UNIT AND THEME STUDIES
IDEAS FOR PROJECTS AND RESEARCH
 101
Activities for English Language Learning: Content-based Ideas with Easy Internet
RE-sources by Charles F. Hirsch and Deborah Lazarus. A Rigby Press
publication. Portions for classroom use only are reproducible. This book will be
useful for those who teach English language learners from grades 1-4 in a
variety of different settings. It provides content-based learning, thematic
organization of activities, flexible selections that work with a variety of
learning styles and classroom settings, and tips on effective navigation and use
of the Internet. Unit themes include I Like Me; We've Got the Whole World;
Working Together; From City to City; From 1 to 100; Weather and Seasons; Big,
Little, Light, Heavy; Yesterday and Today; Earth and Space; Growing Things;
Critters and Creatures; and Celebrations. This should prove to be a valuable
resource to those who have English language learners in their classes who who
teach bi-lingual education. RBTY-73469. $14.36-D
 Chocolate
Thematic Unit by Janna Reed.
Teacher Created Resources, 2005. For grades
3-5. Books used in this study include The Chocolate Touch by Patrick S.
Catling; Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by
Roald Dahl; and Vanilla,
Chocolate, and Strawberry by Bonnie Busenberg. Besides all the literature
related activities, there are writing and poetry activities and cross-curricular
activities in the fields of language arts, math, science, social studies,
art, and life skills. The culminating activity is Chocolate Town, related
to Milton Hershey. A bibliography is included, as well as an answer key.
Reproducible. 80 pages. BTH-2566. $8.99-D Click
on image to enlarge it.
 Family Tapestry
by Barbara Yamamoto. Dandy Lion Publications, 1998. This book goes way beyond helping students make a family tree. It helps
students look into their family histories, immigration, and their heredity. As students
explore these areas, they learn more about what was involved in the process of immigrating
to America. They also learn biological principles of heredity. Most important of all, they
discover what makes their family unique and what choices their ancestors made that affect
them today. Then they are asked to think through how the choices they make today will
affect their descendents. 64 pages.
This book is reproducible and is best used for grades 5-8. $10.76-D
Guides to History Plus, a Design-a-Study book by Kathryn Stout. This book helps
you make your own unit study for an exciting and thorough look at any historical period,
civilization or event using the books from your own or the public library. A section on
activities helps you integrate your history and geography with the other subjects. The
book includes geography references, map skills, reproducible maps, and instructions for
making your own timeline. This newer version has added detailed grade 6-12 objectives for
social studies listed by topic: history, geography, government, and economics. Questions
and topics for discussion or composition provide practice in analysis. It also includes
titles of fiction, games, and movies on video arranged by period and topic to supplement
grade 6-12 studies of geography, American, and world history.
Cat. #1521, $14.00* Older version without the extra materials for classroom teachers still
available for limited time for 9.00*
How to Create Your Own Unit Study
by Valerie Bendt. This is the original spiral edition. There may be some light wear to the
cover. These are only still available until the present supply is gone. Explains the unit
study approach and reviews some math and phonics curriculum materials. Discusses schedules
and routines; getting started; and using the library, games and teaching aids, and
dictation and copying. Explains the importance of writing, evaluates the usefulness of
projects, and directs in choosing your units of study. There are some ideas for
record-keeping and some sample unit studies. Cat. # CSP421. $12.75-D
HANDS-ON
HERITAGE SERIES: Brings country studies to life with games, crafts, recipes,
and other activities that get students physically involved.
 Inventions, Inventors, and You by
Diane Drazw. A Dandy Lion Publication: This useful book
takes inventions out of the history book and brings them to life in the classroom. A
unique combination of research and creativity training allows students to explore how our
lives have been affected by inventions while they build their own creative skills. This
book offers something for every teaching and learning style. It provides ideas for
directed lessons, warm up questions, learning centers, reproducible worksheets, individual
project ideas, and an inventions reference list. There are several concepts presented in
this book that are repeated in the lessons, worksheets and projects. Some of these
concepts are:
- characteristics and abilities of inventors
- all developments build on previous ones
- techniques for creative thinking and inventing
- how inventions influence our lives
- what inventions are worthwhile
- where ideas come form
- inventions are a result of problems that need
to be solved
- A unit on inventions and inventing is a unit on
thinking. This guide gives you the tools to implement this thought-provoking unit easily
in your classroom. For grades 3-7. Cat. BTH-591. $10.76-D
Investigator by Jan Wishau,
produced by Dandy Lion Publications. For grades 4-7. If your students meet
the challenge of research projects with dread rather than enthusiasm, it may be that they
are overwhelmed by the task. With this step-by-step guide for completing and presenting an
in-depth research project students will develop research skills as they gather
information, organize their ideas, and communicate their information via an oral
presentation and a written report. They will learn how to use:
- library resources
- select a research topic
- write a business letter
- write a biography
- conduct an interview
- take a survey
- make a speech.
