Final Project Post #9: Mapping out Travel Routes

The Sign of the Beaver tells of how early settlers Matt Hallowell and his father travel from Quincy, Massachusetts to Maine to build a log cabin in 1768.  Matt’s father leaves him behind for seven weeks so he could watch over the homestead, grow crops and build a shed.  Unfortunately, Matt’s family is not able to return in seven weeks and Matt is left alone for many months.  An Indian tribe befriends Matt and helps him survive; however, when winter approaches the Indian tribe must relocate. 

 

            Using Google maps students will research the travel route from Quincy, Massachusetts to Penobscot River, Maine and from Maine to Canada where the Indian tribe moved.  We will watch a You Tube video on how to antique paper.  Students will draw a possible travel route on a large piece of construction paper.  Using the techniques we learned from the You Tube video we will antique our maps.  Then we will display our old maps in the school lobby for everyone to see.  This is an interesting way for my students to learn the geographic territory of the North East United States.   

Making Antique Paper 

Final Project Post #8: Adventures of Robinson Crusoe

The historical frontier novel, Sign of the Beaver, is about the developing relationship between twelve year old Matt and a thirteen year old Indian boy named Attean.  One day Attean and his grandfather save Matt’s life after he tries to retrieve honey from a bee-tree.  In return for the Indian’s kindness, Matt offers them the only thing he has to offer; his worn copy of Robinson Crusoe.  Immediately Matt regrets his gift after he realizes that the Indians cannot read.  However, the Attean’s grandfather sees that the book has the written words that had stolen his people’s land.  He proposes that Matt teaches his grandson, Attean, how to read the signs.  Robinson Crusoe is an interesting book that should appeal to students' love of adventure and will go along with our novel study. 

 

I plan to read some of the excerpts from that Matt uses while teaching Attean how to read.  Last year in summer school, much to my surprise, my students became very interested in the novel Robinson Crusoe.  As I read I will have my students to write some unfamiliar vocabulary words.  Afterwards we will take some of the vocabulary words and make a game of who can be the use their iPads to find the definition of these words the fastest.  Hopefully, my students will be able to use context clues to figure out most of the unfamiliar vocabulary.  It would be great if some of my brave, daring students would volunteer to reenact the scenes that were read.  This should be entertaining and fun.           

Final Project Post #7: Making Snares

Can you imagine leaving your young son in the wilderness for months with little shelter and food.  Certainly not!  Today, parents would get arrested for that.  However, it makes for a great read in my summer school novel study, The Sign of the Beaver.  When young Matt’s rifle is stolen, his only means of hunting for meat, he is forced to learn some cleaver ways of hunting for food.  His Indian friend, Attean, teaches Matt how to make a snare to catch small game in; such as, rabbits and fowl.  At first this was very difficult for Matt and he often thought Attean was making fun of his crude snares, but after much practice Matt became a very good snare craftsman. 

Using their iPads students will research different ways to make small snares.  The students will be placed in groups of three and given material; such as, twigs and string, and try making snares.  This will take team effort, following directions, and a lot of patience.  After each group has completed their snares we will use a small stuffed animal as our test bunny (Cute).  My hope is all snares are strong enough to withstand the test and we will catch a stuffed rabbit.  No, I am not going to rabbit stew. Ha!  I know some of you were thinking I would.  This should be a fun craft and the students will use reading skills while learning about team effort.           

Final Project Post #6: Strawberry Jelly

In the novel, Matt is left alone at the homestead in Maine while his father travels back home so he can bring Matt’s mother and little sister to their new home.  When food becomes scarce Matt is forced to hunt and search for different kinds of food sources.  After finding wild berries and fruits his dries them in the sun and preserves them for the long harsh winter to come. 

