Free Unit Study

Update: You will find 5 days for the Free Unit Study below; however, I am currently earning my Masters in Education and built another unit study using a different approach.

You can see the approach here: Thanksgiving Unit Study and find a link to my completed 12 day Thanksgiving Unit study on this page.

I haven't had a chance to finish the Charlotte's Web study...but I hope the Thanksgiving one will give you some ideas as well.

Main Themes: Farm Animals, spiders & emotions

Grades: 3rd - 5th

Main Materials: The novel Charlotte's Web by E.B. White

Books on farm animals, spiders, and emotions, other books written by E.B. White, index cards, writing paper, spiral notebook, pens, crayons, art paper, watercolors, writing utensils, toothpicks, eggs, pan, scrap material, classical music

Additional Materials will be needed for some projects.

The following fifteen day unit study can be modified and adjusted to fit the needs of the individual teacher and child. Lessons can be interchanged, shortened, deleted, or lengthened based on teacher's preference. Other subjects, such as spelling and Latin, can be taught in addition to this lesson.

Prior to starting the Charlotte's Web Unit Study collect books from the library related to farm animals, spiders and emotions.

1.
a. Ask the question, "What can we find on the farm?".
b. Accept all answers.
c. Write the answers down.
d. Make sure the categories of animals, crops, buildings, and people are covered.
e. Write 10 farm things on 10 strips of paper.
f. Take turns drawing a paper.
g. Guess what is on the other person's paper by playing21 questions, using yes/no questions only.

2.
a. Read facts about E.B. White. E.B. White facts b. Locate where E.B. White was born on a map. Calculate how many years he lived. Look at other books he has written.

3.
a. Pre-make vocabulary cards with the following words: blissful, gazed, injustice, manure, plaster, promptly, runt, shrieked, vanished, wobbled. Keep the other side blank.
b. Spread out the vocabulary cards.
c. Discuss the definition of each word.
d. Say a sentence, such as: "The duck (blank) on the street."
e. The child fills in the sentence with the correct word. (wobbled)

4.
a. Read Ch. 1, pages 1-2 aloud.
b. Discuss how the opening pages create a scene in our minds.
c. Ask "What can we tell about the setting?"
d. "How would you describe the setting we are sitting in?"
e. Read aloud Ch. 1.

5.
a. Explain the elements of a research paper about a farm animal. Include: Animal classification, habitat, food, description, adaptations, population, locations, etc.
Also assign minimal and maximum amount of pages, time frame, and expectations.
b. List the possible animals the child could choose to research.c. Instruct the child to go online or look in encyclopedia to decide what animal to do a report about.
d. Explain you will be going to the library to get a book about the animal as well as using other reference material to find information about the animal.

6.
a. Assist while the child looks up five facts about the animal online.
b. Ask the child to write down five facts but to make some of the facts false by changing the information a little bit. (For example changing the weight or habitat) Keep some of the facts correct.
c. Play "Stump the Expert": Have the child read the five facts and you have to guess which ones are correct.
d. Tell the child to save the facts for part of the farm animal report.
(extension: ahead of time look up some pig facts yourself and try to stump your child)

7.
a. Go outdoor or in an open space and call out ways animals move.
b. Instruct your child to move like the animal.
c. Include less common words, like: wobble, swing, bounce, etc.
d. While playing the game, ask "What animal might move like that?"
e. Change the game by calling out a farm animal and asking your child to move like the animal.

8.
a. Read a book about emotions. (link coming)
b. Look up the word "emotions" in different sources.
c. Name a few common emotions and look them up synonyms.

9.
a. Choose a classical piece of music which has a lot of changes in tempo and volume.
b. Instruct the child to draw on a piece of construction paper alternating the shape of lines and crayon color to match the music.
c. Discuss the mood of the music.
(extension: research about the composer)

1.
a. Provide a large piece of blank paper and markers.
b. Review polygon shapes such as: triangles, squares, octagons, etc.
c. Instruct the child to make a border around the paper of small polygons, alternating colors and patterns.
d. On the top of the paper write "Our Emotions" in large letter for the child to trace.
e. Explain the paper will be used for the next two weeks to list emotions we find in the novel, Charlotte's Web.
f. Ask the child to write in small print a few emotions on the paper.

