Lesson 6: Create Your Own Unit Study
A Sample School Day
Little by little I create my first week of school. The final lesson plan for day 1 looks like this:
Day 1: What Animals are Endangered?
1. Children receive an ecard inviting them to learn about endangered animals and receive a question to think about: Who would want to hurt a panda bear?
2. Children watch a video on endangered animals from our library. Discuss the video and find out how the children feel about the subject.
3. Divide for math class. Use regular math book, but include a page of story problems about endangered animals. I create that myself.
4. I have the boys work together to create a poster about endangered animals. We keep old copies of National Geographic we buy at thrift stores and they use these, or draw their own pictures. (Working together allows the child with cerebral palsy to participate despite difficulty using hands.)
5. While the boys work together, I listen to Katelin read. She begins the Jungle Book.
6. Endangered Means There’s Still Time defines the three essential terms for this unit: Extinct, Endangered, Threatened. I make flash cards for each word. When the children are together, I teach the words. I use the material I gained during my study of websites meant for adults. This page is part of an online slide show. I will show it to the children and then have each of them practice reading aloud from it with me tomorrow. They will do this privately while the others begin projects. This protects my dyslexic child from the teasing of a younger sister who reads well, and also lets me help my child who has cerebral palsy and struggles with speech.
7. We are studying pioneers in our history class. We will take some time to talk about the buffalo and how they were affected by the pioneers.
8. We will visit the library and choose books. I like to bring home a large selection of books and videos that the children can read on their own. While we are driving, I tell the children they are to choose an animal that is endangered and learn about it. They must study it, write a report and do another project of their choosing, all by the end of the month. They may not choose the bat or the turtle, since we are doing those as a family.
9. Later that evening, Katelin makes her poster—one taken from the slide show about causes of extinction. I listen to each boy read.
This is the first day of our unit. In the coming week, the children work on their reports and projects, read the library books we found, start their book reports, make more posters to decorate our school area, and watch videos of endangered animals. Together we read Growing Frogs, which is listed in my recommended books, and visit a pond. We will spend the month growing frogs as instructed in the book, and then return them to their habitat. This provides some hands-on experiences in animal preservation. I read The Jungle Book to my dyslexic child, while the child with cerebral palsy and my gifted first grader read to me.
