Voyage of the Dawn Treader Pre Reading Activities
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader became by far my students' favorite book written report. It took a whole lot of work, but we all had tons of fun. And seeing how our classroom was transformed by the finish of the unit was so much fun!
If I had had to practice everything up front end instead of equally the study went on, I never would take thought I would be able to exercise it all. I wanted to practice several things with this class that I ended upwardly not being able to do. My plans e'er starting time out so grandiose. And and then reality sets in and I don't go it all done. But generally nobody knows that. And in the end, plenty of special things do get done and everybody is happy!
The Centerpiece: The Dawn Treader
This Dawn Treader ship was the first thing I did for my course. I really have no thought how I concluded up implementing this into the class, other than to say I was googling ships and saw a model ship and ran with it.
I got the pattern from a company called Mr. McGroovy'due south Build Magical Memories. The pattern was really made for a pirate send, simply I just tweaked it from pictures based on the Voyage of the Dawn Treader movie.
The Cost
The best part of this is that at the time, the plans were just $4.95! And I ended upward ownership cardboard boxes rather than hunting for them around town. Simply those but toll around $1.50 each.
Everything was so affordable. I really even had the sail textile from an old box of fabric that was given to our family. The paints were purchased at Walmart for less than a dollar a canteen. The waves in the background are but plastic tablecloths from the dollar shop.
So in the terminate, the final cost including the waves was right around $20!
The Time
The fourth dimension factor, nonetheless, was pretty crazy. Fortunately, it was Baronial, so school hadn't started nevertheless and I had some actress time to make information technology happen. It was done in about 10 days of working on it a couple of hours at a time. And honestly, seeing the finished product made information technology all worth it. But seeing the looks on the kids' faces when they came to that first class and saw it at that place–priceless! They were hooked from so on.
The Class Schedule
My class blocks were ii hours long. But we were non getting bored and class fourth dimension was not dragging on! In fact, I establish myself frequently feeling like I needed to rush through some of the material in order to get to everything. And none of the kids were lament either!
Here is what the schedule of the class looked similar:
- Welcome to class, settle in: 5 minutes
- Snack: fifteen minutes
- Game or activity: 20 minutes
- Reading: 15 minutes
- Discussion/worksheets: 20 minutes
- Craft: 30 minutes
- Alternate game or activity: x minutes
- Cleanup, homework, dismissal: 5 minutes
The Breakup
Welcome to Course
This was the nearly magical time of the twenty-four hours. The kids always ran in to run into what the plan was for that twenty-four hour period's class. (Many times the other teachers peeked their heads in to see what was upwardly too!)
Hither they would discover the decorations that themed the class and a large display table. On that table would be a snack, my sample of the craft they would exist doing, and whatever decorations fit in with the theme. Over the course of the book, all of the class crafts would be on the table. Information technology made for an impressive display!
The Table
What fabricated this table and so pregnant was that the kids would try to effigy out the theme of the class based on the nutrient and craft for the solar day. And they would ask what the game was and how it tied in. Everything that was done in that 2-hour cake was based on something in their reading for the twenty-four hours.
What they loved most was trying to guess based on what they were looking at. It was incredible fun for all of us.
Snack
Sometimes this was super easy, other times I had to wrack my brain to effigy out the perfect snack theme to fit with the lesson. Pinterest and Google didn't always come through for me. Sometimes I just had to figure it out.
The obvious outset place to become ideas would be the chapter of the book itself. If at that place was nutrient mentioned in that chapter, and then that was what nosotros were having.
Manipulating a Difficult Theme
But often I had to get more creative. Sometimes I could just jump on Pinterest and search for Voyage of the Dawn Treader Political party. But after the first couple of classes, we burned through those options pretty quickly.
My next source of inspiration was to search for more general terms that yet fit with the story. And then I would search for ship themed political party food, or medieval food served on journeys, or pirate food. Sometimes it was something lion themed if Aslan was in the film. Or mice to symbolize Reepicheep.
And dragons and burn down made bang-up options. We had a processed bowl with hot cinnamon candy for a while. The kids would plough it into a challenge. The signal was always to go along information technology fun for them while tying back to the book at every opportunity.
