Cause and Effect with A Bad Case of Stripes

A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon is my favorite picture book! I love this story! Anytime I can use this book with my students I do :) We just finished studying cause and effect and learning to write out cause and effect paragraphs. We first watched a GREAT read aloud for the book from storylineonline.net. If you have not seen this site you should check it out. They have read alouds for many different books. After listening to A Bad Case of Stripes the students wrote a summary using cause and effects words. The students then colored Camilla Cream's face and posted their writing. The idea came from the site Mrs. Heeren's Happenings.

Political Cartoons

The hand represents the 13 colonies.

We have been talking about the causes of the American Revolution for the last few weeks. This unit is stretching out longer than I planned. The kids love it and we are having fun learning about the American Revolution so it is ok if we take a few extra weeks. 

After talking about the Boston Tea Party we begin talking about political cartoons from the time of the American Revolution. We talked about how they were used to spread a message to other colonist. My students then created their own political cartoons about the Boston Tea Party. 

The flames are labeled for each of the colonies.

The small fish to the left of the net are labeled as different colonies.

The only requirements that I gave the students were they they could not draw a picture of what actually happen at the Boston Tea Party. I must say that they fought me on this, it took A LOT of encouraging and A LOT of re-dos. They did not think they were creative enough and that it was to abstract. Let me just say that I have some VERY creative kids that can DEFINITELY think outside the box. I love those moments when you push the kids and they are able to be really creative. 

The hands represent the colonist.

American Revolution Trading Card Day!!

Today was our trading card day! Some of the students were very firm that they would not trade their cards but once the students started trading the cards they began joining in the fun. We had three classes meet in the library and it was fun to watch the students interact. There were students that treated the trading like a business and did a great job. The trading card directions, parent letter and template are found here on a previous post.

Field Trip Day!

Today we went to the Student Museum. I love this trip. The museum is actually in the school that was built in 1902 in our town. The students were able to learn the history of the building, schools in our town plus visit the rooms. Each room has a grad student from UCF dress in time period costumes as a tour guide.

There is a Native American village in one room. The room has huts, a cannon and lots of hands on artifacts.

The second room was the pioneer room. There is a real log cabin with all the things found in and around a cabin.

The last room is the classroom from 1902. The students are expected to follow strict rules and get a change to see what class was like.

This trip is so much fun and the students learned so much about Florida history. Warning lots of pictures below ;)

American Revolution - Trading Cards

This year we tried a new project for the American Revolution, trading cards. That is right, just like baseball cards but each card is focused on one topic from the American Revolution. Each student was given 6 cards and a few directions to go with the cards. The parent letter, directions and template is below. After the cards were turned they were laminated and graded. I think they turned out great! 

 
We will have trading card day next week. The fifth graders will meet in the library and the students will be able to trade cards. I am looking froward to that but couldn't wait to post. Once we our trading day I will post pictures.

Parent Letter

Rubric

Card Template