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The Smell of Other People's Houses Novel Study
About the Novel: This deeply moving and authentic debut set in 1970s Alaska is for fans of Rainbow Rowell, Louise Erdrich, Sherman Alexie, and Benjamin Alire Saenz. Intertwining stories of love, tragedy, wild luck, and salvation on the edge of America’s Last Frontier introduce a writer of rare talent.
Ruth has a secret that she can’t hide forever. Dora wonders if she can ever truly escape where she comes from, even when good luck strikes. Alyce is trying to reconcile her desire to dance, with the life she’s always known on her family’s fishing boat. Hank and his brothers decide it’s safer to run away than to stay home—until one of them ends up in terrible danger.
Four very different lives are about to become entangled. This unforgettable William C. Morris Award finalist is about people who try to save each other—and how sometimes, when they least expect it, they succeed.
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 (Alaska, Alaskan statehood, fishing camp, Tongass Rainforest, Athabaskan, Good Friday Earthquake).
**Resource is provided as a PDF with a digital copy of the pack available for editing and sharing on Google Classroom and Seesaw. **
Five Little Indians Novel Study
**This 132-page resource is designed to be used during Reading Workshop with Five Little Indians by Michelle Good.
**
About the Novel: Taken from their families when they are very small and sent to a remote, church-run residential school, Kenny, Lucy, Clara, Howie and Maisie are barely out of childhood when they are finally released after years of detention.
Alone and without any skills, support or families, the teens find their way to the seedy and foreign world of Downtown Eastside Vancouver, where they cling together, striving to find a place of safety and belonging in a world that doesn’t want them. The paths of the five friends cross and crisscross over the decades as they struggle to overcome, or at least forget, the trauma they endured during their years at the Mission.
Fuelled by rage and furious with God, Clara finds her way into the dangerous, highly charged world of the American Indian Movement. Maisie internalizes her pain and continually places herself in dangerous situations. Famous for his daring escapes from the school, Kenny can’t stop running and moves restlessly from job to job—through fishing grounds, orchards and logging camps—trying to outrun his memories and his addiction. Lucy finds peace in motherhood and nurtures a secret compulsive disorder as she waits for Kenny to return to the life they once hoped to share together. After almost beating one of his tormentors to death, Howie serves time in prison, then tries once again to re-enter society and begin life anew.
With compassion and insight, Five Little Indians chronicles the desperate quest of these residential school survivors to come to terms with their past and, ultimately, find a way forward.
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 (Sweat lodge; smudging; Indian Act; residential school; American Indian Movement; reconciliation)
A link to a digital file for editing and use in paperless classrooms, as well as a printer-friendly version of the file are available with download.
My Own Lightning Novel Study
This resource is designed to be used during Reading Workshop with My Own Lightning by Lauren Wolk.
About the Novel: It’s been several months since the tragic events set in motion by bully Betty Glengarry, and the routine of daily life in Wolf Hollow has slowly returned. But for Annabelle McBride it’s hard to move forward and make peace with what feels like threadbare justice.
Newly warm summer days are about to bring a jolt of change on the winds of a powerful storm. In its wake, the search for her brother’s missing dog will set Annabelle on a new path that brings her to unfamiliar doorsteps and reunites her with a too-familiar adversary—Andy Woodberry, who was complicit in Betty’s most terrible acts. Growing up and blazing her own trail will soon force Annabelle to reexamine deeply felt truths—about people, about justice, about herself—that had once seemed so uncomplicated.
Bestselling author Lauren Wolk (Beyond the Bright Sea, Echo Mountain) returns to World War II–era Western Pennsylvania in this luminous sequel to her Newbery Honor–winning debut, Wolf Hollow, proving once again why her acclaimed novels have been celebrated as “historical fiction at its finest.”
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 (lightning, Lichtenberg figures, x-ray machine, hypoxia, phonograph, disabled dogs, seizures).
A link to a digital file for editing and use in paperless classrooms is available with download.
The Berry Pickers Novel Study
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.
Hunting By Stars Novel Study
**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.
Fire Keeper's Daughter Novel Study
**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.
The Swimmers Novel Study
**This 54-page resource is designed to be used during Reading Workshop with The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka.
**
About the Novel: The swimmers are unknown to one another except through their private routines (slow lane, medium lane, fast lane) and the solace each takes in their morning or afternoon laps. But when a crack appears at the bottom of the pool, they are cast out into an unforgiving world without comfort or relief.
One of these swimmers is Alice, who is slowly losing her memory. For Alice, the pool was a final stand against the darkness of her encroaching dementia. Without the fellowship of other swimmers and the routine of her daily laps she is plunged into dislocation and chaos, swept into memories of her childhood and the Japanese American incarceration camp in which she spent the war. Alice’s estranged daughter, reentering her mother’s life too late, witnesses her stark and devastating decline.
**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 (flip turns, cracks, internment camps, dementia, Nobel Prize, Rotterdam Study, PET Scans).
A link to a digital file for editing and use in paperless classrooms is available with download.
Bundle
Lauren Wolk BUNDLE
**This 327-page resource is designed to be used during Reading Workshop and is to be used with the novels Wolf Hollow and My Own Lightning by Lauren Wolk.
**
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 novels.
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.
Everyone Dies Famous in a Small Town Novel Study
This resource is designed to be used during Reading Workshop with Everyone Dies Famous in a Small Town by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock.
About the Novel: A lyrical and heartfelt collection by an award-winning writer that connects the lives of young people from small towns in Alaska and the American west. Each story is unique, yet universal.
