Students will evaluate different myths about monsters as well as different trapping devices before designing their own. In the past, I have given students access to littleBits prototyping boards for this STEAM project, but they’re not required. Resources for researching different monsters and traps are provided. This unit follows the 2014 National Curriculum of England’s Design Technology objectives. A digital copy for editing and sharing on Google Classroom and Seesaw is available with download.

Students show off what they’ve learned by participating in a discussion. In the past, I have used this resource both in Middle School ELA for Novel Study to ensure everyone is caught up on the week’s reading, and also in Middle School Social Studies to synthesize the independent reading and lectures from the week. This resource includes: Introducing Socratic Seminar Preparing for Socratic Seminar Participating in Socratic Seminar Evaluating Socratic Seminar Reflecting on Socratic Seminar There are differentiated rubrics included, as well as a template for creating your own. A link is available for editing and sharing the resource on digital platforms with download.

About the Novel: After losing almost everything in the Great Depression, Ellie’s family is forced to leave their home in town and start over in the untamed wilderness of nearby Echo Mountain. Ellie has found a welcome freedom, and a love of the natural world, in her new life on the mountain. But there is little joy after a terrible accident leaves her father in a coma. An accident unfairly blamed on Ellie. Ellie is a girl who takes matters into her own hands, and determined to help her father she will make her way to the top of the mountain in search of the healing secrets of a woman known only as “the hag.” But the hag, and the mountain, still have many untold stories left to reveal. Historical fiction at its finest, Echo Mountain is celebration of finding your own path and becoming your truest self. Lauren Wolk, the Newbery Honor– and Scott O’Dell Award–winning author of Wolf Hollow and Beyond the Bright Sea, weaves a stunning tale of resilience, persistence, and friendship across three generations of families. About the Resource: This pack includes Chapter Summaries, Comprehension Questions, Digging Deeper Opportunities (includes character, setting and plot studies, point of view), Creative Writing Tasks, and Non-Fiction Tasks related to content of the novel (Great Depression, coma, honey, black racer, chilblains, luthier, honey bees, Florence Nightingale). Resource is provided as a PDF but a digital copy of the pack is available for editing and sharing on Google Classroom and Seesaw with download.

About the Novel: From National Book Award finalist and #1 New York Times bestselling author Jason Reynolds comes a novel told in ten blocks, showing all the different directions kids’ walks home can take. This story was going to begin like all the best stories. With a school bus falling from the sky. But no one saw it happen. They were all too busy— Talking about boogers. Stealing pocket change. Skateboarding. Wiping out. Braving up. Executing complicated handshakes. Planning an escape. Making jokes. Lotioning up. Finding comfort. But mostly, too busy walking home. Jason Reynolds conjures ten tales (one per block) about what happens after the dismissal bell rings, and brilliantly weaves them into one wickedly funny, piercingly poignant look at the detours we face on the walk home, and in life. About the Resource: This pack includes Chapter Summaries, Comprehension Questions, Digging Deeper Opportunities (includes character, setting and plot studies, point of view), Creative Writing Tasks, and Non-Fiction Tasks related to content of the novel (water bears, sickle cell anemia, skateboarding, video games, support animals). Resource is provided as a PDF but a digital copy of the pack is available for editing and sharing on Google Classroom and Seesaw with download.

**This resource is designed to be used during Reading Workshop with Yellowface by R.F. Kuang. ** About the Novel: Authors June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars. But Athena’s a literary darling. June Hayward is literally nobody. Who wants stories about basic white girls, June thinks. So when June witnesses Athena’s death in a freak accident, she acts on impulse: she steals Athena’s just-finished masterpiece, an experimental novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers during World War I. So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song—complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? Doesn’t this piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller? That’s what June claims, and the New York Times bestseller list seems to agree. But June can’t get away from Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens to bring June’s (stolen) success down around her. As June races to protect her secret, she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves. With its totally immersive first-person voice, Yellowface grapples with questions of diversity, racism, and cultural appropriation, as well as the terrifying alienation of social media. R.F. Kuang’s novel is timely, razor-sharp, and eminently readable. About the Resource: This pack includes Chapter Summaries, Comprehension Questions, Digging Deeper Opportunities (includes character, setting and plot studies, point of view), Creative Writing Tasks, and Non-Fiction Tasks related to content of the novel (pandan, Chinese Labour Corps, Marlin Literary Archive, Highlander Syndrome, orientalism, Korean War, Wayback Machine, Kuomintang, KMT and move to Taiwan, One-Child Policy, missing Chinese survivors of Titanic, Jade Squad, Chinese Mafia, sycamore trees). A link to a digital file for editing and use in paperless classrooms is available with download.

