First Painter by Kathryn Lasky – A picture book lesson

This is a beautiful picture book set in prehistoric times. It is the author’s imagining of what caused early man to draw in caves, gorgeously illustrated. The story itself is engaging and plausible, but it is most useful as a scene setter – an introduction to prehistoric times. You can read two useful reviews at Amazon. The book is currently out of print, but easily available online from used dealers or check your local library.

This book became the basis for a history lab.

I would read this to my students, asking them to make simple lists of: tools used, painting supplies, things drawn

We would then read an article on cave painting and see how much of what was written is based in fact, and how much did the author interpret. I also show them some wonderful sites on the internet:

• A Virtual Tour
• The Cave of Lascaux

Lastly, I would have my students create their own cave paintings. I’ve used manilla drawing paper or paper grocery bags (send out a call through your newsletter/class email). Students would then crumple the paper to produce a rougher “cave-ish” texture. Using appropriate colors from a water color palette, they then created their own “cave painting”. For best results, this takes either a block period or two regular class periods.

 

Veterans Day Resources

I was planning for Veterans Day and while it isn’t exactly a strategy, all public schools are required to recognize this holiday and my research might prove useful.

On my team, we’ll read the following printable during homeroom as our morning work. It is a reading comprehension with questions about the holiday from ABC Teach.

I’m testing on the day before Veterans Day, so after their test, students will create and color cards for our local veterans. My principal has connections with the VFW, and will deliver all of the cards there.

I made the cards using Microsoft Word and images from apples4theteacher, coloring.ws, first-school.ws and the Holiday Zone. PDF copies of the cards I made are attached to this post. I put a few “generic” phrases on the board to start them thinking, and encourage them to write from their heart.

• Veterans Day – Eagle and Rose
• Veterans Day – Flag and Poppy Wreath
• Veterans Day – Flag Heart Card
• Veterans Day – Poppy Lest we Forget
• Veterans Day – Ribbon Flag Card
• Veterans Day – Veteran Saluting Flag

Other coloring/activity pages:

The Holiday Zone

Enchanted Learning – Veteran’s Day

Vicki Blackwell’s Site (done for her Marine son) 

VA for Kids (online games and fast facts)

Patriotic Stickers to Print

ClassroomJr. Veteran’s Day Site 

And of course, the History Channel’s Veterans Day resource site!

Weslandia by Paul Fleischmann – A Picture Book Lesson

I love using picture books to teach history. My fifth and sixth graders love them. Weslandia is a title I used for years to introduce the concept of civilization.

The best part of a picture book is of course, the pictures. I have a Promethean board, so I take pictures of the pages so that I can show them on the board as I read the book. I find that the pictures are faster/easier than scanning. This is a picture of the title page, so you can see that the image quality is pretty decent.

 

 

Weslandia is the story of a young boy named Wesley, who decides to create his own civilization as a summer project. His civilization, like all others, starts with agriculture and the development of a staple crop.

This is how I use it as a lesson. The teacher side page is the GRAPES graphic organizer that I wrote about in my previous post.

GRAPES – civilization

I ask them questions and they highlight the answers. I show them pictures and they tell me what parts of a civilization they represent. I then have them set up a concept map on the right hand side. In the center is “Weslandia” and then all of the traits spike off the center. As I read them the story they take notes on the parts of Wesley’s civilization to show me that they understand and can apply the different parts.

Here are a few other lesson plans for this book:

• http://www.umich.edu/~childlit/Weslandia/display1.htm
• http://trumpetclub.com/primary/activities/weslandia.htm
• http://picturebooksforolderreaders.pbworks.com/Weslandia

G.R.A.P.E.S. – a content organizer

During the years that I taught ancient civilizations to 11 year olds, I found that students often struggled with the content. It had an awful lot of big words, and each area/time was just so different. I was thrilled when I ran across this organizer for timer periods, G.R.A.P.E.S.

G – Geography

R – Religion

A – Art and Architecture

P – Politics and Government

E – Economics

S – Social Structures

One, it was a great way to explain and remember the parts of a civilization and for them to understand the definition of the word. Two, I organized all of our notes this way in our interactive notebooks, so that there became a predictable pattern to our lessons. Oh, we finished up religion, now we’ll be learning about art and architecture. We were able to discuss the standards with these – ok, guys the state wants us to focus on the art, architeture, and politics and government. Does that mean they didn’t have the others? Etc. It became a great way to compare and contrast. Loved it.

Here is the document that I use when I introduce the concept in my class:

GRAPES – civilization

I’ve recently come across another acronym called “PERSIA”.  Here is a link to a great description at the History Tech blog. I hope you find either or both of these useful!

Mummies – Make Them Online

Mummies are endlessly fascinating to us, due to pop culture and and their inherent gross-factor. As we approach Halloween, it seemed appropriate to blog about my favorite mummy sites. Both of these sites are great for use on an interactive white board or to add to your website as an enriching/center activity.

The Mummy Maker

An excellent virtual mummy by BBC. It has more of a story/game format. You take the role of the embalmer’s assistant in making a mummy of a recently deceased pharaoh. You are shown the tools, and you have to decide what is the most appropriate to use. You can ask three questions, and mess up three times before you lose.

