Grades 3-5
Writing About Time Travel
Grades: 3-5
Brief Description: Students are introduced to the art of writing about time travel. They will hear about the author’s writing process as she reads the story aloud, and they will have a chance to ask questions. Children will learn about the essential elements of story construction while examining examples from The Lost Locket of Lewes and The Magic Tree House series. A group activity allows children to select main components for a time travel story they can write later in class or on their own.
Duration: approximately 60 minutes
Accompanying Text: The Lost Locket of Lewes and references to the Magic Tree House Series
Finding the Story Arc
Grades: 3-5
Brief Description: Students will learn about the narrative components of a story and how the author creates an arc. They will identify these components as the author reads the story aloud, and the children will have a chance to ask questions. They can outline the arc of a story they are thinking about writing. This can be done in pairs or as a solo activity.
Duration: approximately 60 minutes
Accompanying Text: The Great Explosion, A Powder Mill Chronicle
Researching and Constructing Historical Fiction
Grades: 3-5
Brief Description: Students will learn about historical fiction and the role that facts play in formulating a fictitious story. The author will conduct a discussion about primary and secondary sources and demonstrate how she conducted her own research. She will read The Lost Locket of Lewes aloud sharing factual information about the 19th century and indicating where facts anchored the text. Students can then select a primary source available at home, at school, or some other location nearby that they could research. This can be done in pairs or as a solo activity.
Duration: approximately 60 minutes
Accompanying Text: The Lost Locket of Lewes
Life on the Reservation of the Blackfeet Nation and the role of bison
Grades: 3-5
Brief Description: Students will learn about life today on the Reservation of the Blackfeet Nation in Browning, Montana. The author will show slides from her author’s visit to a middle school on the reservation and her experience on a school field trip where she learned about the tribe’s longstanding veneration of bison. Students will see footage of modern children reenacting a bison run. Students should come away with a new understanding of life on a modern reservation and several of the traditions that are central to student experiences there.
Duration: approximately 60 minutes
Accompanying Text: Buddy Bison’s Yellowstone Adventure
