Tag: Junior Grades

Making Thanksgiving Cards (A How-To for Teachers)

Thanksgiving is around the corner for us here in Canada, and teachers, stepping off my post from yesterday, I decided to do Thanksgiving cards as an art activity with my junior class today. These are really easy to make and students can dedicate these to whomever they wish. Teachers, the dedication process can be a mini-lesson in the writing component of language. You can have them write out rough drafts of their inside greetings, and then peer-edit before they transfer them on as good copies to their cards.

Detailed below are the materials needed, and the process that was followed to make the cards.

Materials:

wp-1475604152875.jpeg

  1. Googly Eyes
  2. Cardstock (I use the Reflections brand that can be found at Michael’s Craft Stores)
  3. Coloured Markers or Sharpies
  4. Scissors and Glue sticks
  5. Turkey and maple leaf templates
  6. Square cut-outs (of appropriate size) of orange, yellow and green cardstock (you can substitute with construction paper if you prefer)

Process: 

#1 Cut out the turkey and maple leaf templates, using them, trace (onto the side of the coloured paper opposite to the one that will be facing the top when stuck on the card) onto appropriate coloured paper and then cut those out too . Write 1 in the turkey template so your students know they have to cut out only ONE turkey (in orange), and 2 in the maple leaf template so they know they have to cut out TWO maple leaps (yellow and green). Teachers, for those of you who own a Cricut cutting machine, you can pre-cut turkeys and maple leafs for your students. However, the cutting process helps them to be part of the card-making from scratch.

wp-1475604445471.jpeg

wp-1475604239586.jpeg

#2 Once the pieces are cut out, use a dark-coloured marker (black, brown, gold) to draw details onto the maple leaf and turkey cutouts. Add googly eyes and paste all 3 cutouts onto the front face of the card. Use markers to colour in a border and write in HAPPY THANKSGIVING!.

wp-1475604206264.jpeg

Teachers, if any of your student are away, be sure to make little art packets for them to make their cards when they return:

wp-1475603690530.jpeg

There you have it, a very simple way to get your students into the spirit of Thanksgiving, while fulfilling curriculum expectations (specifically around ART). And on that note, HAPPY THANKSGIVING, CANADA!

©booksnnooks.org All Rights Reserved

Aaron Becker’s Journey: A True Picture Book

I was first introduced to Aaron Becker’s Journey while doing a teaching placement not too long ago. What I did not realize at first was how versatile this book would become, on not only an age level, but a conceptual and skill-teaching level as well. I have since read it to students at the primary and junior levels, and each time, this book has not failed to create a splash. Becker relinquishes the use of words to tell a story completely in the hands of a child’s imagination. He trusts our young readers, as we must, to make their own meaning out of this heartfelt tale.

I will intentionally not discuss the plot of this book, as I do want to create any skew toward a certain interpretation when the book provides for many. Suffice to say, this book is about a young girl who begins a journey and along the way, discovers much about herself and life.

Juxtaposing grayscale pictures with bold singular colour in the beginning, and then opening wide a world blossoming with colour as the book progresses, Becker unfolds a world that students can envelope themselves in. With magical crayons and castles, boats and hot air balloons, rescue missions and the king’s guards, this book will allow your students to draw the important messages of friendship, selflessness, generosity, imagination and compassion. The sensitively-coloured and poignantly-drawn illustrations provide your students with the opportunity to lose themselves in another world where they can tell you a story as it plays out in the turning  pages. For once, you will not be the one narrating, they will, and they will take much pleasure in making their own tale. The thing I love most about this book is that it allows for a variety of different levels of interpretation that your students can attach themselves to. It prods their critical-thinking and problem-solving skills, it allows them to use language to describe pictures, it helps them with recall and attention to fine detail, and at its best, it provides them with the opportunity to acknowledge the value of a variety of perspectives. It is especially great for those of your students who just do not like reading; a great place to start to show them that books can be fun and instructive, without the burden of a multitude of words.

Teachers, this book is well worth the investment, and a true gem that will prove timeless for your students each year.

 

©booksnnooks.org All Rights Reserved

The Deborah Ellis Installments (Part I): The Breadwinner Trilogy

Deborah Ellis is a renowned Canadian author who has written a number of books with a lens to promoting awareness about the plight of marginalized children in war-stricken countries. Her fiction and non-fiction are sensitively crafted to present the reality faced by many of these innocents.

In possibly her most famous books, The Breadwinner series, Ellis paints a picture of the life of women in war-torn Afghanistan. This entire series showcases an especially strong cast of female characters that will leave you feeling like you know them personally. Teachers, having worked in a library for a year, I have seen this series being read with great vigour by junior students. Granted these books might appeal more to your female students because the protagonists are mostly female, I do think there is great value in making it part of your teaching, as it allows your male students to understand and appreciate the hardships faced by many children and women in places like Afghanistan.