In this book, the impact of wildfire, a wayward priest, or a mysterious disappearance ricochet across communities, threading through stories. Here, ordinary actions such as ice skating or going to church reveal hidden truths. One choice threatens a lifelong friendship. Siblings save each other. Rescue and second chances are possible, and so is revenge.
On the surface, it seems that nothing ever happens in these towns. But Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock shows that underneath that surface, teenagers’ lives blaze with fury, with secrets, and with love so strong it burns a path to the future.
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 (bivalve mollusks, wildfire, pika, fireweed).
A link to a digital file for editing and use in paperless classrooms is available with download.
Night of the Living Rez Novel Study
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.
Video Game Narrative Writing
Children will write a narrative text about being pulled inside of a video game.
Scaffolds and planning checklists are provided to support children in their writing. Writing objectives from Year 6 are used, pulling from the 2014 National Curriculum of England and the Interim Framework.
A digital copy of the file is available for editing and sharing on Google Classroom and Seesaw by following the link provided with download.
Information Text About a MakeyMakey Controller
Children will consider video game controller design before discussing what makes a controller effective. Children will then write an informative text about how a MakeyMakey works, including what they can be used for and what makes them effective.
Scaffolds and planning checklists are provided to support children in their writing. Objectives from Year 6 are used, pulled from the 2014 National Curriculum of England and the Interim Framework.
Lesson plans, editable rubrics and classroom examples are included.
A digital copy of the file for editing and sharing on digital platforms is available with download.
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Working Scientifically with MakeyMakey in Years 3 & 4
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Power Up Topic Plan with Computer Science, Chronology, and Writing Tasks
This BUNDLE brings together different SIX learning outcomes from the shop related to video games and video game controllers:
* DESIGN A VIDEO GAME CONTROLLER USING MAKEYMAKEY
* WRITING AN INFORMATION TEXT ABOUT MAKEYMAKEY
* EXPLANATION TEXT ABOUT CHANGES IN VIDEO GAME CHARACTERS
* DESIGN YOUR OWN VIDEO GAME CHARACTERS
* DESIGN YOUR OWN VIDEO GAME ON SCRATCH
* NARRATIVE WRITING ABOUT VIDEO GAMES
The download is a zip file of the different individual packs, each with digital files for editing and sharing on Google Classroom and Seesaw.
Explain How the Eye Works with Diagrams
*Updated with new graphics
Children will participate in a science investigation about pupil dilation before doing a study of how light affects how we see.
Children will write an explanation text about how the eye works, including diagrams, with scaffolds provided.
This pack can be used alongside the pack for drawing an eye, which has an art focus as opposed to an English focus.
A digital copy of the pack is available for editing and sharing on Google Classroom and Seesaw by following the link provided with download.
The Magic Box Poetry Mini-Unit
**Aligned with the 2014 National Curriculum of England
Included are the resources to follow a sequence of sessions where they develop their own ideas before applying them to the style of the model poem.
Children are introduced to the poem and decide what they would include in their own magic box. After reviewing poetic devices, children return to their ideas and include poetic devices to make them stronger before drafting their own poems.
As a maths and arts link, children can then design and make the nets of their magic boxes before building them into their boxes. Children can then add items and illustrations to their boxes representing the different ideas from their poems.
Digital copy provided with download.
Lights, Camera, Action!: Cinema and Shadow
*Updated with new graphics
This resource has been planned for a 6-week Half-Term. It connects the curriculums for Design Technology, Science, Art, English, and History.
Children investigate light and how it travels while also studying the eye and the history of cinema, with a focus on special effects.
A zip file with PDF units and links to digital files for editing and sharing on Google Classroom and Seesaw is available with download.
The Entirely True Story of the Unbelievable Fib Novel Study
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.
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The Skeleton Tree Novel Study
This 65 page resource is designed to be used during Reading Workshop and is to be used with The Skeleton Tree by Iain Lawrence.
ABOUT THE NOVEL: Less than 48 hours after twelve-year-old Chris casts off on a trip to sail down the Alaskan coast with his uncle, their boat sinks. The only survivors are Chris and a boy named Frank, who hates Chris immediately. Chris and Frank have no radio, no flares, no food. Suddenly, they've got to find a way to forage, fish and scavenge supplies from the shore. Chris likes the company of a curious friendly raven more than he likes the prickly Frank. But the boys have to get along if they want to survive.
Because as the days get colder, and the salmon migration ends, survival will take more than sheer force of will. There in the wilderness of Kodiak, they discover a bond they didn't expect, and through it, the compassion and teamwork that might truly be the path to rescue.
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 (tide, Alaska, northern lights, salmon, ravens, Marconi, wolves, Grizzly bears, tsunami, sailing).
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.
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Ancient Benin Study: Write a Persuasive Text About Returning Stolen Art
This resource is meant to be used by children in Key Stage 2 (English objectives pitched to Years 5 and 6) related to the Ancient Kingdom of Benin. Children will first learn about the art that has made the study of the kingdom significant, as well as the removal of the art by the British forces in 1897 when they annexed the kingdom by force.
Children will have to think critically about the art and who has rights to it, before writing a persuasive text that either argues that the British Museum should be able to retain the art, or that the government of Nigeria should be able to have the art back.
A digital copy of the file for editing and sharing on Google Classroom and Seesaw is provided with download.
Ancient Benin Study: Write a Narrative Text About Bravery
This resource is meant to be used by children in Key Stage 2 (English objectives pitched to Years 5 and 6) to investigate the warriors of Ancient Benin and write a story with a theme of bravery.
Children will first read to learn about warriors and hunting in Ancient Benin before planning, writing and revising their own story using shifts in formality.
A digital copy of the resource is included for editing and sharing on Google Classroom and Seesaw by following a link provided with download.