Do you know next week marks the one year anniversary of LessonPathways.com?!?! My, how time flies!
We’re gearing up for a HUGE celebration! Here on our blog, we’ll be featuring interviews with those homeschool mom & classroom educators that helped create all of the great Pathways on our site. We’ll also be hosting TONS of giveaways and contests with great prizes. Be sure to subscribe to our blog feed, follow us on Twitter, register at our user forums and like us on Facebook because you just never know where the fun will be happening!
We’d also like to give a big THANK YOU to our sponsors for generously donating the prizes we’ll be giving away next week.
In a continuation of our previous post, today we present to you our picks for grades 3 – 5 summer reading.
As before, we’ve compiled this list from various public school lists found on the Internet. Since these vary from state to state (and even county to county), we’ve selected books that were most common to each of the lists. We chose books that are considered children’s classics and easily found in most libraries. However, if you would like to purchase the books on this list, simply click the picture to be taken to Amazon.com, where a portion of your purchase price will go towards keeping LessonPathways free.
We’ve matched them up to Pathway unit studies for each one, so you and your child can thoroughly enjoy all the literature has to offer. Unlike the Pathways for the PreK – 2 list, these are 2 and 3 part Pathways. We’ve linked and described the first part for each book recommendation. Parts 2 and 3 can be easily found from there.
Remember, you don’t have to complete the entire Pathway. Just pick the resources that appeal to you and your child the most!
Summer Reading List Grades 3 – 5
Charlotte’s Web: In this unit, you will begin reading “Charlotte’s Web” by E.B. White. Your child will read aloud to you, read silently, and listen to you read chapters 1-6 in this book. Your child will answer comprehension questions for each chapter and will have fun completing a Charlotte’s Web word search, creating a sticky spider web, and eating pig slop. In the writer’s workshop, your child will describe an animal or pet, write about a pet he or she would like to own, and write about a special friend. For the language arts concept, your child will learn more about the setting of stories.
Mr. Popper’s Penguins: What would it be like to have a penguin for a pet? Learn about some of the problems (and fun) when a penguin joins the household in “Mr. Popper’s Penguins.” Hands-on activities include creating an icebox poster, eating on a budget, learning about penguins, and tracking the Popper family calendar. Writing assignments include writing a newspaper interview with Mr. Popper, writing a story about keeping a wild animal, and writing a story about a goose. In addition, your child will learn about the plot in stories.
Ramona Quimby, Age 8: Experience a new grade, a new school and changes at home for “Ramona Quimby, Age 8.” Read this story and find out how Ramona copes with all the changes in her life. Put the story in order, experiment with fruit flies, find a fancy way to write your name, and create a Wanted poster. Writing assignments include writing about an embarrassing moment, writing about doing something new, and writing about finding a new planet. Plus, your child will learn how to determine the sequence of events.
A Cricket in Times Square: This week you will begin reading the adventurous and funny book, “The Cricket in Times Square” by George Seldon. Come along for a fun time with a boy named Mario; a tiny cricket named Chester; and his animal pals Tucker, the Broadway Mouse and Harry, the Cat. You will read the first five chapters this week and answer comprehension questions. You will make a cricket craft, draw and illustrate a character from the story, discover what is underneath a city sidewalk in New York and much more. You will have three fun writing assignments covering the literature selection for this week. You will become familiar with the life cycle and anatomy of a cricket, too. Settings in stories is the language arts focus this week. Get ready to play games to help you understand what the setting is in a story and don’t froget to watch an interesting video of a cricket chirping and moving.
The Original Adventures of Hank the Cow Dog: The head of security at the the ranch is a dog, and there’s just been a murder. Learn more as you read the exciting adventures of “Hank the Cowdog” (Chapters 1 through 4) in this unit. Hands-on activities will include looking at the killer’s tracks, creating a wanted poster, giving Hank a uniform and badge, and comparing Hank and Drover. Writing assignments include writing about how you would track the killer, writing about a day when you went swimming, and writing about finding a bottle with a note inside at the beach. Your child will also learn how to identify topic sentences.
