Forces of Nature

For February we began a new reading unit for the month. My host teacher found a GLAD unit based on Forces of Nature. We thought that learning about natural disasters and reading adventure fiction stories is a nice companion to the learning we have been doing in our landforms unit.

Students have broken into four literature groups (we had five choices, but no one chose to read the Tornado fiction book). The groups are reading a fiction book that portrays children in a heroic light and a non-fiction text as a companion. We read the non-fiction text first to build our background knowledge so we have some great schema in place as we read the realistic fiction the rest of the month.

Here is what the literature groups are reading:

After students read the non-fiction text they made a 3-part "mural" where they drew a picture of a scene before the disaster they learned about, during, and after. Then they wrote and performed a news cast skit for the class.

Here are some of the murals:

Tsunami Before

During Tsunami

After Tsunami

During an Earthquake

During a Hurricane

 

Other Supplement Learning:

• Cognitive Content Dictionary: Preparation, Safety, Precipitation, Humanitarian Aide, Impact, Evacuation, Tectonic Plates, ...
• Poems and Songs about Natural Disasters
• Maps 
• Learning about Mt. St. Helens (local landform & disaster)
• Earthquake & Fire Drills
• Water Cycle
• Safety Preparation
• Creating Mental Images
• Character Traits that will help them be heroic 
• Making Inference, Predictions, and Observations
• Rebuilding Community