There are 4 books in the Breadwinner Series:

The Breadwinner

Parvana’s Journey

Mud City

My Name is Parvana

Today, I will speak to the first 3 as they follow closely in chronological order, and can be taught together over the course of a couple of months, if you so choose.

In The Breadwinner, we meet our leading girl, Parvana. She is bursting with energy and opinions, and is not the kind to bend over backward for anyone. Right away we get the sense that this strong young lady is built to tackle much. And much, she does. She is chosen to be the breadwinner of her family when the Taliban enforces bans on women leaving their home without a male companion. With Parvana’s father imprisoned for no fault of his own, her mother and siblings rely on her ability to dress up as a boy and go out into the market to continue her father’s job. Parvana is sharp and kind. She has a conscience that shines through her stubbornness. We understand as an audience that this is reality for a lot of Aghani girls. And at the young age of 11, Parvana must shoulder a lot of the responsibility if she is to help her family survive. Teachers, your students can view this first book through the lens of how the family structure is impacted by war.

In the second book, Parvana’s Journey, Parvana is reunited with her father, but separated from her mother and the rest of her siblings. The book opens with her at her father’s grave, and goes back at points in time to describe the short journey they took together to find her mother and siblings, before his mind and body gave out. For the remainder of the book, we follow Parvana on a harrowing journey as she must use both her cunning and strength to stay alive. This strong young girl has matured significantly since the last time we saw her, but she retains some of her best qualities, like her compassion. With this compassion, she makes and keeps a handful of friends. Teachers, your students can add to their understanding of the interactions of strangers in a war-torn country, and how the youngest of the population must fight for survival.

In the third book, Mud City, we reconnect with Parvana’s friend, Shauzia, whom we have met in the first book. Shauzia has ended up helping out at a Widow’s Compound on the border with Pakistan, but despite being clever and useful, she wants to venture beyond the grounds of the compound and start her own life. She is convinced that if she can reach the nearest city across the border in Pakistan, Peshawar, she can earn a living and then go on to have her own life and do great things. Shauzia does succeed in getting out of the Widow’s Compound, but life in the big city of Peshawar is not everything she bargained for. There is not much work to be had, and going hungry is just in addition to struggling to stay safe and alive. Teachers, this one will offer a bit of perspective on the internal world of an Afghani child, specifically a girl. It will allow your students to draw connections with their own hopes and ambitions, and those of Afghani children. It will also help them see that despite these hopes and ambitions, the contrasts in circumstances and opportunities is what makes achieving both possibly easier for them, and harder for their Afghani counterparts. This book offers teachings in different perspectives, gratitude and hard work.

Teachers, this entire trilogy is a great way to teach your students a bit of geography when you talk about Afghanistan and its location in the world, with reference to other countries such as Pakistan. Students can make connections to other countries they know of in the region. It can further offer the opportunity to delve into social studies as you discuss the government structure of then Taliban-led Afghanistan, and today’s present government. You can also use this to make comparisons with our own Canadian government, or other relevant governments.

The first three books in the series are great for grades 4-6 and offer a range of cross-curricular opportunities because of their versatility.

Stay tuned for a follow-up post where I will discuss the final book in the series, My Name is Parvana.

 

©booksnnooks.org All Rights Reserved

 

 

Sunny Side Up: A MUST-TEACH for Junior Grades

Dear Teachers,

Now, some of you might have begun to take heed of your students’ growing interest in graphic novels. I wrote a piece on August 3rd, 2016, here, detailing why graphic novels should be used in classroom teaching.

Today, I would like to talk about one of my favourite graphic novels for your junior grades: Sunny Side Up by Jennifer L. Holm & Matthew Holm. This very well-done novel tells the heartfelt tale of 10-year old Sunny Lewin, who goes to spend some of the summer of 1976 with her grandfather in Florida. Young Sunny has been sent away by her parents not as punishment, but as protection and distraction. Sunny’s grandpa lives in a retirement community and his idea of fun is not quite the same as young Sunny’s. Still, Sunny shows great maturity in doing her best to make the most of it. This graphic novel is told with great sensitivity from a child’s perspective. A child who is dealing with a lot in her life. With flashbacks to earlier points in time, little by little the readers become aware that Sunny has been sent to live with her grandfather while her parents help her older brother deal with his substance abuse. With thoughtfully constructed artwork, the Holm brother-and-sister duo showcase the sibling bond shared between Sunny and her older brother and how his substance abuse affects her life. Teachers, this is a great way to get your students talking about an issue that they might either have no awareness of, or be dealing with on a daily basis. Sunny’s resilience throughout the book is a poignant point that deserves discussion. How does a 10-year old learn to navigate these dark corners of life, and often by herself? The story builds on Sunny’s relationship with her grandfather, someone whom she loves very much, and her role at 10-years old as his keeper. Sunny tries to keep her grandfather in check about his smoking problem, and she plays along while he lies to her, until at one dramatic moment in the book, she loses her nerve. Here we see how this young child, with all of her 10 years, has roughed out life to arrive at a juncture where she will no longer tolerate being treated like a child, because as she proves, she has grown up enough to understand how reality works.

