SUBJECT
Literature, Social Studies, Arts, Photography, Poetry Writing

GRADE
3-5

DURATION
5 Weeks

The New and Improved "What I Did on My Summer Vacation"

By Genia Connell

The start of the new school year is a time to get to know your students, assess their abilities, and determine learning styles, but time is short. These introductory activities will give you insight into your class and their families while providing several baseline samples. Using children's literature as a guide, students retell the story of a family vacation that leads to a surprise-culminating event at the end. Students will also share background information through their "All About Me Museum" displays, a project that integrates four core social studies strands. As a bonus, you'll be able to create a stunning hallway display just in time for your school's Meet the Teacher Night, using student created poems and photographs derived from the lesson, "The Best Part of Me."

OBJECTIVE
Students will:

Put events in sequence from both a short and long time.
Write a descriptive poem that describes their favorite feature.
Create a multi-dimensional project that focuses on each student's individual history.

LESSONS FOR THIS UNIT
Lesson 1: The Relatives Came: A Family Read-Along
Lesson 2: All About Me Museum
Lesson 3: Best Part of Me

REPRODUCIBLES
Parent Letter (PDF)
Good-bye Summer (PDF)
Story Board (PDF)
All About Me Museum Letter to Parents (PDF)
All About Me Museum Project Guidelines for Students with Rubric (PDF)
Wants and Needs Financial Planner (PDF)
Picture Planning (PDF)
Example of Map Flip Book (PDF)
Artifacts (PDF)
Line Guide (PDF)

CULMINATING ACTIVITY

The culminating activities for Lessons One and Two are listed at the end of each lesson.

SUPPORTING BOOKS

Resource Books for Starting the New School Year

Teacher Store

The Teacher Store

Using Caldecotts Across the Curriculum Set

Use this rich resource and 20-book set of Caldecott winners to inspire cross-curricular learning in your students. The teacher's guide uses Caldecott-winning books as springboards to provide lively literature-based learning experiences in areas such as reading, science, art, and math. Includes writing mini-lessons, art activities, and more.

$31.48 You save: 50%
Paperback Book Collection | Grades K-2

Using Caldecotts Across the Curriculum Set

Grades K-2 $31.48

Teacher Store

The Teacher Store

Esperanza Rising

by Pam Muñoz Ryan

When Esperanza and Mama are forced to flee from their home in Mexico to a Mexican farm labor camp in California, they must adjust to a life without the fancy dresses and servants to which they were accustomed on Rancho de las Rosas.

Now they must confront the challenges of hard work, acceptance by their own people, and economic difficulties brought on by the Great Depression.

"A poignant look at the realities of immigration." — Horn Book

$15.95
Hardcover Book | Grades 3-9

Esperanza Rising

Grades 3-9 $15.95

ARTICLE	Science Interactives Presents interactive Web sites that take students on a journey of science, from the inner structure of a single strand of DNA to the planetary systems of distant stars.

LESSON PLAN	Best Part of Me Describes a beginning of the school year lesson in which students identify their favorite parts of themselves through descriptive poetry and...