Stuart Little:This story tells about the amazing adventure of a tiny mouse who lives with humans. “Stuart Little” by E.B. White is full of drama and excitement as Stuart discovers the true meaning of friendship. You will design and construct a bed for Stuart, make a special bookmark, make and eat applesauce, and more. You will write a story from a cat’s point of view, write about the time you made a new friend, and making friends with a giant. Language arts concept focuses on identifying the correct use of commas with dates, addresses, items in a series, and the greeting and closing of a letter. Online games, quizzes and printables reinforce the objectives for this unit.
Dear Mr. Henshaw: Meet Leigh Botts, a ten-year-old boy who, through a series of letters written to his favorite author, learns about life and growing up. This is a wise and funny book about finding one’s own place in the world. “Dear Mr. Henshaw” was written by Beverly Cleary, author of Beezus and Romana. Hands-on activities include listing things that bother you, researching and designing a poster about monarch butterflies, and researching and cooking canapes. You will explore the characteristics and uses of letters, and practice writing letters, too. You will create your own writing journal to store writing assignments throughout the year. Basickeyboarding will be introduced in this lesson as well as learning the home keys. You will continue practicing keyboarding in subsequent lessons. Quizzes, a game, a video, and an audio resource reinforce the objectives.
Frindle: Have you ever heard of or used a frindle? Most of the people around Nick Allen have, even though his fifth grade English teacher is very opposed to using the word frindle! In this unit, you will begin reading “Frindle,” a very funny story about an ingenious fifth grader and his invention of this word. Maybe some of his ingenuity will rub off on you and you will invent a new word, too. The hands-on activities will keep you very busy this week as you analyze Nick or his teacher, Mrs. Granger; learn about Noah Webster and his invention of the first American dictionary; come up with new words and meanings for a dictionary; identify other names for writing instruments; and interview Nick. You will also learn about modifiers. Fun is sure to be had as you illustrate misplaced or dangling modifiers in silly sentences. An online quiz, worksheets, and video reinforce the objectives.
Those are my picks for grades 3 – 5. Check back tomorrow for grades 6 – 8.
What are your picks for summer reading?
This post was written by Christina S. She is a full time work-at-home-and-homeschooling-mom. She lives in Detroit with a 16 year old daughter, a 12 year old daughter, her husband, dog, cat and turtle.
Amelia Earhart’s Birthday is July 24th. Gear up for a celebration with this week’s Featured Pathway!
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Get ready to explore the exciting life of Amelia Earhart, the famous aviatrix (woman aviator). Learn about Amelia’s early years growing up in Atchison, Kansas. She was once home schooled just like you. Tag along as she learns to fly and earns her pilot’s license. Like Amelia, you can practice flying planes, the paper kind that is. Pretend you are Amelia as you write in your journal the night before your last flight. You will also have the opportunity to map her last flight, watch videos, and listen to her give a speech. This unit is designed to last one week, depending on how often you teach history.
After a brief period of regrouping and planning, we’re happy to announce that our blog is back! We’ve got some exciting new series, themes and topics coming your way. Here is a “sneak peek” at what’s coming, in addition or our Friday Featured Pathways:
Summer Reading Lists & Activities
Steals & Deals Round Ups
Making Math Meaningful
Behind the Scenes at LessonPathways
Planning Your School Year
We hope you like the changes that are coming. We welcome your thoughts and ideas on new topics and series too! Leave us a note in the comments section below, or drop us a line at Blog@LessonPathways.com.
LessonPathways has made the transition from subscription-based service to one that is completely free for everyone. However there are still financial costs for keeping the site maintained and develop additional features. Currently, our only source of revenue for maintaining the site is from donations and from our user’s support of our advertisers and the number of times our users click on the ads on our site.