Game or Activeness
Of course, this was themed likewise. The game could have been Cherry-red Rover except it was the Dragon coming over. Or Voyage of the Dawn Treader Bingo. One of their favorites was ever Sardines. It would be Dawn Treader Sardines for this book. Another ane they did was Lamp Postal service Sardines for The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Yous see the blueprint here.
It was only whatever game I could think of that nosotros could change the theme. Many times the kids would come upwards with a game idea and I would plan it out for the next form.
Whether it was an within or outside game depended on the weather.
Reading
Believe information technology or not, this was one of the course' favorite parts of the form. They were immune to hunker downwardly anywhere in the class that they were comfortable and follow along with the reading in their own books.
The vast majority of the time we used a dramatic reading. It was usually pretty easy to find one because well-nigh of our reading classes focused on popular classics.
But when there wasn't one available, the kids were so used to the dramatic readings, that they really had fun reproducing it themselves in the ones that nosotros had to read as a form.
Sometimes I would read a few pages. And then anybody that wanted to could read for a bit before passing information technology on to another pupil. I e'er had more volunteers than book fourth dimension. And I never chosen out on anyone to read if they didn't desire to. There would be opportunity to draw them out in means they wanted to exist subsequently.
Discussion/Worksheets
This was also some other surprising favorite for the kids. I was thrilled that they responded too to the academic portions of the class equally they did to the fun parts.
I fabricated the discussion worksheets comprehension-based as well as character-based for the sake of making sure they knew well what they were reading, but they were also taking to heart the life lessons.
Their conversations amazed me at times. They could be so perceptive even at middle school age. And every bit the year went on, they became more than and more open with their knowledge, thoughts, and feelings.
One of the problems we had in this section of time was that we often ran out of time because the kids were and so open to word. That is a pretty fabulous problem to have in a middle school classroom!
If y'all would like to see a sample of the worksheets and materials that we used, you can click to this page.
Arts and crafts
This turned out to be a really fun arts and crafts that nosotros made during our Voyage of the Dawn Treader classes. The project took about an hr of painting total spread over two different days/course periods. And I got the frames for them from austerity stores, most of which were $1 or less.
The Supplies
I got the paints and pigment brushes from Michaels. And I used actual acrylic paints rather than the tempera paints that middle school students normally use. Information technology was worth the extra expense for the finished result!
If you have credits that you can use at Michael'southward or your school has a fund, information technology works even improve. What I concluded up doing was ownership several weeks ahead and buying a couple things at a time based on coupons. And considering I started early on enough, I hitting a sale that all acrylic paints were 40-50% off. It worked super well. And I had tons of leftover paints for some other project subsequently!
How We Made it Work
I had already fabricated the painting in a higher place as a sample for the form. Simply I also painted a picture myself along with the kids for those that wanted a step-by-pace guide. I immune the kids to decide if they wanted to follow me or branch out on their own. It was amazing to see all the different paintings in the end. They all did an awesome task!
I also cut and assembled the Dawn Treader ships and then that they would be ready once the pictures were done. I found the blueprint online from a company in Nihon.
As for the waterfall, I used clear silicone calk from my local hardware shop. It stale quickly. I formed it beforehand, then the students painted white pigment on for the waves themselves.
The i thing virtually using the clear silicone calk for the waterfall is that over time it does turn yellow (a couple of years). A better option would be to employ the water textile used in model railroad train sets. But at $20 a jar, information technology would have cost $xl just for the waterfall for my whole class to use information technology.
The Cleanup
Considering our cake of time was and then tightly scheduled, sometimes the majority of the cleanup barbarous on me later course was over, at to the lowest degree for the larger craft projects. (The smaller craft projects were only fine for the kids to clean upward.) This will not work if you lot have back to dorsum classes or no interruption correct after this particular block of time.
Sometimes, when some of the students finished earlier the others, I could have them pick up some of the mess. This did aid greatly. I besides had some parents that came in to help out with the more advanced crafts. So cleanup was fashion easier for those classes considering the parents more often than not know how to help clean upwards intuitively.
This will work well for you on ii levels: you will take hands-on help throughout the craft time and you lot will have quick clean-up aid.
