We are back to share two more of our activities that related to our study of natural resources and Wump World. One is a literacy activity, and one is a hands-on social studies activity.
We spent a lot of time throughout the year identifying the theme and author's message of various stories. The kids have become quite confident in picking out one or two words that relay the theme of the story, and then using that word or words to generate a sentence that is specific to the author's message of the story. We had our students do this after we finished reading Wump World. Some of the words they generated for the theme were respect, caring, and kindness. When we took a closer look, we wanted to decide which of these words was the best one to represent the theme of Wump World. That word was respect. Students then wrote their sentence of how respect or lack of respect was portrayed in the story. They also had to find the best evidence in the story to support their sentence. After that hard work, the students created a water color scene to go along with their picture. This whole activity was fun, but was still a challenge for the students, even in April.
We always like to sprinkle in hands-on activities to go with our social studies units. We found an exciting, hands-on activity to go along with the nonrenewable resource--fossil fuels. It was all about respecting our earth while we dig for fossil fuels that we need to make our everyday lives more comfortable. The activity came from a natural resource unit written by teachers from Texas. It was called, "Cookie Mining." You can find the activity if you download the packet from the link. It was an effective way to help students understand the necessity for preserving the land while digging for fossil fuels. Reading Wump World first helped make this activity more meaningful and effective.
Hope you are enjoying your summer. We will be back next week with some of our final activities from this unit!
Kim and Anne
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