This resource is designed to be used during Reading Workshop and is to be used with Sylvia & Aki by Winifred Conkling. The pack has been designed in alignment with Common Core State Standards for Grade 7 Reading. About the Novel: Young Sylvia Mendez never expected to be at the center of a landmark legal battle. Young Aki Munemitsu never expected to be sent away from her home and her life as she knew it. The two girls definitely never expected to know each other, until their lives intersected on a Southern California farm in a way that changed the country forever. Who are Sylvia and Aki? And why did their family stories matter then and still matter today? This book reveals the remarkable, never-before-told story—based on true events—of Mendez vs. Westminster School District, the California court case that desegregated schools for Latino children and set the stage for Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education at the national level. About the Resource: The pack has been designed to cover five weeks, with assigned pages for reading, comprehension tasks and language analysis. **A digital copy of the file is also available on Google Slides for students to complete online instead of printing.

This resource is designed to be used during Reading Workshop and is to be used with Red Scarf Girl by Ji-Li Jiang. The pack has been designed in alignment with the 2014 National Curriculum of England’s Reading Objectives for Year 6. About the Novel: In the tradition of The Diary of Anne Frank and I Am Malala, this is the incredible true story of one girl’s courage and determination during one of the most terrifying eras of the twentieth century. It’s 1966, and twelve-year-old Ji-li Jiang has everything a girl could want: brains, popularity, and a bright future in Communist China. But it’s also the year that China’s leader, Mao Ze-dong, launches the Cultural Revolution—and Ji-li’s world begins to fall apart. Over the next few years, people who were once her friends and neighbors turn on her and her family, forcing them to live in constant terror of arrest. And when Ji-li’s father is finally imprisoned, she faces the most difficult dilemma of her life. Written in an accessible and engaging style, this page-turning, honest, and deeply personal autobiography will appeal to readers of all ages. **About the Resource:**This pack includes chapter summaries, comprehension questions, opportunities for deeper learning (character analysis, setting analysis, theme, point of view), creative writing, and non-fiction tasks. **A digital copy of the file is also available on Google Slides for students to complete online instead of printing.

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.

Children will investigate Norse myths before writing a kenning poem for practice. They will then research, write, and evaluate Skaldic poems. 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.

Children will research Mayans and Conquistadors before writing a narrative about their first encounter. 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.

Students will be analyzing different topics related to pirates before researching, writing, and recording their own podcast. The pack includes different graphic organizers, resources for lower ability pupils, as well as lesson plans and rubrics. All learning outcomes are aligned with the 2014 National Curriculum of England, and connections to CCSS are noted, where appropriate. In the past, I’ve used this resource during my Dead Men Tell No Tales unit, but it could be used as a stand alone learning outcome, as well. Follow the link provided with download to access an editable file for sharing over digital platforms.

Students will be analyzing different topics related to pirates before researching and writing their own report. The pack includes different graphic organizers, resources for lower ability pupils, as well as lesson plans and rubrics. All learning outcomes are aligned with the 2014 National Curriculum of England, and connections to CCSS are noted, where appropriate. In the past, I’ve used this resource during my Dead Men Tell No Tales unit, but it could be used as a stand alone learning outcome, as well. Follow the link provided at download to access an editable file for sharing over digital platforms.

About the Novel: When the women take over, is it sorcery or power? Finnmark, Norway, 1617. Twenty-year-old Maren Magnusdatter stands on the craggy coast, watching the skies break into a sudden and reckless storm. All forty of the village’s men were at sea, including Maren’s father and brother, and all forty are drowned in the otherworldly disaster. For the women left behind, survival means defying the strict rules of the island. They fish, hunt, and butcher reindeer—which they never did while the men were alive. But the foundation of this new feminine frontier begins to crack with the arrival of Absalom Cornet, a man sent from Scotland to root out alleged witchcraft. Cornet brings with him the threat of danger—and a pretty, young Norwegian wife named Ursa. As Maren and Ursa are drawn to one another in ways that surprise them both, the island begins to close in on them, with Absalom’s iron rule threatening Vardø’s very existence. About the Resource: This 202-page 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 (Sámi, Vardø Witch Trials, sorcery laws, vizard, runes). 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 The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters. About the Novel: A four-year-old girl goes missing from the blueberry fields of Maine, sparking a tragic mystery that remains unsolved for nearly fifty years July 1962. A Mi’kmaq family from Nova Scotia arrives in Maine to pick blueberries for the summer. Weeks later, four-year-old Ruthie, the family’s youngest child, is seen sitting on her favourite rock at the edge of a field before mysteriously vanishing. Her six-year-old brother, Joe, who was the last person to see Ruthie, is devastated by his sister’s disappearance, and her loss ripples through his life for years to come. In Maine, a young girl named Norma grows up as an only child in an affluent family. Her father is emotionally distant, while her mother is overprotective of Norma, who is often troubled by recurring dreams and visions that seem to be too real to be her imagination. As she grows older, Norma senses there is something her parents aren’t telling her. Unwilling to abandon her intuition, she pursues her family’s secret for decades. A stunning debut novel, The Berry Pickers is a riveting story about the search for truth, the shadow of trauma, and the persistence of love across time. **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 (Indian School, Indian Agent, Sixties Scoop, Mi’kmaq). A link to a digital file for editing and use in paperless classrooms is available with download.