**This 174-page resource is designed to be used during Reading Workshop and is to be used with All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. The pack has been designed in alignment with the 2014 National Curriculum of England’s reading objectives for Year 6. ** ABOUT THE NOVEL: NOW A NETFLIX LIMITED SERIES—from producer and director Shawn Levy (Stranger Things) starring Mark Ruffalo, Hugh Laurie, and newcomer Aria Mia Loberti Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist, the beloved instant New York Timesbestseller and New York Times Book Review Top 10 Book about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II. Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris near the Museum of Natural History where he works as the master of its thousands of locks. When she is six, Marie-Laure goes blind and her father builds a perfect miniature of their neighborhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris, and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel. In a mining town in Germany, the orphan Werner grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments, a talent that wins him a place at a brutal academy for Hitler Youth, then a special assignment to track the Resistance. More and more aware of the human cost of his intelligence, Werner travels through the heart of the war and, finally, into Saint-Malo, where his story and Marie-Laure’s converge. ABOUT THE RESOURCE: This pack includes: Chapter Summaries, Comprehension Questions, Digging Deeper Opportunities (includes character studies and plot studies), Creative Writing Tasks, and Non-Fiction Tasks related to content of the novel (French Resistance, Saint-Malo, radio, stormtroopers, blindness, Braille, State Youth, N.P.E.A., Stuka, Dresden Green, H.M.S. Beagle, Foucault’s Pendulum, Jewish star, Operation Typhoon, Invasion of Normandy, sonderkommandos). Resource is provided as a PDF but a digital copy of the pack is available for editing and sharing on Google Classroom and Seesaw available with download.

This resource is meant to be used by children in Key Stage 2 (English objectives pitched to Years 5 and 6) to investigate the history and significance of the commemorative heads made to honour the Oba of Ancient Benin. Children will first read about the heads through differentiated articles, then investigate the symbolism of different commemorative heads. They will then design their own commemorative head before carving it out of a bar of soap and evaluating their design. Lastly, children will write an explanation text about their commemorative head. Sequence of Sessions: Research Ancient Benin Investigating different examples of art commissioned by Obas of Ancient Benin Investigating the significance of animals in commemorative heads of Ancient Benin Obas Design own Oba head Carve own Oba head Evaluate own Oba head Features of an Explanation Text Write an Explanation Text There is also a digital file included for editing and sharing on Google Classroom and Seesaw.

This updated 112 page resource is designed to be used during Reading Workshop and is to be used with Pax by Sara Pennypacker. ABOUT THE NOVEL: From bestselling and award-winning author Sara Pennypacker comes a beautifully wrought, utterly compelling novel about the powerful relationship between a boy and his fox. Pax is destined to become a classic, beloved for generations to come. Pax and Peter have been inseparable ever since Peter rescued him as a kit. But one day, the unimaginable happens: Peter's dad enlists in the military and makes him return the fox to the wild. At his grandfather's house, three hundred miles away from home, Peter knows he isn't where he should be—with Pax. He strikes out on his own despite the encroaching war, spurred by love, loyalty, and grief, to be reunited with his fox. Meanwhile Pax, steadfastly waiting for his boy, embarks on adventures and discoveries of his own. . . . ABOUT THE RESOURCE: Designed in alignment with the 2014 National Curriculum of England’s reading objectives for Year 6, the pack includes: Chapter Summaries, Comprehension Questions, Digging Deeper Opportunities (includes character studies and plot studies), Creative Writing Tasks, and Non-Fiction Tasks related to content of the novel (baseball, foxes, marionettes, coyotes). Resource is provided as a PDF but a digital copy of the pack is available for editing and sharing on Google Classroom and Seesaw available with download.

This 40-page resource has been designed to use alongside Kensuke’s Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo, but can also be done independently of the novel study. Children will write their own last chapters to Kensuke’s Kingdom with a focus on using shifts in formality (with flashbacks). If you aren’t reading the novel, you can use the same idea, introducing the idea of being shipwrecked with a drama activity (included) before the children write their own narrative ending. The pack includes different graphic organisers, resources for lower ability pupils, as well as lesson plans and rubrics. Lessons and objectives are aligned with objectives from the 2014 National Curriculum of England and has links to the Common Core. Digital copies of the files for editing and sharing on digital platforms are available by following the link provided with download.

Children will learn about Viking raids on monasteries in Northern England before writing a persuasive text. The text can be written from the perspective of a monk or a Viking, and is meant to persuade (or dissuade) their audience - either monks or Vikings - from trading with or plundering a monastery. This pack includes lesson plans, rubrics, and editable rubrics to support with the learning process. Lessons and objectives are aligned with objectives from the 2014 National Curriculum of England. A digital copy for editing and sharing on digital platforms is available with download.