The Virtual Mummy

This site is my favorite. Hosted by the University of Chicago, you mummify a cartoon body step by step. My student’s favorite part of this website is the graphic of breaking up the brains and dragging them out through the nose.

Mummification from the British Museum

This is another of the wonderful ancient history sites published by the British museum. Here you can read a story about the embalming process, explore an actual mummy, and play a shockwave game based on the soul’s journey to the underworld in Egyptian Mythology.

Clickable Mummy

This is found on the Akhet – The Horizon to Ancient Egypt site. It features images of a real mummy that you can click on to learn more about.

Generating Ideas for Assignments

I love the notebooks, but as with any strategy, I find I can fall into a rut. That’s when I need something random, something fun, that will spark my creativity.

NewTools.org was one of those random things. It has a “learning event” generator that randomly gives you an assignment and then a way to “show what you know”. You just click and it keeps generating activities, and some are quite funny. They have also listed their assessment strategies on a wiki.

Website – Build a Sod House Online

http://americanhistory.si.edu/ourstory/f/sodhouse.html

The above interactivity is part of the OurStory Website, put together by the Smithsonian. You click through a series of questions asking how you to make decisions about building your sod house. You receive feedback about each decision, right or wrong.

It would be great to use on an interactive whiteboard for a whole class activity, or as a link on your website for individual work at school or home.

Coolies, by Yin – A picture book on the Transcontinental Railroad

This is a terrific story of how two young Chinese boys, Shek and Wong, come to America to earn money for their family. They go to work for the Central Pacific railroad company, work hard, have some adventures, and end up opening a shop in San Franciso.

There is some great information and wonderful pictures to build background – I would recommend this picture book to introduce or supplement your study of the Transcontinental Railroad.

Historical Highlights:

• My favorite picture, and there are many terrific pictures by Sontpiet in this book, is a two page spread of a railroad camp. It is a terrific visual of how “busy” those areas were.
• There is good information on how day to day work and life went on in the railroad camps.
• Another terrific picture of the Chinese immigrants working in knee deep snow – plenty of conversation to have about working conditions.
• The story ends shortly after the joining of the railroads in Utah.

The students thoroughly enjoyed the story, and we were able to put a human face on this important event in history. I used the sketch to stretch strategy to keep them engaged in the story. I modify it somewhat as follows:

I explain to students that their job is to visualize while I am reading, and to read as much from the pictures I project on the screen as they can. I stop about 1/4 of the way through the book and ask students to draw/sketch a picture of what they thought was most important. I also ask them to write a sentence about what they drew.

I only give them 3 minutes, so I tell them to draw/sketch quickly. Then I read the next quarter and repeat. In the center of the template I have them write the name of the book and author. I’m attaching the template I use to this post.

Sketch to Stretch Template

Sensory Figures, An Interactive Notebook Assignment – Part II

I love, love, love these assignments and posted about them earlier here.

This year I was working with younger students, and I was concerned about them “getting it”. They say you should teach a new strategy with familiar content, so I decided that for each new assignment they would create an example based on themselves. I saved the first ten pages of the notebook for this.

One comment complaint from students is that they can’t draw. I say that everyone can draw, we just can’t all draw well. I am one of those who can’t draw well and this gives me a certain amount of classroom “cred” – If I can do it, they can do it.

So I started with a stick figure, and showed the students how to put clothes on the stick figure to “flesh it out”. Then I did the assignment for myself, explaining the rules. No generic comments (I hear birds singing, etc), no repetitive comments (oops, I can’t mention my class again, hmmn, how can I say this?), and each of the seven comments must tell something important about the person. Here is my example:

Of course, I was tired of drawing myself by the end of the day , but doing it from scratch really seemed to help.

I’ve also recently found this tutorial on DoInk.com on how to draw a proportionate human body:

Then I had student create “mini-mes”, or sensory figures of themselves. I circulated and reminded them to spend equal time drawing and writing. Here are some of theirs:

       

Students then partnered to complete a reading guide on pioneers on the Great Plains. (That was their left hand assignment) Then, after we reviewed it, I had them create a pioneer sensory figure. Here are some of the result:

    

These first content ones were so much better than I am used to, and I’m convinced it was because I took the time to teach the strategy with familiar content first.

Online Gradebooks

Many school systems have invested in online grading systems that allow parents to access their students progress online. These systems increase communication and put more information at parents fingertips, and they can be really expensive.

The good news is that there are a couple of free services that will allow you to do the same thing!

Engrade

Engrade is a free service for teachers that has the following features:

• Online gradebook – allows for marking missing assignments, excused assignments, weighting by categories or not, dropping the lowest assignment in a category.
• Calendar feature – allows uploading of assignments.
• Secure messaging between parents and teachers.
• Parent and student access to grades.

And did I mention it is free? I’ve used this service for the last two years and I’ve been really pleased with it.

Gradebook Portal

This is a new service I’ve become aware of – apparently it is a another service with similar features to Engrade. I would love to hear from anyone who is using this service!