**This 143-page resource is designed to be used during Reading Workshop with The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline. ** About the Novel: Just when you think you have nothing left to lose, they come for your dreams. Humanity has nearly destroyed its world through global warming, but now an even greater evil lurks. The Indigenous people of North America are being hunted and harvested for their bone marrow, which carries the key to recovering something the rest of the population has lost: the ability to dream. In this dark world, Frenchie and his companions struggle to survive as they make their way up north to the old lands. For now, survival means staying hidden - but what they don’t know is that one of them holds the secret to defeating the marrow thieves. 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 (residential schools, round dance, jingle dress, smudging, dreams, sweat lodge, Band Council, hand drum). A link to a digital file for editing and use in paperless classrooms is available with download.

**This 207-page resource is designed to be used during Reading Workshop with Hunting By Stars by Cherie Dimaline. ** About the Novel: Years ago, when plagues and natural disasters killed millions of people, much of the world stopped dreaming. Without dreams, people are haunted, sick, mad, unable to rebuild. The government soon finds that the Indigenous people of North America have retained their dreams, an ability rumored to be housed in the very marrow of their bones. Soon, residential schools pop up—or are re-opened—across the land to bring in the dreamers and harvest their dreams. Seventeen-year-old French lost his family to these schools and has spent the years since heading north with his new found family: a group of other dreamers, who, like him, are trying to build and thrive as a community. But then French wakes up in a pitch-black room, locked in and alone for the first time in years, and he knows immediately where he is—and what it will take to escape. Meanwhile, out in the world, his found family searches for him and dodges new dangers—school Recruiters, a blood cult, even the land itself. When their paths finally collide, French must decide how far he is willing to go—and how many loved ones is he willing to betray—in order to survive. This engrossing, action-packed, deftly-drawn novel expands on the world of Cherie Dimaline’s award-winning The Marrow Thieves, and it will haunt readers long after they’ve turned the final page. 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 (syllabics, tuberculosis wards, gardening, chloroform, I Have A Dream speech, Highway of Tears, forced relocation). A link to a digital file for editing and use in paperless classrooms is available with download.