The end result is not only a polished presentation of
an individually selected topic of study but also research and presention skills they can
use in future learning projects. This clear format fosters independent research and leads
to successful projects every time. Cat. #DL-39. $8.96-D
 Jury Trials in the
Classroom by Betty M. See. For grades 5-8. This book contains six trial
simulations that encourage students to delve into criminal and civil law with cases
that mirror situations in literature -- Miss Muffet, Hansel and Gretel, Little Red Riding
Hood, Jack and Jill, Romeo and Juliet -- and in history -- the assassination of Abraham
Lincoln. Students will play the attorneys, defendants, witnesses, jury members, and
courtroom personnel. They will use statements of fact and witness affidavits to simulate a
trial and determine guilt or innocence. Participation in these realistic jury trials will
motivate students to exercise their reasoning skills, improve their communication skills,
and apply their knowledge of the legal system. The jury trials can enhance course in both
language arts and civics. The book begins by laying a foundation of knowledge about the
judicial systems and courts in the United States. Student pages are reproducible for
classroom use. 159 pages. BTH-584. $20.66-D
 Mystery
Disease by Mark A. Bohland. For grades 5-8. A serious illness is
sweeping through the small community of Jamestown. Why are all these people sick? Where
did they catch the disease? Student take the role of public health workers as they track
down the source of the illness. This problem-based unit combines science, social studies,
math, research, group collaboration, and communication as students work in teams to solve
he problem and present their findings. This unit should be very relevant to students who
are hearing about new diseases on the media quite frequently now. Student pages are
reproducible for classroom use. 88 pages. BTH-23. $11.66-D
 Mystery Science: Case of the
Missing Lunch by Connie Gatlin. For grades 3-5. As students enter the
classroom, they will notice something is amiss. As they view the area cordoned off with
tape, they will discover several lunch boxes, an empty thermos, a white powder, cookie
crumbs, and footprints. This is the beginning of a crime scene investigation that requires
experimentation and critical thinking to solve. Students will use chemistry, observation,
and analysis of the scientific data, and also personal information about the four suspects
to determine who stole the cookies and milk out of one of the lunches. As they work on
solving the mystery, students will find real-world applications for science concepts.
Contained in this book are a brief introduction, a story that introduces
the mystery, a map of the crime scene, a list of materials, directions for each crime lab,
statements made by the suspects, detailed instructions for the preparation and set-up of
each lab, a list of possible vocabulary or spelling words for the mystery, and an
explanation of what happened. There are step by step instructions for the teacher on how
to prepare and complete the activity. This can't be used as a time filler or be
haphazardly thrown together. It does require careful preparation, but it will be fun for
the students as a chance of pace in science and problem solving. Student materials are
reproducible for classroom use. 48 pages. BTH-425. $9.87-D
 On Trial: A Criminal Trial Simulation --
The Case Against the Big Bad Wolf by Margaret Schweitzer. This clever simulation that teaches about the workings of the
trial system puts the Big Bad Wolf on trial for destroying the pigs' houses. While you may
think you know what happened in this fairy tale, by assuming roles and using the
non-scripted character profiles, students present information that has you wondering if
the wolf is guilty or innocent. A jury of classmates will decide. This intriguing unit
teaches not only about the judicial system but also develops communication, cooperation
and evaluative skills. The easy-to-use unit gives you complete instructions for
staging the simulation (including questions for pre-trial and post-trial discussions),
vocabulary, reproducible pages to inform students of the trail procedures and their roles
and profiles that present information from the various witnesses' perspectives. This is a
motivating unit to use with literature studies, a thinking skills course or a unit on the
judicial system. For grades 4-6.Click on image to enlarge.
