Thursday, May 3, 2012

Adventures with Sarah.... and MORE

My students have just spent the past week and a half on some exciting adventures with Sarah...... Sarah Plain and Tall.

I just love this story, and there are so many activities that can be incorporated with this story.  This is one of the stories used in conjunction with our Westward Migration Unit.  Here are some of the activities my students have participated in:

1. Before and After drawings of Sarah-  My students participated in a predicting/visualizing activity.  I gave them each a 8 1/2 x11 blank piece of paper that each student had to fold in half.  Then on one half students had to write "before"  on the other side each student had to write "after".  Students were instructed to draw what they thought Sarah might look like just by hearing the title of the story.  I collected these drawings.  Then about halfway through our book, I passed these drawings back out and asked the students to draw how they visualized Sarah to look from what they have read so far about Sarah's character.  Here are a couple of pictures:



2. Travel brochures of Maine and Kansas-  Sarah lived by the sea in Maine, and she was moving to the prairies of Kansas.  I thought it would be very beneficial for my students to see and explore both of these states.  I found some pictures online and used some of the tourism sites for both states and showed these to my students on our Promethean board.  We researched as a class the climate of each state, seasonal activities, the geography of the area, and famous landmarks.  It was such a great learning experience!  Then students were given a job assignment.  They worked for an advertisement company that had been asked to create a travel brochure for Kansas and Maine.  Students had to pick one of these states.  The students had to include the following in their brochure: slogan for the state, information about the climate and what to do in each season, things to see and do, and famous landmarks.  Here are a few pictures of the finished product.   I had many students ready to take a summer vacation to Maine.




3. Cinquain poem-  We have been working a little bit on poetry, so I included a cinquain poem.  It consists of 5 lines.  The first line is the noun ( topic), second line are adjectives to describe it, third line are verbs that end in (ing) that go with the noun, the fourth line is a statement about the topic, and the fifth line is a synonym for the topic.  The students again had to choose Maine or Kansas for their poem.




4. My students also participated in literacy stations.  These are the stations I created for my kiddos.
Vocabulary Memory Game

Making Words Activity

All About Sarah File Folder Board Game








Postcards of Kansas




You can click on the picture below to see the Sarah Plain and Tall unit on TPT.  It is aligned with the Common Core Standards.

One more thing.....   Teachers Pay Teachers is having a Teacher Appreciation Sale May 6-8.  Load up your shopping cart and get ready.  I have several items on my wishlist and can't wait to take advantage of this sale.  TPT is offering 10% off already sale priced items by entering the code TAD12.  All items in my TPT store will be 20% off and then add the additional 10% off.

Teacher's Notebook is also having a Teacher Appreciation Sale May 5-11.  All items in my shop are 20% off.

It's not too late to enter this Mayday Giveaway.   3-6 Resources is having a Mayday Giveaway.  Hurry it ends Friday.   There are so many fabulous items to win.  Check it out by clicking on the picture below.  Good luck!!


Have a fabulous evening!!

1 comment:

Charmaine Ng said...

I love how many different activities you integrated into a unit about one novel. The travel brochures are genius! Really help you visualize a setting.

-Charmaine, Community Advocate at QuickSchools