Blueberries for Sal and Mystery in the Night Woods lesson plans with free printables

Hello friends of the Omschool. I've got great news that I'm very excited to share! We're going live! (or virtual live). Starting this week, my grandkids and I are going to begin doing lessons collaboratively on Zoom. We're doing multi-age, cross-curricular, STEM and social studies heavy units based around classic literature. We begin by reading Blueberries for Sal (youngers) and Mystery in the Night Woods (upper elem). You are welcome to join us! I'll be recording some of  our sessions for Youtube. Hear is our itinerary of lesson plans. 

further recommended reading:  

Time of Wonder

One Morning in Maine

Green Eggs and Ham

Teddy Bear Picnic

The Biggest Bear

Mousekin’s Golden House

all Mousekin books

Smokey the Bear books

Lesson plans:

·         Spelling words: can (canning), jam, blueberries (and other berries), Mother, Bear (bare), hill, little, pail (pale), winter, summer, crow, stump, Sal (pal, call, ball) child (wild), tremendous

p  practice one way each day

·         Write poem with rhyming words

·         Book discussion 

·         (BFS) Comparison/contrast of kids’ lives then and now chart. What they have that we don’t and what we have that they don’t  (toys, cars, homemade things) 

·         (Both) Hibernation, animal habitats, animal-human interactions 

·         (BFS) Grammar: onomatopoeia Plink, kerplunk, kuplink, boom, crash, smash, munch, caw (Read The Bells, EA Poe, my poem)

·         (both) Nature hike (look for animal signs, fur, slime trail, prints, eggshells, nests, scat, owl pellets, fossils, rocks) GA and O Here’s a rock guide and see below for animal tracks. https://miningmatters.ca/resource/rock-identification-guide and here’s a scat guide Scat-Identification.pdf (gross, I made myself sick)

·         (BFS) Make a recipe from blueberries (jam, pie, canned blueberries, muffins, salad, flag cake, soup, BBQ sauce) (O for ideas, GA)

Ø  (BFS) Write recipe and add to family recipe book. An easy one would be fruit flag salad with blueberries, strawberries, raspberries and white cheese cubes. Or fruit kebabs with blueberries, strawberries and white cake or cheese cubes.

Ø  (BFS) Plant parts chart: list across top (root, stem, leaves, flower, fruit, seeds) then cut out or draw pictures of different fruits and place in categories. 

Ø  (Both) Stuffed animal graph (collect animals and place them in rows to show what animal group they are: insect, mammal, fish, bird, reptile, amphibian (O then GA)

Ø  Hide and Find. Make a treasure map showing where to find the bear and blueberries she has hidden, or a map for FS to get off the island and back to his tree.

Ø  Make toys for babies and toddlers with found objects (like Sal’s canning rings) 

Ø  Write to Maine tourism board for free travel info or search Google to find a secret link to a free travel brochure you can download. (IT)

Ø (both) Make clay animal tracks or play animal tracks matching game animaltracksposter.pdf this can be colored, cut and assembled or just printed for reference. Here are flashcards https://explorationamerica.com/free-printable-animal-tracks-explorer-id-cards/ Kids should discuss in their group meeting differences between each animals footprint, whose are webbed, whose show nails, etc. Teach term scat.

Ø  (both) Make animal puppets from scraps.

MITNW

Ø  Words: mystery, night, woods, weasel, squirrel, owl, bat, badger, toad

Ø  Nocturnal/diurnal animal chart

Ø  Act out story

Ø  Read aloud, round robin

Ø  Character web (how each relates to each other)

Ø  If/then or cause and effect choices flow chart:

Ø  Character traits of each

Ø  Make a hearing aid like the ear horn

Ø  Tree chart of who lives where, food chain

Ø  Research animals: badger, flying squirrel, bat, snowy owl, weasel (mink, ermine) stoat, bullfrog

If/If/ then or cause and effect chart. If FS had seen Miss Owl as a friend, not a possession. If he had respected her. If  he had not kidnapped her. If he’d allowed her free choice to be with him. If she had been angry and not forgiven him. If Weasel had worked with FS not betrayed him. If FS had not made good his bad choices. Where did FS start going wrong and where did he correct it? And how? What was FS’s major character flaw and how did he, if ever, correct it? Which events were caused by FS’s pride? Seven deadly sins. 

 

Extensions

Ø  Art (pen and ink drawing)

Ø  Caldecott medal

Ø  Maine travel exploration

Ø  Animal scat sorting game with free printable animal scat 

 

Supplies list

·         Blueberries

·         Book copies

·         Clay or playdough

·         Ingredients for whatever recipe they choose with berries

·         Folder

·         Calendar or planner (tons to print online)

·         Two notebooks or five subject (will be reused)

·         Tweezers, zip bags, gloves, magnifying glass

·         Cellphone would be nice

·         Recycle bin scraps to make animal graph, plant graph, toys for littles

and maps (let them spill coffee on maps and crinkle to look old, lol)

·         Paper for plant parts chart

·         Markers

·         Magazines to cut scraps

·        Cardboard

·        Tape or brads

Scissors