Please support our advertisers to help keep LessonPathways.com free for everyone. If you need to make a purchase, please consider using our online shopping mall, where a portion of your purchase will help make LessonPathways.com even better.
There has been much excitement since we announced our new Travel and Field Trip Pathways a few weeks ago. Not only have we received new visitors to our site, but our users have been submitting Pathways for their hometown too!
This week, we’re pleased to featured a new user-created Travel and Field Trip Pathway introducing you to St. Louis. There’s much more to see and do than just its famous arch! If you’re planning a summer trip, or live close to St. Louis, check out this Pathway for inspiring and educational field trip ideas and inspiration.
St. Louis is a big city with a small town feel. Founded in 1764, it became known as the Gateway to the West, as many pioneers left St. Louis to head west towards California. From Downtown with the Gateway Arch, City Museum, St. Louis Zoo (free!), Missouri History Museum and Busch Stadium, to the municipalities of St. Louis County with The Magic House, Butterfly House, St. Louis is definitely a family friendly city. Within the City of St. Louis itself, there are many neighborhoods of specific ethnicity, full of restaurants. Each St. Louis County muicipality has its own distinct flavors too.
If you are interested in creating a Travel and Field Trip Pathway for your hometown, just use this super-simple form to submit the information and links, and we’ll take care of the rest!
You may have noticed things are a bit quiet here on the LessonPathways blog lately. Not to worry, we haven’t jumped ship! We’re just taking a little bit of time to take care of some “bloggy business.” All we’ll be back in action soon!
We’re queueing up some blog topics for the next few month and would love to hear from you! It is our goal to make this blog, helpful, meaningful and relevant. What topics would you like to read about here on our blog? Please let us know in the comments section below.
We’re also looking for a few more volunteer blog contributors. Actually, the more the merrier! We’d love to have posts from as many different homeschoolers, parents and classroom educators. Each author will receive full credit, including by-line and link to their own blog or website (if applicable) with each blog post. We’ll also feature you in the “Our People” section of our blog too! Whether you have previous blogging experience or not, don’t be shy. We’d love to hear from you! Drop us a line at Blog@LessonPathways.com.
Yes folks, you read it correctly – we’ve added new Pathways to our already awesome K-5 collection of resources!
Have you ever needed a local field trip idea to compliment your current lesson plans? Ever wished to find a way to educationally enrich your travel plans? We’ve created a new set of Travel and Field Trip Pathways do help you with just that!
Travel Pathways are designed to help families plan fun and educational trips. They can be long-distance family vacations or local field trips. Whether you are traveling by airplane, boat, bus, or taking a car adventure, these Pathways will serve as a fabulous personal travel guide!
Travel Pathways highlight an area or attraction, give insider information from someone who has been there, and include links to educational content and resources from which families can learn more about the location. The goal of these Pathways is to offer families an easy way to learn while traveling, without spending a significant amount of advanced planning time.
We’re currently in the BETA phase of these Pathways. There are great lessons, videos, activities and field trips to help enrich your experience in Massachusetts, Virginia and Washington D.C. Please take a look and let us know what you think!
If you are interested in creating a Travel Pathway based on our neighborhood or state, we are currently accepting volunteer submissions. It’s quick and easy, all you need to do is gather in the information and fill out a simple form. We’ll do the rest! For more information see the Travel and Field Trips Guided Journey page.
This week, we’re proud to showcase a Pathway about Temperature. This unit is bursting with hands-on activities, free printables, games and more. While it is included in the Year 5 Math Guided Journey, it is appropriate for students of any age needing or wanting a review in temperature concepts (including converting Fahrenheit/Celsius conversion). If you need more foundational lessons and activities for temperature, see the “Links to Related Pathways” section on the main page of this Pathway.
Temperature is the measure of how hot or cold it is. In this unit learn how to use the Fahrenheit and Celsius scales to measure temperature. Activities include reading thermometers, tracking temperatures, and converting temperatures from Fahrenheit to Celsius. Worksheets, online activities, and a video are included to reinforce the activities. This unit is designed to last one week, depending how often you teach math.
