Description of unit: Last year we just looked at the holiday of Christmas. I wanted to do more with holiday celebrations and expose the students to more cultural traditions. We do a lot of art projects to go with our themes and I am excited to re-teach key vocabulary through art. We are mainly going to look at the celebrations of: Christmas, Kwanzaa, and Chanukah. We are going to look at the differences as well as the similarities between the three. I want this unit to expand more and more throughout the years when I find new books/activities that go along with these holiday celebrations.
Grade Level: Pre-K/K
Objectives:
To look at Christmas (December) celebrations/tradition from different cultural perspectives.
To examine other holiday traditions not only in the US.
Texts
Books Christmas
Moore, C. C. (1989). The Night Before Christmas. New York: Scholastic Inc..
This is a classic poem that has been around for years. The story is about all the things that happen on Christmas Eve and the illustrations in the book are great. We have been focusing on expanding the vocabulary of our students in grades Pre-K-2nd for the last 2 years and this book displays and talks about several of them. I think this books illustrations the celebration of Christmas very well and the beliefs of American children.
Craig, J., & Rader, L. (1994). A letter to Santa. Mahwah, N.J.: Troll Associates.
This is a short book talks about Santa and Christmas coming. The children in the book write letters to Santa and await for his arrival Christmas day. Several American children are excited every year to write letters to Santa and are excited for the coming of Christmas morning.
Scarry, P. M., & Miller, J. P. (1970). The sweet smell of Christmas,. New York: Golden Press.
I really enjoy this simple book that illustrates all the sweet smells/sounds you smell and hear during Christmas, traditions that many American family participate in (pie, pine tree, candy cane, gingerbread men, hot chocolate). Every year families go pick out a Christmas tree, bake cookies, sing Christmas carols, and decorate the a tree. We will discuss the traditions and things they do with their families.
Shannon, D. (2010). It's Christmas, David!. New York: Blue Sky Press.
This is a new book that is by one of my favorite authors. David is a mischievous little boy who tends to get in trouble. A big part of Christmas talks about being naughty and nice and I think a lot of my students will be able to relate to this story.
Kwanzaa
Katz, K. (2003). My first Kwanzaa. New York: H. Holt.
This story goes through a family’s celebration of the African-American holiday, Kwanzaa. The text is very simple for my age group. Most students will not know anything about Kwanzaa so this is a good first book to introduce the traditions of this holiday celebration. I want to compare these traditions with those of Christmas to see the similarities and differences.
Chocolate, D. M., & Massey, C. (1992). My first Kwanzaa book. New York: Scholastic
This Kwanzaa story is a fun story that describes what someone would wear on Kwanzaa, what someone would eat, and what someone would do on Kwanzaa. It’s a good story that talks about family, since that’s a big part of this African-American holiday, and lighting the candles on thekinara.
Chanukah/Hanukah
Novack, D., & Harris, P. (2010). My two holidays: a Hanukkah and Christmas story. New York: Cartwheel Books.
This is a great story to read that shows students that you don’t have to only celebrate one holiday and that a family can have more than one tradition. The boy in the story has to share his family tradition at school, but all of the students only have one tradition and he is embarrassed to share his. After he shares he has two traditions, everyone thinks it’s great.
Yoon, S. (2005). My first Menorah. New York, N.Y.: Little Simon.
This Hanukah story tells the traditions of this holiday. It is a simple, easy to read book that shows the lighting of the menorah and in the correct order. Students will see the significance of the menorah. I am going to have students drew a menorah the best they can after watching me do it first.
Holidays Are Special. (2011). Weekly Reader, p. 4.
This Weekly Reader will be a good small group lesson with the students. Inside it describes one thing we do during each holiday. It is simple and the pictures are great for the students to look at.
This awesome power point shows different holidays celebrated and the main traditions celebrated. There are pictures that are on each slide and it will be a good opening lesson to holiday celebrations. I made a memory game with pictures from the 3 holidays to play in small groups with the students.
This is a cute video that doesn’t look at the differences in the holidays, but the similarities and that’s what I liked about the video. I want the students to see that even though all of the holidays are different there are still similar in some ways. After we watch this video I want to make a voice thread with my students on their holiday celebrations.
realitychangers. (n.d.). Feliz Navidad - Jose Feliciano Acoustic Cover (Jorge and Alexa Narvaez) - YouTube . YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.. Retrieved December 4, 2011, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6pMO9ZUIWM
I like this video a lot. It’s a daughter and father singing Feliz Navidad. I want to show this to my students, and then teach them this song so they can sing along with it.