Teachers, your students can do various things with this graphic novel because it is so very versatile. You can dip quite easily into the arts and explore language through that lens, while at the same time fulfilling grade-specific expectations across different curriculum.

With a setting ground in the 1970s, your students can chart important moments in history from the 1970s and work their way forward, they can talk about ways in which the artist uses frames and panels and gutters and speech bubbles, and other graphic novel techniques to convey meaning, you can delve into psychology and the background of substance abuse and how it affects the person who is dealing with it, and his/her family. This book is teeming with things to teach your students, and the best part is, it comes in a form that doesn’t pose a hard sell! Your students will be so excited to jump right into the pages, you will only have to say when!

Teachers, if you are looking for resources to start a unit on this book, please visit my Teachers Pay Teachers account: Cross-Curricular Ideas when teaching Sunny Side Up

 

©booksnnooks.org All Rights Reserved

Championing Graphic Novels for Classroom Teaching

Some of my favourite graphic novels; great for teaching students Grades 4-12

As teachers, we like to revert to the tried-and-true classics when doing Novel Study Units, and teaching our students various bigger life themes. The likes of To Kill a Mockingbird, Inherit the Wind, The Great Gatsby, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, Jane Eyre, The Importance of Being Ernest, Brave New World, 1984 and then of course those by the Great Bard, for the intermediate and senior grades. Trust me, I’ve done a good number of these in High School. And then there are the likes of Bridge to Terabithia, Freak the Mighty, Charlotte’s Web, Chronicles of Narnia for the junior grades.

Now, let me pose this question: Have you considered a graphic novel for your Novel Study Unit? I have talked to a lot of teachers, especially in the junior and intermediate grades, and they are incredibly distrusting of the graphic novel. It is viewed by many teachers as a medium of entertainment, and not learning, for their students. Granted, there are graphic novels out there that are created with the sole intent of entertaining, but a lot of incredibly clever graphic artists and writers, collaborate to produce thought-provoking and striking graphic novels.

I would like to make a case for the teaching of graphic novels in grades across the board. I believe they have much value to add to our students’ learning. First of all, graphic novels are not just about the pictures. They are about the relationship between text and image. They are about the meaning in between the panels and the way the characters are drawn and coloured. They are about what is omitted and what is included. They are about meaning and form at their very core. However, they are also incredibly accessible. Graphic novels have the power to engage students who are not willing readers of the traditional text. They have the know-how to capture this audience and potentially turn them into readers. Now, teachers, would that not be a cause for celebration?

Graphic novels further ignite creativity, they inject perspective and then offer other viewpoints contrasting with that first perspective. Art is introduced in an appealing way to students who might not necessarily find themselves drawn to it. The graphic novel has the unbridled power to marry different forms of expression to achieve greater meaning.

Several graphic novels written over the last few years have sought to take big risks and tackle radical topics. Sunny Side Up by the Holm brother and sister duo (Fear not, I shall review this one in time), El Deafo by Cece Bell, Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, Maus by Art Spiegelman and Smile by Raina Telgemeier (a handful of my favourites) are some of the graphic novels that have burst out onto the scene and made an impact. From tackling big issues of substance abuse to identity and war in Iran, from physical disabilities to World Wars and the struggles of adolescence, these books, and others, have the power to change thinking. They have the power to begin passionate discussion among students. So, teachers, pray tell, do they not deserve a ranking among the greats? Just because they are “newer” and “different” does not make them unworthy of being entered into the canon of literature-teaching tools.

One of my personal favourites is Watchmen by Alan Moore. This masterpiece makes the movie look ridiculous because, within its pages, it houses depth of meaning and form. It catapults the reader into the story and pulls the narrative around that reader-creator relationship.

Graphic novels are not just quick books that you can read on a trip from Toronto to New York City. They are fast becoming vehicles in which to express explosive thought. So teachers, what say you? Give the graphic novel a chance?

 

©booksnnooks.org All Rights Reserved