 

Many of our students have seen their grandparents or parents preserve vegetables or fruit jelly; however, they may have never had the opportunity to make fruit preserves themselves.  I want to give them that opportunity in summer school.  I plan to bring fresh strawberries to school on a Monday and have the students wash and cap the berries.  Then we will slice and pour sugar over the berries and allow them to sit overnight.  The next day we will make strawberry jelly and using small canning jar we will preserve our food.  Each student will be allowed to take two jars of jelly home; one for now and one for a savory winter’s treat.  On the day we make the strawberry jelly we will happily serve hot tea-biscuits and fresh strawberry jelly to everyone attending summer school.  The students will be so proud of all the hard work they have put into this project.  They will also have a product of their hard work to take home to show their parents.  Hopefully, this will encourage parents to allow their child to help them with the cooking and summer canning.                    

Final Project Post #5: Promoting Active Lifestyles

During my summer school experience I am promoting a healthy and active lifestyle. We are growing our own vegetables in the school garden and using these vegetables to cook in many recipes. I’m also encouraging different forms of exercise; including hiking, soccer, baseball, jumping rope and running. Today’s students need to learn to maintain a healthy balance of study, video gaming and exercise.


The characters in The Sign of the Beaver are very active. Matt and his father cut the trees to make a clearing and build a log house using those trees. Matt and Attean hiked everywhere they went and would trek for miles in one day. Attean taught Matt how to leave unnoticeable markers so they could find their way back home after their journey. Matt joined Attean’s Indian tribe in a rough game of rugby and afterwards went swimming.

Each day during summer school my students will be doing some physical activity. I will take them to the school playground and allow them to choose a team sport or game to play. I will provide balls, ball-bats, jump ropes, chalk for hop-scotch, and a stop watch for racing. Students will not be required to participate in any activity they are not comfortable doing, but they may be encourage to try something new after seeing how much fun the other students are having. Hopefully, students will enjoy themselves enough to promote an active lifestyle at home and with their family.

TLC kid activities

pinterest activity ideas

Final Project Post #4: Using iPads for Research

In the novel Sign of the Beaver, Matt's father tells him that there were no bees in America until the colonists brought them from England (p.22). I will have students to research this information using their iPads and verify this fact. Students will also research the appropriate first aid for a bee sting and research some of the remedies the Native American Indians used for bee stings.

After researching this information, students will use their iPads to create a Wordle using some of the key words for bees and bee sting remedies. Students will be grouped into partners also use the information to write a brief report. Students will then compare their wordles and see if they used the same words to describe bees and bee stings. Students will be allowed to give an oral presentation of their report. Students will also act out a scene from the novel when the character Matt climbs a tree so he can get honey from the bee’s hive. I will use my iPad to video the students’ reenactment and then we can view each skit on the Smart board. This should be a lot of fun!

Final Project Post #3: Applying Math Skills While Cooking

Some of the hands-on math activities we will be doing during summer school involve gardening and cooking. Below you may read some of the fun activities we will be cooking up. Students will apply math skills in real life experience that will include measurement, graphs, budgeting and fractions.

• Students will harvest available produce from the garden.
• The produce will be cleaned, weighed, and measured by the students. Weight, mass, and length will be converted from US to metric or metric to US. Groups will compare results.
• Students will use the information to develop word problems to assemble into a game.
• Students will be paired and spend 10-15 minutes researching recipes they would like to prepare using the produce collected.
• Partners will present their recipe and a vote will be taken.
• Using sale papers, students will prepare a budget and shopping list.
• Items will be purchase based on their list and we will cook tomorrow.
• Using the items purchased from the students’ shopping list, we will cook today.
• Students will cook and serve squash casserole.
• Students will cook and serve zucchini bread.
• Students will be divided into groups to inventory different areas of the garden including produce, plant growth, and available water.
• Students will return to the classroom to chart and graph their results.
• Students will compare these results with the results from Day 1.
• Students will make corn pudding.
• Make corn cakes.
• We will pop corn.

Zucchini Bread

Paula Dean- Zucchini Bread