Student Activities
This unit has a dual goal: students focus on social skills and apply these skills to become problem solvers in real life by analyzing the characters’ points of view and distinguishing them from their own and by analyzing the choices made by the characters. Along with this goal, this unit is integrated into the science concept of ecosystems, specifically how animals depend upon one another and on their natural resources to survive.
These activities can be adapted across grade levels and across curriculum especially with the STEM components that consist of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math.
Point of View
Recess Stories
To be able to comprehend the concept of point of view, students will begin with their own recess stories. Students will work in pairs for this activity. They will choose a friend they usually don’t play with at recess. For this activity I will provide them ten-minute free recess time, so as to be able to monitor their activities. Using their collaborative skills, they will decide a recess activity or a game they want to play together.
They will write the account of their recess activity using a first-person and a third-person point of view. For instance, Partner A will write about their recess in first person’s point of view, whereas Partner B will write about their recess in third person’s point of view. They will be encouraged to add their feelings and their thoughts into their anecdotes as well.
They will compare and contrast their stories and analyze how different or alike their thinking process was, using a graphic organizer. This activity provides them a safe environment to practice the understanding of the concept of point of view and what it means to distinguish them from others.
Point of View Stories
After reading a story multiple times, students will rewrite that story in their own words. They will pick their favorite character from the story and rewrite the story from that character’s point of view. For example, after reading the story “In Which Piglet Meets A Heffalump,” students will rewrite the story from Pooh’s point of view, Piglet’s point of view, or from the Heffalump’s point of view.
They will extend this activity by distinguishing their point of view from that of the character’s.
Students Catch a Heffalump
In the story “Chapter V, In Which Piglet Meets a Heffalump,” Pooh and Piglet brainstorm ideas to build a “Cunning Trap”42 to catch a heffalump. They both have different ideas but they come to a consensus, even though it is a silly and a humorous way to reach an agreement. This shows students the power of working together as a team.
In this activity students will work in their table groups using the “Numbered Heads Together” strategy to come up with a “Cunning Trap” to catch a heffalump. They will use a Thinking Map to describe what their trap might look like and feel like, using adjectives. This will allow them to think about what a successful trap should have to be able to catch an animal such as a heffalump, which is shown to be an elephant in the illustration.
Students will then build their trap if possible; if not, they can draw and explain why their trap is the strongest as they present it to the class. This trap will be tested using robotic toys or toy cars.
Character Portraits and Self Portraits
Students will work in their table groups to draw a character from the story. The guiding question would be similar to: “What choices did the character make to solve _____problem?” depending on the story we read. Students will make a character portrait showing the choices that the character makes and the steps s/he takes to solve a problem.
The teacher then provides a real-life problem that students are likely to face either at or outside school. For instance, “Josh and Sam were playing, when suddenly Eric came near the pair and said, ‘No one is playing with me, they are being so inconsiderate.’” Teachers and students read the problem together chorally and use the Think-Pair-Share strategy to discuss what choice would the students make in that situation and what steps can they take to solve the problem. They will draw their self-portrait parallel to the character portrait, and write about the choices they can make and steps they can take to solve this problem.
Ecosystems
The language-art component is integrated through subject areas like science and social studies through the SEAL model. In science, the students at this time would be studying ecosystems. In this unit, the students analyze the lifecycles of different organisms and the effect of the environment on the habitat and the ecosystem of these organisms. Students at this time also do research about the California’s grizzly bears and compare and contrast them to black bears, brown bears, and polar bears. They also analyze the importance of bees as pollinators in an environment.
To bring in the science and the informational aspect of Winnie-the-Pooh, I will read aloud a biographical picture book by Sally M. Walker, Winnie: The True Story of a Bear Who Inspired Winnie-the-Pooh. Students will then compare and contrast the real and the fictional Winnies. The students will watch a video of the London Zoo where Winnie makes an appearance and is eating an orange.
To extend this concept, the students will write their own stories with their favorite toy as a main character and show what choices their character makes to solve a problem in their story.
Bees Are Important for Pooh
Students do research on bees as they work on their opinion writing passages. They will use the close reading strategy to comprehend an article, “Five Ways to Help Our Disappearing Bees,”43 which talks about how “Colony Collapse” is affecting the bee population but we can save bees by using these five ways. Students understand that bees are important pollinators, and disappearing bees would cause decrease in pollination and lack of new plants and flowers and honey.
Students will draw a parallel with Pooh’s honey problems, which is so hard for him to get and our current world problem, honey is too hard to get because of the “colony collapse.” Students will imagine if Pooh were living with us and there was a shortage of honey because of the disappearing bees, how would he react to it. How might he solve this problem? Students will write an opinion passage picking one way that they think Pooh should do to increase the bee population.
Write your Own Pooh Adventure
Students will write their own adventures with Pooh to continue the stories. These stories will be made into an eBook using the Book Creator application on the iPad. They can either type directly into the iPad or take a picture of their written paper and upload into the Book Creator application. This application also has a voice feature that the students can use to dictate their story into. This way they can reinforce reading skills when they write; they will be able to hear their own voice reading it. This gives the students ownership of their work and a sense of pride in their work.
I hope that with this unit I am able to bring in the social skills and values that make my students productive and responsible citizens and ready for the global world. I hope with this unit, along with helping my students be respectful and responsible, I am able to provide a way for my students to enjoy classic literature and explore a world of imagination.
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