One group did a simulation of the food chain with dinosaurs to go along with the dinosaur unit in their basal. We chose from a stack of note cards with different roles such as, fruit, seed, plant, t-Rex, etc. It was fun watching the "dinosaurs" chase their prey and also see the prey run off and hide. The students would start off by researching their favorite kind of dinosaur and creating a PowerPoint. This would give them the information they need to do the simulation.
**This group integrated the visual arts and theatre.
The theme of my basal was heroes. The week that I focused on featured musical heroes, namely, Gloria Estefan. I decided to include music because the book about Gloria, mentioned a lot of her music. I thought, it would be a great way to bring the story to life. I choose, "Let's Get Loud", "The Rhythm is Gonna Get You", and "The Conga" by the Miami Sound Machine. I had my classmates listen to each song and draw what they felt as they were listening to the music. After listening to the songs and drawing what they felt, they had the option of naming their piece. Other ideas that the basal mentioned where having the students pick a song and introduce it like a disc jockey. I would have my students work in groups and pick one of Gloria's songs to introduce. The last idea was to interview each other. I would have my students come up with 5 questions and take turns interviewing/answering questions.
**I integrated music, theatre, and visual arts in my unit. The basal I used was Reading Indiana Houghton Mifflin.
Another classmate had us write a poem about any emotion we were feeling at the moment. I loved this!
We designed the background for a play based on a book about a book mobile and listened to a hilarious song about a pig to go along with reading frequency in a basal lesson.