This resource is designed to be used during Reading Workshop and is to be used with Beyond the Bright Sea by Lauren Wolk. Updated to include additional activities for deeper learning ABOUT THE NOVEL: The moving story of an orphan, determined to know her own history, who discovers the true meaning of family. Twelve-year-old Crow has lived her entire life on a tiny, isolated piece of the starkly beautiful Elizabeth Islands in Massachusetts. Abandoned and set adrift in a small boat when she was just hours old, Crow’s only companions are Osh, the man who rescued and raised her, and Miss Maggie, their fierce and affectionate neighbor across the sandbar. Crow has always been curious about the world around her, but it isn’t until the night a mysterious fire appears across the water that the unspoken question of her own history forms in her heart. Soon, an unstoppable chain of events is triggered, leading Crow down a path of discovery and danger. Vivid and heart-wrenching, Lauren Wolk’s Beyond the Bright Sea is a gorgeously crafted and tensely paced tale that explores questions of identity, belonging, and the true meaning of family. ABOUT THE RESOURCE: Designed in alignment with the 2014 National Curriculum of England’s reading objectives for Year 6, the pack includes: Chapter Summaries, Comprehension Questions, Digging Deeper Opportunities (includes character studies and plot studies), Creative Writing Tasks, and Non-Fiction Tasks related to content of the novel (tides, crows, Captain Kidd, starfish, dolphins, clams, leprosy, nor’easter). Resource is provided as a PDF but a digital copy of the pack is available for editing and sharing on Google Classroom and Seesaw available with download. You might also like: Beyond the Bright Sea Novel Study + STEAM BUNDLE Wolf Hollow Novel Study

This resource is designed to be used during Reading Workshop and is to be used with Coraline by Neil Gaiman. About the Novel: When Coraline steps through a door to find another house strangely similar to her own (only better), things seem marvelous. But there’s another mother there, and another father, and they want her to stay and be their little girl. They want to change her and never let her go. Coraline will have to fight with all her wit and courage if she is to save herself and return to her ordinary life. About the Resource: The pack has been designed in alignment with the 2014 National Curriculum of England’s Reading Standards for Year 6. A link to an editable digital copy of the file on Google Slides for completing without printing is available with download.

This resource is designed to be used during Reading Workshop and is to be used with The Wreckers by Iain Lawrence. About the Novel: There was once a village bred by evil. On the barren coast of Cornwall, England, lived a community who prayed for shipwrecks, a community who lured storm-tossed ships to crash upon the sharp rocks of their shore. They fed and clothed themselves with the loot salvaged from the wreckage; dead sailors’ tools and trinkets became decorations for their homes. Most never questioned their murderous way of life. Then, upon that pirates’ shore crashed the ship The Isle of Skye. And the youngest of its crew members, 14-year-old John Spencer, survived the wreck. But would he escape the wreckers? This is his harrowing tale. About the Resource: The pack has been designed in alignment with the 2014 National Curriculum of England’s Reading Standards for Year 6. Chapter summaries are provided, along with comprehension questions, and opportunities to analyse the setting, characters, point of view, and theme. Creative writing prompts and non-fiction research opportunities related to the text are also provided. A link to an editable digital copy of the file on Google Slides for completing without printing is available with download.

In this resource, children will use cohesive devices to develop their explanations before using an editing checklist to support their writing of an explanation of a topic. A digital and editable file is available with download.

About the Novel: Take a romp in the swamp with this New York Times bestselling mystery adventure set in the Florida Keys from Newbery Honoree Carl Hiaasen! Noah’s dad is sure that the owner of the Coral Queen casino boat is flushing raw sewage into the harbor—which has made taking a dip at the local beach like swimming in a toilet. He can’t prove it though, and so he decides that sinking the boat will make an effective statement. Right. The boat is pumped out and back in business within days and Noah’s dad is in the local lock-up. Now Noah is determined to succeed where his dad failed. He will prove that the Coral Queen is dumping illegally . . . somehow. About the Resource: This pack includes Chapter Summaries, Comprehension Questions, Digging Deeper Opportunities (includes character studies and plot studies), Creative Writing Tasks, and Non-Fiction Tasks related to content of the novel (water pollution, Florida Keys, green flash, loggerhead turtle). Resource is provided as a PDF but a digital copy of the pack is available for editing and sharing on Google Classroom and Seesaw available with download.

*Updated with new graphics Children will practice their writing with changes in formality by writing a cover letter and CV as a Conquistador. Other packs that can support this pack: Mayan Civilisation Study: History & Geography Diet of a Conquistador: Science & DT Mayan Civilisation Study: Art & DT In the past, I have used this pack at the end of a unit looking at the Conquistadors and their conquest of the New World so that the children are able to contextualise the CVs. Alternatively, the King of Spain might post a job advert and the same English standards can be met that way. A digital copy of the file is available for editing and sharing on Google Classroom and Seesaw by following the link provided with download.

*Updated with new graphics In this resource, children will study different insects to see how they have adapted to their ecosystems. Children will then design their own insect and write an explanation text about its adaptations and how they make it successful. A digital copy of the resource is available to editing and sharing on Google Classroom and Seesaw by following link provided at download. --------- You might also like: Honey Bee Study with Maths and Scratch Insect Study - Adapted Insect Forms Insect Study - Evolution & Inheritance Colony Collapse Disorder - Persuasion Text Honeycomb and Honey Bee Printing

Included is a mini writing assignment that I have used for an extra credit opportunity in grades 7 and 8 ELA and Social Studies. Students will have a background in pirates before being given the assignment, but it is also adaptable for different significant people, as well. When I have assigned it, I have also reviewed features of eulogies and compared them to different styles of writing.