Unit Studies for Teachers - Thematic Springboards Part II: Topical Unit Study Ideas - free Suite101 course

Lesson 1: Getting Your Feet Wet in a Sea of Studies

Lesson 2: How We Learn, Teach, and Tailor a Unit Study to Fit

Lesson 3: Thematic Springboards Part I: Subject Unit Study Ideas

Lesson 4: Thematic Springboards Part II: Topical Unit Study Ideas
- 4-1 Introduction
- 4-2 Careers
- 4-3 Calendar
- 4-4 Activity/Kinesthetic
- 4-5 A Potpourri of Themes
- 4-6 Umbrella Studies
- 4-7 Resources

Lesson 5: Building Blocks & Boilerplates: Tools for Creating Unit Studies Part I

Lesson 6: Building Blocks & Boilerplates: Tools for Creating Unit Studies Part II

Lesson 7: Putting it All Together on an Ocean Cruise: Build Your Own Study Now!

Lesson 8: Wrapping Up Your Unit Studies

Lesson 4: Thematic Springboards Part II: Topical Unit Study Ideas

4-5 A Potpourri of Themes

While the categories for themes are as boundless as the human imagination, I'll list just a few others that come to mind . . . and leave the rest to your creative discovery:

Unit studies based on famous people can include researching and writing a biography, play acting dramatic incidents from their lives, drawing an illustration of them, perhaps at work on some typical activities. You may want to give a quiz on them, assign a journal entry project pretending to be that person writing it in the first person. The Internet provides many sites devoted to famous people.

This category covers attributes or character traits like courage, love, and wisdom for example. It can also be general topics like brainstorming and exploration, or ideas like truth and peace. How about hobbies? Model trains or gardening? You may Amanda Bennett has put together outline books for creating many such unit studies which you may want to try out. One recent one on Gardens covers the history of gardens, plant science, planning and planting a garden, and the arts and gardens; it is also available on CD-ROM. All the research and tailoring is still in your ball park, but these types of books can help give you a head start and get you organized. For the first anniversary of September 11th I wrote a unit study article at Christian Home Education on courage and heroes titled "Teachable Moments: A Heroic Response to 9/11" which you may want to read for some ideas in this area. Since concept topics are often broad in nature, it is often easier to incorporate all subject areas.

How about building a study around some worthwhile activities for the community? Our favorite is crafting goodies for the local nursing home. As an Easter project we took short, appropriate scripture verses using an Internet Bible with search engine. We printed them with Easter pictures which we colored, rolled up, and tied with an Easter-y piece of ribbon. Since we made one for each resident and there were 70 residents that made for a lot of handwork with little headwork. We took turns reading or quizzing on different subjects or Easter-related books. The joy of delivering the colorful mass of scrolls was the best ending to any study.