Mythology Text Set, Sue Dobson
Greek Mythology Unit, 4th Grade
Since our Common Core Standards have changed, I decided to create a text set/unit for a topic not addressed in our Basal readers. This text set will introduce Greek Mythology to 4th grade students. It will also introduce the relationship between certain Greek myth characters and words in our current language. We will learn about the Gods in general and the go in depth with select Gods/Goddesses and creatures. The end of the unit involves creating a class Pictionary of Greek words. The students will also pick their favorite Greek mythology character and create a trading card for that character. I really utilized the book “From Trading Cards to Comic Strips” in my formation of this unit.
References
[12 Main Greek Gods and Goddesses] - YouTube. (n.d.). YouTube – Broadcast Yourself. Retrieved November 27, 2011, from This short video is a great general introduction to Greek Gods and Goddesses. This will be shown at the beginning of the unit to provide some background to the students.
Blaisdell, R., & Green, J. (1995). Favorite Greek myths. New York: Dover Publications.
We will be using chapters out of this book to research certain Greek characters, including Hercules, Perseus, Medusa, Narcissus, Echo, Achilles, Zeus, and Prometheus.
Lock, D. (2008). Greek Myths. New York: DK .
This is a great, kid-friendly book by DK publishers.It is written in a very easy to understand was, I will definitely use this text for my students who struggle with comprehension, since myths are difficult to understand with unusual names. This text also has the story of Hercules, Perseus, Icharus, and Midas. We will be using this text to organize our Greek Terminology, since it has a great glossary that lays out all major terms in a user friendly way.
Osborne, M. P., & Howell, T. (1989). Favorite Greek myths. New York: Scholastic, Inc..
This is a higher text that I will use with my 2 highest reading groups. We are going to study Arachne and Minerva, Narcissus and Echo, King Midas, and Ceres. Each of these characters has contributed to a root of a work in our language.
Payne, R. (1995). Timeless myths. Newmarket: Brimax.
The students will be reading Daedalus and Icarus, Perseus and The Gorgon, and Achilles and Hector.
Smith, C. R., & Russell, P. C. (2009). The mighty 12: superheroes of Greek myth. New York: Little, Brown and Company.
This graphic novel is very current and kid friendly. We will be reading about Zeus, Poseidon, Apollo, and Medusa. I am going to make copies of packet pages so that each student will have a copy of these materials.
Steffens, J., & Carr, J. (1984). Myths and Fables: Skill Oriented Language Arts Activites. Santa Barbara: The Learning Works, Inc.. This teacher resource has great reproducibles on each story. The class will be doing Echo and Narcissus, along with the compare and contrast sheet. They will also be creating a class book “Greek Pictionary” where they will each get a word with greek roots and make a dictionary entry page that explains and illustrated the meaning of the word. They will also read about Arachne and complete the inference sheet companion. They will also do Heracles (Hercules) and complete a 12 labors activity.
These comics are all mythology related, I am showing one that involes a modern twist on the Gods and Goddesses.omics.
Walt Disney's - Hercules - [Part 1/8] – YouTube. YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. . Retrieved November 27, 2011, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSWfeJomyXM This is the entire movie, in segments on youtube. I will be showing clips after our unit.
lpslover2007. (n.d.). Olympian Gods of Ancient Greek Mythology- YouTube . YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. . Retrieved November 27, 2011, from Another great, short video segment giving general information on the Gods of Ancient Greece.
off the mark - mythology cartoons by mark parisi. (n.d.). 7000+ off the mark Cartoons by Mark Parisi. Retrieved November 27, 2011, from http://offthemark.com/mythology/mythology.htm
Mythology figures include Thor, Atlas, Pandora and Medusa.
Since Percy Jackson is such a popular character in literature of this age group, I decided to show a clip of The Lightening Thief to the class. I am going to show this when we learn about Medusa , the Gorgon, a mythological creature who Perseus slays.
APA formatting by BibMe.org.
