log) Science (Galileo video, planets, tech log) Science (panning for gold, lightbulb, tech log) Traveler’s Journal, Historical Figure Presentation 11:20-12:20Music & art (drum making and rhythm) Art (Playdoh Pottery & Medusa’s Snakes) Art (DaVinci)P.E. (pony express round up) Music (records, pop music of 40s) 12:20-1Lunch/recess 1-2:00Investigation (read, computers, video clips) History Museum Field Trip 2-2:15Recess Field Trip 2:15-2:55Discussion, Traveler’s Journal/map, Journal sharing, reader’s theater Field Trip 2:55-3:05Pack up & dismiss

 Activate background knowledge: Students will think about what they already know about certain time periods  Brainstorming: Students will think of many related ideas to the time periods being studied  Connecting: Students will relate time periods to themselves, the world around them, and literature  Identifying big ideas: Students will identify the most important facts about the time periods  Organizing: Students will put ideas in a coherent and logical arrangement  Questioning: Students ask questions to clarify or expand meaning  Revising: Students make changes or a new version  Summarizing: Students pick out the big ideas to remember  Visualizing: Students draw pictures in their minds

 Print: use classroom resources, apply spelling rules, capitalize proper nouns and adjectives  Comprehension: sequence, categorize, classify, separate facts and opinions, note details, identify cause and effect, compare and contrast, use contest cues, recognize literary genres  Language: Use punctuation marks, use simple, compound, and complex sentences, combine sentences, avoid sentence fragments, recognize parts of speech  Reference: use a glossary or dictionary, locate information in an encyclopedia, atlas, or almanac, read and make graphs, tables, and diagrams, read and make time line  Study: preview, follow directions, make outlines and clusters