ENGAGE

1. Review comparing and contrasting with students and have students create a collaborative Venn diagram of experiences from the book and their own lives.

2. Explain the idea of a two voice poem as a conversation about something or a “call and response” like in music.

3. Show or have students listen for the format of the poem, pointing out areas where both voices speak, they are saying the same thing, where they take turns, etc.

4. ASK: How is a two voice poem like our Venn diagram? How is it different?

---

EXPERIENCE

1. Tell students they are going to work together to create a poem to demonstrate their understanding of how Cynthia Rylant’s experiences compare and contrast with their own. Let them know that the poem will be in two voice format and that the poem should read like a conversation.

2. Discuss the idea of poetry having a rhythm to it – poetry shouldn’t feel like a paragraph. It doesn’t need complete sentences, but it does need to flow (to sound good read aloud).

3. Students may work in whole group or in smaller groups (see scaffolded template).

---

ASSESS

Students will read their poem aloud in two groups.

Check-in:

Did the poem flow?

Did it contain similarities and differences?

Were the similarities highlighted by using both voices?

Closure:

Discuss with students whether they want to make any changes to their poem after reading it aloud and thinking through the questions.

ENGAGE

1. Tell students that we are going to travel through a magic tunnel, become actors, and participate in an interview in order to understand the experiences and feelings of the main character in The Little House.

2. Play a round of shake and freeze in order to get the students to focus on the drama.

• • Identify a point of focus in the room– it can be a classroom decoration, a doorknob, a dot you put on the board. Students are to get into an actor’s neutral position (arms by sides, calm body), and then shake the body parts you indicate. When you say “Freeze! Focus!”, students are to put both feet on the ground and put their eyes on the focus point.
  • They are not to move, giggle (this is hard!) or look at you. If students are good at this, you can attempt to psych them out by moving about the room and behaving a little silly to try and distract them.
  • Suggested shake order: Shake out fingers, then hands/wrists, shake out arms, neck/head, (carefully!) hips and belly, one leg, other leg, whole body, FREEZE! FOCUS! Use a whirligig or other sound effect (the intro to Dr. Who is great) to bring them through the tunnel into the interview (they should close their eyes).
  • Introduce yourself as Rita Book or Andy Goodbook, host of the show Books Alive! and interview students as though they are. (funny glasses or a change of hat will help make the drama come alive!)

---

EXPERIENCE

Opening:

• • Introduce yourself and the show. Invite the guests to repeat the phrase “I’m happy to be on the show!” to get started in the interview. Ham this up– they will love it.
  • Interview the students as your character and address them as though they are the little house

Sample Questions: (ask multiple students the same question, get them to extend their answers) (these are sample questions) *students who talk during the interview when not called on should be redirected with the verbiage “Quiet on the set!”

• • How did the neighborhood change with the seasons? How did you feel about these changes?
  • How did the you feel when you saw the first car? The road to the city?
  • What happened next?
  • How did you feel when you were surrounded by all of the apartments?
  • Did your feelings about them change?
  • How did you feel when they started building sky scrapers?
  • What did you dream about then?
  • How did you feel? When they put you on wheels, what thoughts rushed through your mind?
  • How did you feel? When you reached the hill, what changed?
  • What do you love best about your new neighborhood?

---

ASSESS

Recap the learning in your sendoff

• • “You heard it here folks, _______ That’s all for this week. I’m Rita Book, and I will see you next time on Books Alive!!”

Take students back to the classroom through the whirligig.

Reflect:

• • Did students participate in the drama? Did they answer the questions with TBE? Did they listen to the answers of others?
    • If desired, return to the Actor’s Toolkit and have students self-assess if they used their Voice Body and Imagination.

Return to Topic

TIME MACHINE

Make something that will be exciting to “activate” and help students imagine traveling back and forth through time!

Materials

• • Cardboard boxes
  • Masking tape
  • Cardstock
  • Brads
  • Markers
  • Pipe cleaners
  • Colored paper
  • Gluesticks
  • Scissors
  • Wire
  • Hole punch
  • Straws
  • Bottle caps
  • Aluminum Foil
  • Paper towel rolls

Experience

Your “time machine” can come in many shapes and sizes. It could be fashioned from a large cardboard box that kids have to crawl through to be magically transported to a different time or a smaller tabletop “machine”.

We’re encouraging students to use their imaginations and play!

Does this machine make a sound when a button is pressed? Does it take the form of a helmet

• • Or is it a magic ring and the wearer must repeat a secret word to be transported through time?

---

INVENTION STATION & SPOKESPUPPETS (FQ5)

Set up students to create their own model inventions using weekly prompts and a variety of supplies with inspiration from Benjamin Franklin.