Sue Dobson Inquiry Voicethread writing projects, Diary of a Runaway Seed, 4th grade
I was very inspired by the book "From Trading Cards to Comic Strips" for this inquiry. I started thinking about my student's love for Diary of a Wimpy Kid books and it morphed into a "Diary of a Runaway Seed" project, done with a journal format. I read aloud Diary of a Worm to the students and we discussed the elements of a diary...ie: first person, dates, etc. The students used a graphic organizer and from there went onto a rough draft. They wrapped up the project by publishing their final copy on Voicethread. http://voicethread.com/share/2470363/ http://voicethread.com/share/2468896/
Also...
I found this picture on Pinterst. It has a lot of neat ideas that teachers post, just thought I'd share it :)Pre-K Thanksgiving VoiceThread
Ashleigh Yarcho Inquiry
Pre-K Holiday Text Set, Ashleigh Yarcho
Ashleigh Yarcho
Text Set
Topic: Holiday Celebrations
Description of unit: Last year we just looked at the holiday of Christmas. I wanted to do more with holiday celebrations and expose the students to more cultural traditions. We do a lot of art projects to go with our themes and I am excited to re-teach key vocabulary through art. We are mainly going to look at the celebrations of: Christmas, Kwanzaa, and Chanukah. We are going to look at the differences as well as the similarities between the three. I want this unit to expand more and more throughout the years when I find new books/activities that go along with these holiday celebrations.
Grade Level: Pre-K/K
Objectives:
Texts
Books
Christmas
Moore, C. C. (1989). The Night Before Christmas. New York: Scholastic Inc..
This is a classic poem that has been around for years. The story is about all the things that happen on Christmas Eve and the illustrations in the book are great. We have been focusing on expanding the vocabulary of our students in grades Pre-K-2nd for the last 2 years and this book displays and talks about several of them. I think this books illustrations the celebration of Christmas very well and the beliefs of American children.
Craig, J., & Rader, L. (1994). A letter to Santa. Mahwah, N.J.: Troll Associates.
This is a short book talks about Santa and Christmas coming. The children in the book write letters to Santa and await for his arrival Christmas day. Several American children are excited every year to write letters to Santa and are excited for the coming of Christmas morning.
Scarry, P. M., & Miller, J. P. (1970). The sweet smell of Christmas,. New York: Golden Press.
I really enjoy this simple book that illustrates all the sweet smells/sounds you smell and hear during Christmas, traditions that many American family participate in (pie, pine tree, candy cane, gingerbread men, hot chocolate). Every year families go pick out a Christmas tree, bake cookies, sing Christmas carols, and decorate the a tree. We will discuss the traditions and things they do with their families.
Shannon, D. (2010). It's Christmas, David!. New York: Blue Sky Press.
This is a new book that is by one of my favorite authors. David is a mischievous little boy who tends to get in trouble. A big part of Christmas talks about being naughty and nice and I think a lot of my students will be able to relate to this story.
Kwanzaa
Katz, K. (2003). My first Kwanzaa. New York: H. Holt.
This story goes through a family’s celebration of the African-American holiday, Kwanzaa. The text is very simple for my age group. Most students will not know anything about Kwanzaa so this is a good first book to introduce the traditions of this holiday celebration. I want to compare these traditions with those of Christmas to see the similarities and differences.
Chocolate, D. M., & Massey, C. (1992). My first Kwanzaa book. New York: Scholastic
This Kwanzaa story is a fun story that describes what someone would wear on Kwanzaa, what someone would eat, and what someone would do on Kwanzaa. It’s a good story that talks about family, since that’s a big part of this African-American holiday, and lighting the candles on thekinara.
Chanukah/Hanukah
Novack, D., & Harris, P. (2010). My two holidays: a Hanukkah and Christmas story. New York: Cartwheel Books.
This is a great story to read that shows students that you don’t have to only celebrate one holiday and that a family can have more than one tradition. The boy in the story has to share his family tradition at school, but all of the students only have one tradition and he is embarrassed to share his. After he shares he has two traditions, everyone thinks it’s great.
Yoon, S. (2005). My first Menorah. New York, N.Y.: Little Simon.
This Hanukah story tells the traditions of this holiday. It is a simple, easy to read book that shows the lighting of the menorah and in the correct order. Students will see the significance of the menorah. I am going to have students drew a menorah the best they can after watching me do it first.
Holidays Are Special. (2011). Weekly Reader, p. 4.
This Weekly Reader will be a good small group lesson with the students. Inside it describes one thing we do during each holiday. It is simple and the pictures are great for the students to look at.