This unit, as well as over 900 other Pathways, is free for everyone. Please help keep LessonPathways.com free by supporting our advertisers. If you need to make a purchase, please consider using our online shopping mall, where a portion of your purchase will help make LessonPathways.com even better.
This week’s featured Pathway features the two things we love about childhood; poetry and summer. Remember the long summer days, playing outside with your friends until dinner? Do you remember not quite understanding why you had to go to bed when it was still light outside? This week’s featured Pathway highlights the poem “Bed in Summer,” a delightful short poem written by Robert Louis Stevenson. Enjoy reading this poem with your child, learning about syllables and comparing going to bed in winter and going to bed in summer.
In this unit, you will read “Bed in Summer” with your child. By creating a poem, drawing a dark house, illustrating the poem and showing different bed times your child will understand the poem and have fun. You will also talk about counting syllables and find syllables in “Bed in Summer,” play syllable games and complete worksheets to understand the concept. Your child will also learn the sight words “after,” “again,” “an,”and “any.” This unit is designed to last for one week, depending on how often you teach language arts.
This unit, as well as over 900 other Pathways, is free for everyone. Please help keep LessonPathways.com free by supporting our advertisers. If you need to make a purchase, please consider using our online shopping mall, where a portion of your purchase will help make LessonPathways.com even better.
One of the things I love about LessonPathways.com Language Arts Guided Journeys is the great selection of classic children’s literature. This week’s featured Pathway is no exception. Another one of my favorites, this Pathway incorporates Ronald Dahl’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” This is the first of four Pathways for this book. Like Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory, they just get better and better as you go along!
As a fun wrap-up for all four Pathways, you could make some of your own sweet confections and then watch the movie with your children for a relaxing, fun evening with the family. Afterward, compare and contrast the book and movie.
In this unit, you will begin reading “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” by Ronald Dahl. You will meet Charlie Bucket, a young boy from a poor family that wants nothing more than to find a golden ticket in his Wonka chocolate bar. Prepare yourself for as much candy as you can eat as you delve into the quirky world of Willy Wonka and his amazing chocolate factory. Through character mapping, documenting the details in the story, and learning to define the problems and solutions in a piece of literature, your child will gain a better understanding of the story and the language arts concept of the week. Skills will be mastered through journal writing, worksheets, hands-on activities, recipes, games, and coloring pages. This is the first in a three part series and is designed to last for one week, depending on how often you teach language arts.
This unit, as well as over 900 other Pathways, is free for everyone. Please help keep LessonPathways.com free by supporting our advertisers. If you need to make a purchase, please consider using our online shopping mall, where a portion of your purchase will help make LessonPathways.com even better.
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We’re also looking for a few more volunteer blog contributors. Actually, the more the merrier! We’d love to have posts from as many different homeschoolers, parents and classroom educators. Each author will receive full credit, including by-line and link to their own blog or website (if applicable) with each blog post. We’ll also feature you in the “Our People” section of our blog too! Whether you have previous blogging experience or not, don’t be shy. We’d love to hear from you! Drop us a line at Blog@LessonPathways.com.
Temperature is the measure of how hot or cold it is. In this unit learn how to use the Fahrenheit and Celsius scales to measure temperature. Activities include reading thermometers, tracking temperatures, and converting temperatures from Fahrenheit to Celsius. Worksheets, online activities, and a video are included to reinforce the activities. This unit is designed to last one week, depending how often you teach math.
In this unit, you will read “Bed in Summer” with your child. By creating a poem, drawing a dark house, illustrating the poem and showing different bed times your child will understand the poem and have fun. You will also talk about counting syllables and find syllables in “Bed in Summer,” play syllable games and complete worksheets to understand the concept. Your child will also learn the sight words “after,” “again,” “an,”and “any.” This unit is designed to last for one week, depending on how often you teach language arts.
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