**This 304-page resource is designed to be used during Reading Workshop with Fire Keeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley. ** About the Novel: With four starred reviews, Angeline Boulley’s debut novel, Firekeeper’s Daughter, is a groundbreaking YA thriller about a Native teen who must root out the corruption in her community, perfect for readers of Angie Thomas and Tommy Orange. Eighteen-year-old Daunis Fontaine has never quite fit in, both in her hometown and on the nearby Ojibwe reservation. She dreams of a fresh start at college, but when family tragedy strikes, Daunis puts her future on hold to look after her fragile mother. The only bright spot is meeting Jamie, the charming new recruit on her brother Levi’s hockey team. Yet even as Daunis falls for Jamie, she senses the dashing hockey star is hiding something. Everything comes to light when Daunis witnesses a shocking murder, thrusting her into an FBI investigation of a lethal new drug. Reluctantly, Daunis agrees to go undercover, drawing on her knowledge of chemistry and Ojibwe traditional medicine to track down the source. But the search for truth is more complicated than Daunis imagined, exposing secrets and old scars. At the same time, she grows concerned with an investigation that seems more focused on punishing the offenders than protecting the victims. Now, as the deceptions—and deaths—keep growing, Daunis must learn what it means to be a strong Anishinaabe kwe (Ojibwe woman) and how far she’ll go for her community, even if it tears apart the only world she’s ever known. 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 (Sault Ste. Marie, Lake Superior, Soo Locks, sweetgrass, scars, Fancy Shawl Regalia, Traditional dancers, Jingle Dress Regalia, drum group, Ojibwe Fire Keeper, Sixties Scoop, John Herrington, smoke dance). 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 111-page resource is designed to be used during Reading Workshop and is to be used with Night of the Living Rez by Morgan Talty. The pack has been designed in alignment with the 2014 National Curriculum of England’s reading objectives for Year 6. ABOUT THE NOVEL: Set in a Native community in Maine, Night of the Living Rez is a riveting debut collection about what it means to be Penobscot in the twenty-first century and what it means to live, to survive, and to persevere after tragedy. In twelve striking, luminescent stories, author Morgan Talty—with searing humor, abiding compassion, and deep insight—breathes life into tales of family and a community as they struggle with a painful past and an uncertain future. A boy unearths a jar that holds an old curse, which sets into motion his family’s unraveling; a man, while trying to swindle some pot from a dealer, discovers a friend passed out in the woods, his hair frozen into the snow; a grandmother suffering from Alzheimer’s projects the past onto her grandson; and two friends, inspired by Antiques Roadshow, attempt to rob the tribal museum for valuable root clubs. A collection that examines the consequences and merits of inheritance, Night of the Living Rez is an unforgettable portrayal of an Indigenous community and marks the arrival of a standout talent in contemporary fiction. **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 (reservation, methadone, four directions, Pioneer 10, sweat lodge, Jesuits, Settlement Act, Penobscot Nation). 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.

Children will research the geography of the Yucatan Peninsula faced by the Conquistadors, before exploring sources to learn about the achievements of the Mayan Civilisation. They will then create a digital presentation to show off what they’ve learned. Children will use chronology to compare how their chosen focus has changed over time (before, during, after contact with the Conquistadors). This pack includes lesson plans, rubrics, and editable rubrics to support with the learning process. Lessons and objectives are aligned with the objectives of the 2014 National Curriculum of England, but ties are made to the CCSS where appropriate. A digital file for editing and sharing on Google Classroom and Seesaw is available with download.

Children will look at how video game controllers have changed over time, including controllers from Nintendo and Playstation. After plotting changes on a timeline, children will consider what makes the designs effective before designing their own to use and evaluate. In the past, I have used this learning outcome alongside an explanation text and video game design on Scratch (both also available in my shop). A digital copy of the file is available for editing and sharing on Google Classroom and Seesaw with download.

This 69 page resource is designed to be used during Reading Workshop and is to be used with The Entirely True Story of the Unbelievable Fib by Adam Shaughnessy. ABOUT THE NOVEL: “What is the Unbelievable FIB?” That’s the question eleven-year-old Prudence Potts discovers on a baffling card no one else in Middleton--except ABE, a new kid at school with a knack for solving riddles--seems to see. Then a mysterious man asks for ABE and Pru’s help investigating mythical beings infiltrating the town, and that’s just the first of many things Pru finds hard to believe. Soon Pru and ABE discover another world beneath their quiet town, where Viking gods lurk just out of sight. And when the pair find themselves locked in a battle against a dangerously clever enemy, they must race to secure the Eye of Odin, source of all knowledge--and the key to stopping a war that could destroy both human and immortal realms. 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 (Thor, Loki, Odin, runes, Vikings). 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: The Entirely True Story of the Unbelievable Fib Novel Study + Viking STEAM

This resource is meant to be used by children in Key Stage 2 (English objectives pitched to Years 5 and 6) to investigate instruments used by traditional societies in West Africa. After listening to music and investigating different instruments used and how they are designed and used, children will design their own thumb piano (mbira) before making it and evaluating it. Alternatively, after researching different instruments from West Africa, children can choose to make a different one instead of a thumb piano. The design, make, and evaluate sheets have been made as generic as possible to allow for this. A digital copy for editing and sharing on Google Classroom and Seesaw is provided with download.

**Updated with new graphics This 21-page resource has been designed as an introduction to a study of a Mission to Mars. Children will research different mission badges before designing, making, and evaluating their own. This Outcome uses Lilypad e-textiles, but the same curriculum objectives can be covered with the use of littleBits, circuit stickers (Chibitronics) or with twinkle lights that have been cut and joined to copper tape and powered with a low-voltage battery. Digital resources for editing and sharing on Google Classroom and Seesaw available with download.