Websites
Around the World - Free Christmas Powerpoints . (n.d.). Holiday Lesson Plans, Interactive Games for Kids. Retrieved December 4, 2011, from http://holidays.mrdonn.org/powerpoints/christmas/world.htm
This awesome power point shows different holidays celebrated and the main traditions celebrated. There are pictures that are on each slide and it will be a good opening lesson to holiday celebrations. I made a memory game with pictures from the 3 holidays to play in small groups with the students.
Videos
SesameStreet. (n.d.). Sesame Street: Kids Talk About Holidays - YouTube . YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.. Retrieved December 6, 2011, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sjC13dFRS8&feature=related
This is a cute video that doesn’t look at the differences in the holidays, but the similarities and that’s what I liked about the video. I want the students to see that even though all of the holidays are different there are still similar in some ways. After we watch this video I want to make a voice thread with my students on their holiday celebrations.
realitychangers. (n.d.). Feliz Navidad - Jose Feliciano Acoustic Cover (Jorge and Alexa Narvaez) - YouTube . YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.. Retrieved December 4, 2011, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6pMO9ZUIWM
I like this video a lot. It’s a daughter and father singing Feliz Navidad. I want to show this to my students, and then teach them this song so they can sing along with it.
Mythology Text Set, Sue Dobson
Greek Mythology Unit, 4th GradeSince our Common Core Standards have changed, I decided to create a text set/unit for a topic not addressed in our Basal readers. This text set will introduce Greek Mythology to 4th grade students. It will also introduce the relationship between certain Greek myth characters and words in our current language. We will learn about the Gods in general and the go in depth with select Gods/Goddesses and creatures. The end of the unit involves creating a class Pictionary of Greek words. The students will also pick their favorite Greek mythology character and create a trading card for that character. I really utilized the book “From Trading Cards to Comic Strips” in my formation of this unit.
References
[12 Main Greek Gods and Goddesses] - YouTube. (n.d.). YouTube – Broadcast Yourself. Retrieved November 27, 2011, from
This short video is a great general introduction to Greek Gods and Goddesses. This will be shown at the beginning of the unit to provide some background to the students.
Blaisdell, R., & Green, J. (1995). Favorite Greek myths. New York: Dover Publications.
We will be using chapters out of this book to research certain Greek characters, including Hercules, Perseus, Medusa, Narcissus, Echo, Achilles, Zeus, and Prometheus.
Lock, D. (2008). Greek Myths. New York: DK .
This is a great, kid-friendly book by DK publishers.It is written in a very easy to understand was, I will definitely use this text for my students who struggle with comprehension, since myths are difficult to understand with unusual names. This text also has the story of Hercules, Perseus, Icharus, and Midas. We will be using this text to organize our Greek Terminology, since it has a great glossary that lays out all major terms in a user friendly way.
Osborne, M. P., & Howell, T. (1989). Favorite Greek myths. New York: Scholastic, Inc..
This is a higher text that I will use with my 2 highest reading groups. We are going to study Arachne and Minerva, Narcissus and Echo, King Midas, and Ceres. Each of these characters has contributed to a root of a work in our language.
Payne, R. (1995). Timeless myths. Newmarket: Brimax.
The students will be reading Daedalus and Icarus, Perseus and The Gorgon, and Achilles and Hector.
Smith, C. R., & Russell, P. C. (2009). The mighty 12: superheroes of Greek myth. New York: Little, Brown and Company.
This graphic novel is very current and kid friendly. We will be reading about Zeus, Poseidon, Apollo, and Medusa. I am going to make copies of packet pages so that each student will have a copy of these materials.
Steffens, J., & Carr, J. (1984). Myths and Fables: Skill Oriented Language Arts Activites. Santa Barbara: The Learning Works, Inc..
This teacher resource has great reproducibles on each story. The class will be doing Echo and Narcissus, along with the compare and contrast sheet. They will also be creating a class book “Greek Pictionary” where they will each get a word with greek roots and make a dictionary entry page that explains and illustrated the meaning of the word. They will also read about Arachne and complete the inference sheet companion. They will also do Heracles (Hercules) and complete a 12 labors activity.
Subject. (n.d.). The Mythology Comic Strips. Welcome to The Comic Strips!. Retrieved November 27, 2011, from http://www.thecomicstrips.com/bysubject/strip_subject.php?p=3&sid=1326
These comics are all mythology related, I am showing one that involes a modern twist on the Gods and Goddesses.
