Journey

Alyssia, Kaylee, Bri, I created a mini novel unit together covering the theme of journey that was apparent throughout the novel Becoming Naomi Leon by Pam Munoz Ryan. We very quickly decided that this was a great book for us to focus our unit on because we all found parts of it that we were able to connect to. We decided to focus on the theme of journey because of the events that Naomi experiences in this novel.

For English/Language arts, we would have our students write another chapter talking about the year following where the story ends. We would also talk about collective nouns since Naomi Leon writes many different lists of collective nouns in her journal.

For Social Studies, we would look at how to read maps. We would also compare and contrast the holidays celebrated in different parts of the world. Students would learn about the climate and physical features in California and Mexico.

For Reading, our students would read Rosita and the Night of the Radishes by Dorothy Thurgood Manning to learn more about the Night of the Radishes.

For Math, our students would figured out the distance Naomi Leon traveled and calculate the miles she traveled from California to Mexico.

For Science, we would learn about growing plants and trees such as avocados, radishes, and lemons. We would also talk about the sun and how it cast shadows over the trees, and how it changes depending on the time of the day relating this to the kids playing in the avocado grove throughout the day.

For Art, our students would try soap carving, radish carving, and make their own journal to make lists.

For Music, we would have our students develop a school appropriate playlist for the drive from California to Mexico.

I was most excited for our culminating project. Our students would create their own mini travel blog for the journey from California to Mexico. Students would blog about their reason for the trip. They would choose what vehicle they want and find out its gas mileage. They would then use this to find out how much they would spend in gas. Students would create a map marking the path they would travel with fun places they will see throughout the journey.

We had so many different ideas for our mini novel unit. We had such a fun time creating this mini unit and could have kept writing ideas. I think that this mini unit could easily be implemented in our future classrooms.


To read some travel blogs that will inspire you to hit the road, click here.


Social Studies Blog Post #8