Alternate Game or Action
For the days that the arts and crafts was not so heavily involved, we could spend the last few minutes of the class doing one more than fun activeness or game.
The one thing that I did here that was a departure from the plan was that it was rarely themed to the book. The only times that I stuck to the theme were when the kids loved the first game and then much that we continued it or played another round at the stop.
The Motivation Behind the Game
This game time was a smashing way to become the kids to finish upwardly their crafts and make clean up without feeling like I was chirapsia them over the head to get it done. They were pretty self motivated because they knew in that location was notwithstanding more than fun to be had. Commonly while we were working on the craft, the terminal game/activity would come up in conversation. There were ever a couple of kids who made sure to enquire what was adjacent every week.
How we Decided
Since the game served the purpose of making the time work, there were a couple of ways we decided how to do it. First, the block of time for it is only 10 minutes. Then in that location wasn't a lot of time to figure out and explain the game. It had to be something we could get correct to.
Generally I allow the kids telephone call out what game they wanted to play. As the twelvemonth went on, they came up with ideas more quickly. They usually picked a favorite standard.
Another option I did was to get the impromptu game idea box out. You can read more about that in this article. To get correct to what I am talking nigh, only skip to betoken 10.
With the game idea box, the kids or I could pick out a quick game and exist playing in virtually a minute. There is no prep or cleanup then it fits perfectly in the x minute time slot.
One of the best benefits of it is that information technology gives the kids a little bit of time to decompress subsequently a whirlwind 2 hour block of crazy learning.
Casual Conversation Encouraged!
In the vast majority of my grade time, the students are encouraged to collaborate. It has rarely been too chaotic to be productive. And when those times happen, it was pretty like shooting fish in a barrel to rein things back in.
I tin can't even tell you the value of assuasive this. I know that it can't be done in all academic sessions. But in this example information technology works out then amazingly well. The students give you an verbal blueprint of how they are understanding the cloth. And you get a glimpse of how they are feeling and what they are thinking.
The icing on the cake is that they experience appreciated for who they are and what they do and remember in course. And that makes them go confident in who they are every bit people exterior of the classroom. You lot can't teach that kind of emotional health in a book!
Cleanup/Homework/Dismissal
Most of the cleanup has already been washed at this point. So now all yous really need to do is have the kids go their stuff together that they are taking dwelling with them. You tin can laissez passer their homework out at this time as well (more on the homework in a minute). The biggest focus here is probably on straightening out desks, tables, chairs, and cleaning upward extra trash on the flooring.
Homework
For homework, I generally had almost v-6 dissimilar worksheets planned out per affiliate of the book we were working on (meet a sample of this here). There made worksheets with puzzles, or various worksheets for them to reply questions nearly the text. Or some worksheets focused on how they felt most a certain part of the chapter. Every affiliate had a worksheet to focus on drawing a picture show based on how they thought things were playing out in the book. And every chapter had a worksheet with an essay starter to get them thinking creatively. Finally, there was ever a Bible Study worksheet, allowing people who wanted to focus on religious issues to do and so.
The Reward
With all of these options, I would circulate the homework assignment so it was always something new and different (and fun). And I did the whole homework thing a scrap differently. Information technology was not required for the program. I gave them extra credit for doing the homework if they brought it back to me. The reward was Narnia dollars for Voyage of the Dawn Treader. And the amount of homework that was returned to me was phenomenal!
For more on my dollar reward program and cease of book party, click here. It is in indicate viii if you would similar to skip correct to the relevant fabric.
I will admit that this dollar program and the reward program that it culminates with is pretty labor intensive. But spread over the time of the whole book it isn't also hard. It does take mindfulness and planning. Just once you have washed it, it is so much easier the next fourth dimension effectually and following. And I can't tell you how much the kids appreciate it!
Conclusion
And then this is the format of my Voyage of the Dawn Treader class in a nutshell. One of my favorite things most making my classes work out this way is that even my detest-to-read students are loving the grade and the reading fourth dimension by the end of the first quarter.
And that pretty much makes my job with them the best that it can be.
I would love to hear what you have done to brand your class wonderful for you and your students together! Feel free to comment!
Source: https://completeliterature.com/voyage-of-the-dawn-treader/
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