Walt Disney's - Hercules - [Part 1/8] – YouTube. YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. . Retrieved November 27, 2011, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSWfeJomyXM
This is the entire movie, in segments on youtube. I will be showing clips after our unit.
lpslover2007. (n.d.). Olympian Gods of Ancient Greek Mythology- YouTube . YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. . Retrieved November 27, 2011, from
Another great, short video segment giving general information on the Gods of Ancient Greece.
off the mark - mythology cartoons by mark parisi. (n.d.). 7000+ off the mark Cartoons by Mark Parisi. Retrieved November 27, 2011, from http://offthemark.com/mythology/mythology.htm
Mythology figures include Thor, Atlas, Pandora and Medusa.
sourwa. (n.d.). Medusa Chases Percy - Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief Extended Scene - YouTube. YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. Retrieved November 27, 2011, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-Y4q2m9OFE&feature=related
Since Percy Jackson is such a popular character in literature of this age group, I decided to show a clip of The Lightening Thief to the class. I am going to show this when we learn about Medusa , the Gorgon, a mythological creature who Perseus slays.
APA formatting by BibMe.org.
Sue Dobson Inquiry Voicethread writing projects, Diary of a Runaway Seed, 4th grade
I was very inspired by the book "From Trading Cards to Comic Strips" for this inquiry. I started thinking about my student's love for Diary of a Wimpy Kid books and it morphed into a "Diary of a Runaway Seed" project, done with a journal format. I read aloud Diary of a Worm to the students and we discussed the elements of a diary...ie: first person, dates, etc. The students used a graphic organizer and from there went onto a rough draft. They wrapped up the project by publishing their final copy on Voicethread.http://voicethread.com/share/2470363/
http://voicethread.com/share/2468896/
I also have been struggling to find a way for a student to have success because she has some auditory processing issues, so I decided to put our Social Studies book onto voicethreads to give her visuals of the reading.
http://voicethread.com/share/2511046/
http://voicethread.com/share/2511004/
http://voicethread.com/share/2510951/
We'll see this week if this technique helps her to process and retain information presented to her.
Ashleigh Yarcho Glogster
Voice Thread Reflection, Sue Dobson
http://voicethread.com/share/2465665/
Pre-K Voice Thread
http://voicethread.com/share/2383401/Tools we use:
VoiceThread
http://voicethread.comInstructions
VoiceThread InstructionsGlogster
www.glogster.comMindomo
Instructions
Audio Boo:
http://audioboo.fm/Course Blog:
http://kidblog.org/Beyond_the_Basal_Fall11/
Mind Map
Links to Other educators:
Kathy Cassidy
Blog:http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=1337
Website:
http://staff.prairiesouth.ca/sites/kcassidy/
Wiki for Web 2.0 for primary grades (K-2):
http://primaryweb2.wikispaces.com/
Wikis for Web 2.0 (3-5):
http://primarypixels.wikispaces.com/
Be sure to check out both wikis as they both have some great resources for differentiation and integrating technology.
Acceptable Use:
Click on this link below, click on info and then go to "responsible Computer Use-students
http://www.prairiesouth.ca/staff/forms.html
Resources:
Web 2.0 wiki with resourceshttp://teachweb2.wikispaces.com/
http://webtools4u2use.wikispaces.com/
K12 online conference
http://k12onlineconference.org/
Professional Organization for integrating technology:
http://www.iste.org/welcome.aspx
A great list put together by teachers on tools you can use:
http://edudemic.com/2010/07/the-35-best-web-2-0-classroom-tools-chosen-by-you/#.TgAPEV3AhYs
Tools we use:
Course Blog:http://kidblog.org/Beyond_the_Basal_Fall11/wp-login.php?redirect_to=%2FBeyond_the_Basal_Fall11%2F
voicethread.com
www.mind42.com
Links to Other educators:
Kathy Cassidy
Blog:http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=1337
Website:
http://staff.prairiesouth.ca/sites/kcassidy/
Wiki for Web 2.0 for primary grades (K-2):
http://primaryweb2.wikispaces.com/
Wikis for Web 2.0 (3-5):
http://primarypixels.wikispaces.com/
Be sure to check out both wikis as they both have some great resources for differentiation and integrating technology.
Acceptable Use:
Click on this link below, click on info and then go to "responsible Computer Use-students
http://www.prairiesouth.ca/staff/forms.html