2.
a. Read a picture book about emotions.
b. Ask child to add a few emotions to the paper.

3.
a. Using the vocabulary cards from Day One, ask the child to draw one card and not show you.
b. Have the child pantomime the word without using any sound or objects.
(model one time for the child first)(adaptation: for non-readers use pictures of animals or pantomime all the words for them)

4.
a. Read Chapter Two together. Take turns alternating paragraphs or pages.
b. Add words to the emotion list.
c. Choose one sentence from the chapter for the child to write while you dictate.
d. Review the written sentence together.

5.
a. Make a farm animal obstacle course together by combing material at home to make a course. Use balls, string, yarn, pillows, rope, chairs, etc.
b. Model for the child how to run the course.
c. Estimate how many minutes the child thinks it will take to complete the course.
d. Time the child three times.
e. Compare the time trials to the estimated time. (subtraction)f. Find the average of the three trials.
g. Challenge the child to beat his or her average.

6.
a. Ask the child to describe a perfect pet. Ask questions related to: size, appetite, abilities, etc.
b. Instruct the child to write a list of all the qualities.c. Discuss "adjectives".
d. Instruct the child to add adjectives to the list.

7.
a. Provide resources for the child to research about the farm animal.
b. Create a word web with the animal name in the middle of the page and information about the animal. Include: Animal classification, habitat, food, description, adaptations, population, locations, etc. on the lines leading out.

Day Three: Chapter Four & Five

1.
a. Read a book about spiders.
b. Write the following poem on a piece of paper:

"Spiders aren't insects!
This news couldn't wait!
Instead of six legs
Every spider has eight!"
written by Tirsh Rabe from the book: On Beyond Bugs! All about Insects.

c. Discuss exclamatory sentences.
d. Discuss the syllable pattern of the poem: 5-5-5-6.
e. Discuss which words rhyme.
f. Assist child in creating another poem with the same syllable pattern.

"Dogs are fun mammals,
They leap and they race,
And tickle my nose,
As they lick my small face!"
written by Marcie Ciampi @2009 spectrumhomeschool.com

2.
a. Introduce 5 or more of the chapter 1-6 vocabulary words from the list below:

appeal, enchanted, promptly, adoring, eaves, crafty, glutton, lure, blundered, frolic, prance, scythe, stealthily, plunged, swoop, untenable, trough

3.
a. Add these vocabulary words to the emotion chart: anxious, miserable, blissful, dazed, dejected
b. Discuss the meaning of the words and when a person might feel those emotions.

4.
a. Read chapters 4-5 in one sitting. Choose from the options under paired reading in the language arts cafe or ask child to read independently.
b. Discuss these questions:

1.How did Mr. Zuckerman lure Wilbur back into his pigpen?
2. What did Wilbur want more than anything?
3. How did Wilbur feel shortly after meeting Charlotte? Why did he feel this way?

c. Add emotions to emotions chart.

5.
a. Prepare 10 quarter-size circles.
b. Take 80 toothpicks and place 8 on each circle.
c. Instruct child to make spiders.
d. Ask math questions like the following:

Home many legs in all? What if the spiders had 7 legs each? What if there was one less spider? If there were 10 spiders and 6 were brown and the rest were black, what fraction of spiders are black? brown? What percentage of each color?

6.
a. Introduce Response Journal in Language Arts Cafe.
b. Review the questions.
c. Answer one of the questions together.
d. Instruct the child to write 2-5 sentences and illustrate a picture.

7.
a. Research the meaning of the names of the characters in Charlotte's Web.
b. Discuss if the meaning fits the character's personality.
c. Discuss other names you might name Wilbur or Charlotte.
d. Ask: "Do you think the story would have been different if Fern was a boy, Wilbur was a girl and Charlotte was a boy? Why?"

8.
a. Research for farm animal report and take notes.

