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Mission to Mars Thematic Unit Plan
This 197-page bundle includes six different resources where students will:
Design a mission badge (e-textiles)
Study of the U.S. space program’s chronology (explanation text)
Learn about ecosystems while considering what they would need to survive on Mars (persuasive text)
Study previous rover designs before designing and evaluating one using littleBits
Research significant people and events to the U.S. space program (primary and secondary sources)
Write a short story about a mission to Mars and/or space travel using shifts in formality with flashbacks (narrative writing)
The pack includes different graphic organizers, as well as resources for lower ability pupils.
In the past, I’ve used these resources during a unit on Mars, but they could be used as a stand alone learning outcomes, as well.
Bundle
Hidden Worlds Thematic Unit
This 119-page bundle includes four different resources where students will focus on hidden worlds:
Research and write a report about a hidden world (creative non-fiction)
Design a Go Fund Me pitch for their audience to fund a trip to a hidden world, including a presentation that includes ethos, pathos, logos (persuasive writing)
Creative writing that uses a portal key and changes in tense (narrative writing)
STEAM project where children use circuit stickers to highlight the portal of their hidden world
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 the CCSS are noted, where appropriate.
Links to digital files for editing and sharing on digital platforms are provided in files with download.
Bundle
Kensuke's Kingdom Thematic Bundle
In the past, I have used the resources in this bundle while doing a study of Kensuke’s Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo, but the resources can be used independently as well with some slight modifications. This bundle includes four different resources where students will:
Shipwrecked! – Narrative (40 pages)
Island Flora & Fauna – Informative (35 pages)
Field Guide of Island Organisms (49 pages)
Survival Invention – Explanation (66 pages)
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 with download.
Bundle
Hidden Worlds Thematic Unit BUNDLE
Digital at-home learning made easy! Combine a four-week unit on hidden worlds with four novel studies that look at hidden worlds and the portals used to get there.
This 687-page bundle includes:
Hidden Worlds 4-week unit: research and report writing, persuasive writing, narrative writing, STEAM *Includes lesson plans, resources, editable rubrics
Peter Pan Novel Study
Iron Hearted Violet Novel Study
The Girl Who Drank the Moon Novel Study
Coraline Novel Study
Magonia Novel Study
All objectives are aligned with the 2014 National Curriculum of England, and connections to CCSS are listed where appropriate. Packs can be printed off as PDFs or shared to be completed on a digital platform with links included in downloads.
Bundle
Hidden Worlds: Narrative Writing & STEM BUNDLE
This 66-page bundle includes two different resources where students will focus on hidden worlds:
Write a narrative text about using a portal key
Design a circuit for an interactive portal key with circuit stickers (STEM)
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 the CCSS are noted, where appropriate.
Links to digital files for editing and sharing on digital platforms are provided in files with download.
If You Were Me: Amendment for Dummies (Explanation Text)
In this 40-page resource, children will look at features of different explanations before choosing one of the Constitutional Amendments to explain to their audience.
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 Common Core State Standards.
Links to digital files for editing and sharing on digital platforms are provided in files with download.
If You Were Me: Historical Fiction (Narrative Writing)
In this 44-page resource, children will look at text features of different narratives that involve prejudice before writing their own.
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 Common Core State Standards.
Links to digital files for editing and sharing on digital platforms are provided in files with download.
If You Were Me: Write a Report about Segregation
In this 26-page resource, children will look at text features of non-chronological reports and at different resources about segregation before writing their own non-fiction text about segregation.
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 Common Core State Standards.
Links to digital files for editing and sharing on digital platforms are provided in files with download.
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.
Conquistador & Mayan Civilisation Study - Geography & History Focus
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.
The Heart Study - Anatomical Form
In this resource, children will participate in activities as they learn about the circulatory system and the heart in a hands-on and meaningful way before building an anatomical heart.
In the past, I have taught these sessions in a carousel over several days, but they could be taught whole-class as well.
A digital file for editing and sharing on Google Classroom and Seesaw is available with download.