Great Book To get Students Interested in Hurricane Katrina

This is a great way to start off a lesson or unit on Hurricane Katrina. It is a story of triumph and friendship as an unlikely pair of Bobbie the dog and Bob Cat the Cat. They were both lost from their owners during Hurricane Katrina. The two stick by each others side to survive and make it to a new home. There is not too much about the actual facts of Hurricane Katrina but the book is really based on a true story! This would get students interested not only because it is the story of two animals but also because it has a great story line. From this book you could build on and begin to read more books that talk about the actual Hurricane in depth.

If you are not sure whether this would be a book for you below is a link to a video that shares the first few pages for you...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSSSyAW-4eQ&feature=related

Great Field Trip Opportunity!!

Going along with the Theme of the Underground Railroad from my last post I have come accross a really great museum that would be great to take students to! the museum is what use to be Levi Coffin's home. If you know anything about him he is thought to be the "President of the Underground Railroad" and his home, the "Grand Central Station of the Underground Railroad". This is such a big part of history that students would be able to explore for themselves!! There you can see artifacts from the slaves that traveled through his home and explore all the secret passageways where slaves were hidden and transported. What is even better is that it is located in Fountain City, Indiana which depending on where your school is located, not that far of a drive. Below is the link to check out the site. There you can find prices, hours and directions and other great links to visit on information about the Underground Railroad! They even offer a group discount and children 6-18 are always only $1!!

http://www.waynet.org/levicoffin/default.htm

The Underground Railroad

Below is a list of very helpful resources when plannning a unit on the Underground Railroad for 4th grade students. There are 5 books that are all around a 4th-5th grade reading level and 5 websites. Read the description for the websites to see if they are intended for teacher use of student use.

Books:

1. Allen Jay and the Underground Railroad
This book is about a Quaker boy who meets a slave who is trying to find freedom. The quaker boy helps him to freedom by using the Underground Railroad. This book is also an “on my own” reader suitable for a 3rd to 4th grade reading level.

2. Aunt Harriet's Underground Railroad in the Sky
This book is about two children who are separated and guided by Harriet Tubman through what the life of a slave was like. This is a good book to teach young children the history of slavery and the Underground Railroad. It is also very helpful in introducing important people of that time such as Harriet Tubman. This book is at a 4th grade reading level.

3. Follow the Drinking Gourd
This book is a great way to introduce music into a unit. It is about a white plantation worker who ends up becoming friends with some of the slaves on the plantation. This book is about the song Follow the Drinking Gourd and its actual meaning. This is a great example of how the slaves used song to express themselves and to secretly guide then to freedom. This book is at a 4th grade reading level.

4. Trouble Don’t Last
This book is about a boy who was born as a slave and his experience with the underground rail road and his route to freedom. It is also an award winning history book. It has a reading level of 4th/5th grade.

5. The Underground Railroad for Kids: From Slavery to Freedom
This book is the only nonfiction book that I picked. I think that this is a very good informational book for kids. It may be above some of their reading levels but would be a great book for students and teachers to look at together. The book starts off as a time line and then going into more detail about the things on the time line. There are great facts but also really great pictures for students to look at. There are also activities that children can do within the book.

Websites:
1. www.nationalgeographic.com/railroad.
This was a really great site to visit. Not only was the information from a credible source but it also had a section for teaching kids and ideas for in the classroom. There are many facts, pictures and activities that you can do with children. I liked the interactive journey through the life of a slave.

2. www.teacher.scholastic.com/activities/bhistory/underground_railroad
This was a really good site for teachers. There were tons of likes to get to other ideas and activities about the Underground Railroad. This site also had a great interactive journey that the students could even listen to! There is a list of resources of books, slide shows and things that teachers can do to enhance learning about the underground rail road.

3. http://www.pocanticohills.org/tubman/tubman.html
This was a website created by a school and teachers. This site focuses mainly on Harriet Tubman. It was aimed for second graders. There are a lot of good resources on this page including online quizzes, crosswords and extension activities.

4. http://www.42explore2.com/undergrd.htm
This website was a great resource on where to find other information about the Underground Railroad. It was nice how it was separated into sections such as: words to explore, for kids by kids, websites for teachers and be an explorer. This was more of a website for the teacher to get ideas from. It contained a lot of good ideas.

5. http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/underground
I would use this site for my own purposes. It is not a site that is really kid friendly but is a place where I could go to get information. It does though offer a list of sites that you can visit that where part of the Underground Railroad. This would be great to see where your class may be able to go on a fieldtrip to.

Classrooom Artifacts

For the classroom artifact activity we were to bring in a few objects that if someone found 100 years from now, they would represent who we were and our family beliefs. After the this activity, I realized how important it is to not only get to know your students but to also give them a voice in your classroom. This was a great way to not only learn about ourselves and what we may stand for but also to see what other people are all about as well! I think that this would be something that would be really easy to do in the classroom. It takes an "all about me" approach and dives in even deeper. This would be a great activity to start the year off to get to know your students and give them a chance to get to know each other! You can even give students time to explain what each thing they brought in stands for or what it means to them. Every student would have their time to shine and everyone would get to know eachother better!