9.
a. Talk about ways to take care of your pet; if the child doesn't have a pet, pretend.
b. Spend some time together with your pet taking care of it.

Day Four: Chapter Six

1.
a. Read chapter six. Choose activity from paired reading in language arts cafe.
b. Add emotions to emotions chart.
c. Instruct child to answer a question in response journal.

2.
a. Read different

lullabies online.
2.
a. Instruct child to make a greeting card for Wilbur with either a copied lullaby or self-created lullaby.
b. Research about lullabies lullabies from Mother Goose.
(caution: Review the site first and make sure it is something you are comfortable discussing with your child.)

Mother Goose Site

3.
a. Assist child in alphabetizing index vocabulary word cards. b. Play the match game again, matching the words to the definitions.
c. Go back through the chapters of the novel and locates some of the words. See how many words you can find in five minutes.

4.
a. Answer these comprehension questions from chapter five and six:

1. Why was it difficult for Wilbur to get to sleep?
2. What did Charlotte do to protect the earth?
3. What do you think Templeton the rat will do with the goose egg?

5.
a. Place a white piece of paper in the lid of a medium-sized box.
b. Assist the child in dipping marbles, small balls, etc. in different colors of pain.
c. Have the child place one marble on the paper and tilt the box lid back and forth creating lines.
d. Repeat with different colors.
e. After the paint dries, write an adjective about Wilbur, cut out the word, and glue the word on the line art.
(extension: look at artwork online or in books and discuss how the artists used lines in the painting, photograph, or drawing.)

6.
a. Continue farm animal research

7.
a. Talk about different animals feet and how their fit help them in their natural habitat.
b. Look at your own feet. What can they do? Try writing with a pencil or picking up small objects. Have a mini-contest and see how many objects you can pick up. Are your feet ticklish? Why do we have big toes?
c. Trace a child's foot on a piece of scrap paper. Place several pieces of paper under the traced foot and cut them all out.
d. Measure the foot with a ruler.
e. Make predictions about how many of the child's foot long or wide different items in and outside the building will be, e.g. fridge, table, rug, couch, gate.
f. Make a chart with prediction on one side and actual findings on the other.
g. Assist child in measuring objects with her/his own feet.
h. Fill out chart.
(extension: draw other animal feet and measure. Remeasure with a tape measure.)

8.
a. Make a snack for Wilbur. Brainstorm a list of foods Wilbur might like that the child also likes. Try putting together foods the child hasn't tried before. How about bananas and peanut butter? Cereal in yogurt? Eggs on toast?
b. Make the snack together. Rate the taste on a scale of 1 - 10.

Day Five: Chapter Seven

1.
a. Instruct child to gather all the research about the farm animal and divide the notes into separate subjects for paragraphs.
b. Number the note pages to represent the different paragraphs.
c. Assist child in writing the introductory paragraph for the report.
d. Edit the paragraph together.

2.
a. Say: "Chickens do not see will in the dim light. They have none of the tiny special parts that make it possible for an owl or cat to see. What animals can see well at night? What animals are nocturnal?"
b. Research about nocturnal animals.

3.
a. Read: Inside a hen is a sack called an ovary. Tiny little egg yolks form there and grow. When a yolk reaches its full size it enters a tube inside of the chicken. The white part of the egg is formed inside the tube. When the egg goes down the tube it is coated with calcium. The coating hardens into a shell. Then muscles push the egg out of the hen's body. Inside the yolk of the eff is a germ of a new chicken. The white of the egg and yolk are nourishment for the chicken while it grows.
b. Research questions together: What is calcium? What foods have calcium? Which vegetable have the most calcium? How much calcium does a child need? An adult? What are calcium supplement made of?
c. Look in your fridge or in a store for foods with calcium.
d. Cut out pictures from grocery store advertisements of foods with calcium and make a collage.

e. What does free range eggs mean? What are organic eggs?
f. Provide colored feathers, glue, empty paper roll and paper and have child create their own hen.

Day five to be continued soon.

No portion of this may be copied without prior permission.
@2009 spectrum homeschool