Materials

• • Cardboard boxes
  • Masking tape
  • Cardstock
  • Brads
  • Markers
  • Pipe cleaners
  • Colored paper
  • Gluesticks
  • Scissors
  • Wire
  • Hole punch
  • Straws
  • Bottle caps
  • Aluminum Foil
  • Paper towel rolls
  • Crayons
  • Clothespins
  • Pencils
  • Paper

Experience

Post a weekly prompt and have kids create model inventions

• • “Transportation-how will kids get to school 100 years from now?”
  • “What’s a chore you’d like help with? Create an invention to help you do the job.”
  • Fashion-”What will people be wearing in the next decade?”

---

TRACING STATION (FQ2)

Engage students in images from the past.

Materials

• • Laminated photos of old-fashioned items
  • White cardstock
  • Plastic paper protector
  • Masking tape
  • Water-based fine line markers
  • Paper plate
  • Damp sponge
  • Markers and crayons

Experience

We want kids to take a close look and really study the photographs and drawings they see in the texts to figure out why they are made the way they are.

• • What are the shapes involved and how do they connect to each other? How does this thing work? What design changes have occurred over the years?

Kids will be drawing pictures of particular items for their EOM task and we want to facilitate their drawing skills by having them identify individual shapes and trace what they see.

We’re going to be doing an image transfer using water-based markers to trace the outlines of specific objects.

• • Print out photos from the books or other examples of antiquated objects and their modern-day counterparts.
  • Laminate them or place them in a plastic sleeve.
  • Kids will use a black or blue marker on the laminated page to trace the object. Make sure they get all the main details.
  • With a slightly damp sponge moisten the white cardstock.
  • Place the cardstock over the laminated image making sure to hold the paper in place so the image doesn’t move. You can hinge one side of the cardstock with masking tape before wetting so it won’t move when flipping it onto the laminated photo.
  • Give the paper a firm rubbing over the entire surface.
  • Lift the card stock and flip it over and you should have a mirror image of the original.
  • Use crayons or markers to make the lines more defined and color in your drawing!
  • Use a wet paper towel to wipe off the laminated photos so they’re ready for the next transfer.

---

ZINE MINI BOOK (FQ4)

Kids have been reading books and learning all sorts of interesting facts about life then and now and the inventions that have changed the way of life in America. With the zine format, they can create their own “books” that they can share with friends.

Materials

• • Paper
  • Scissors
  • Pencils
  • Markers and crayons

Experience

To Make the Zine:

• • Fold the construction paper in half. Line up the edges so they’re right on top of each other and make the fold as crisp as you can.
  • Unfold and refold the other way along that same fold.
  • Open the paper and fold the paper in half the other way so you’re making two intersecting, perpendicular folds. Unfold, flip the paper and refold along that same fold.(We’re freeing up the “joints” so the paper will easily fold in either direction.)
  • Open the paper and fold the right side to the center line. Make a crisp fold.
  • Unfold and refold in the other direction.
  • Open the paper and fold the left side to the center line. Make a crisp fold. Unfold and refold in the other direction.
  • Your paper should now be equally divided into eight sections. Fold it in half again, “hamburger” style.
  • Here’s the tricky part. Starting at the fold, cut from the middle of the paper along the fold stopping at the first intersecting fold. Look at the diagram for reference.
  • Open the paper and pinch the sides together to form the paper into a “book”. Refer to the diagram.
  • Make a title page by writing in your name on the line after by_______________
  • Draw pictures of things from” Now” and “Then” and glue them in your book.
  • Share your book with a friend!

Return to Topic

EXPERIENCE

Time Machine Dress-up area/General Store

• • Include clothes and items (phones, kitchen gadgets) from different eras

Time Machine by Table

• • Create a time machine by table. Each table comes up with a sound for their time machine.

Old Time Toys

• • Jacks, string games, jumprope, tiddlywinks, simple card games-war/go fish, hand-clap games

Carpet Timeline

• • Set up a timeline on the carpet or outside on the playground to jump back and forth in time.

Old Time Kitchen

• • make ice cream the old fashioned way (hand crank or with the can method)
  • Make butter with a churn

Emphasize capitalization by having kids “act out a sentence.”

• • Have kids sit in a circle.
  • Go around the circle with individual students repeating each word in a sentence
  • Every time there’s a capital letter, that student stands up in the shape of the letter
  • At the end of the sentence, the student can curl up in a bal to represent the period

Long Ago Photo Collage

• • Have students bring in pictures of parents/grandparents/family members from “long ago”, and include your own!

Teacher Task: bring in some family photos

• • Show cars, fashion, hairstyles from the past. The kids wi l love seeing their teacher as a youngster!

Morning Circle

• • Build routines looking at an image, and have the day’s sharing be a conversation around the open ended question “What might this be?”

Crankies

Chatterkids App: 6 Extensions of learning

Fieldtrip to examine and discuss historical objects

• • MD Blacks in Wax
  • MD center for History and Culture
  • B&O railroad Museum
  • Museum of industry (in the neighborhood virtual tour)

Engage with Seniors

• • Create a doodle poll and share with seniors to find out what changes they’ve seen in their lifetimes.

Return to Topic