Cat.#BTH-592. $9.86-D
 Quick
Learning Kits: Art and Literature, by Linda Milliken. Edupress. Contains 40
easy-to-make literature based activity kits for grades 2-5. Introduces children to a
variety of art experiences. There are tie-ins with such books as The Me I See
(Hazen), Rembrandt Takes a Walk (Strand), If I Were
a Penguin (Gibbons), Ed Emberley's Great Thumbprint Drawing
Book, Build a Doodle (Armstrong), Green Says Go
(Emberley), The Collage Book (Tofts), Circles;Crescents;
Squares; Triangles (Mavis), Color Zoo (Ehlert), The
Plaid Cow (Brock), Alphabatics (MacDonald), Seasons
on the Farm (Miller), Feathers for Lunch (Ehlert),
Drawing from Nature (Arnosky), Lunch
(Fleming), Arrow to the Sun (McDermott), The Sandman
(Shepherson), Liang and the Magic Paintbrush
(Demi), Stone Soup (Ross), The Fortune Tellers (Alexander),
Eating the Alphabet (Ehlert), Lift-the-Flap Book of
Animal Fun(Campbell), Everyone Knows What a Dragon Looks Like (Williams),
Nice or Nasty (Butterworth), The Patchwork Quilt (Flournoy),
The Hippopotamus Song (Flanders and Swann), The Rosy
Fat Magenta Radish (Wolf), Animals Should Definitely Not Wear
Clothing (Barrett), The Snail's Spell (Ryder), Pets
in a Jar (Simon), How Many Bugs in a Box? and More
Bugs in Boxes (Carter), Hanimals (Mariotti), Somebody
and the Three Blairs (Tolhurst), The Great Treasure Hunt
(Russo), and Stick Horse (Raney). Cat.
# EP-004. $8.06-D
 Quick Learning Kits: Language and Social Studies,
by Linda Milliken. Edupress. Contains 40 easy-to-make literature based activity kits for
grades 2-5. Contains activities that involve listening and following instructions, memory
skills, finding new uses for familiar things, salesmanship with persuavise speech, using
recipes on boxes to learn to write directions on recipes cards, making associations
between various objects, learning new words through dictionary digs, practicing addressing
envelopes, using junk mail as the basis of a writing activity, hatching stories from
plastic eggs, putting characters in unsual setting to spark story ideas, experimetning
with different way to tell time, learning more about archaeology though a classroom
"dig," learning how animals use camouflage, and many more. Literature links
include such books as How a House Happens (Adkins), A Dig in Time (Griffin), Up, Up, and
Away (Heller),Amimalia (Base), Steven Caney's Invention Book (Caney), Sugar Ships
(Parsley), Bea and Mr. Jones (Schwartz), Max Malone Makes a Million! (Herman), Some Things
Go Together (Zolotow), Amos and Boris (Steig), Much Bigger than Martin (Kellogg),Six by
Seuss (Dr. Seuss), The Spelling Bee (Gordon), Dear Mr. Henshaw (Cleary), Free Stuff for
Kids, Meanwhile Back at the Ranch (Noble), Sheep in a Shop (Shaw), Eight Ate (Terban),
Rain (Spier), Arthur's Nose (Brown),Children are Children are Children (Cole, Heller, et
all), Sayonara, Mrs. Kackleman (Kalman), Evening Meal (Watson), Ben and Me (Lawson), All
Year Long (Tafuri), Knots on a Counting Rope (Martin), Too Clever to See (Taylor),
Nature's Tricksters (Lovejoy), Crafty Chameleon (Hadithi), Animals Build Amazing
Homes(Santoro), Everybody Needs a Rock (Baylor), Sneakers Meet Your Feet (Cobb), Goat in
the Rug (Blood and Link), How to Tape Instant Oral Biographies (Zimmerman), Henry the
Explorer (Booth), Henry's World Tour (Quackenbush), You Cheat? (Gilson), Presidential
Elections (Children's Press), Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle (MacDonald), Where Does the Sun Go at
Night? (Ginsburg), The Little House (Burton), The Ocean (Deming, Oceans (Simon), Digging
Up Dinosaurs (Aliki), and Tales Mummies Tell (Lauber). Cat. # EP-005. $8.06-D
 Quick Learning Kits: Language and Social Studies,
by Linda Milliken. Edupress. Contains 40 easy-to-make literature based activity kits for
grades 2-5. For math,students work with geometric shapes, patterns, geoboards, place
value, time, money, area and size; learn to predict answers based on data collection,
measure and balance, recognize and draw angles and more. Science activities
include making a simple magnifying lens, experimenting with water, creating a rainbow,
producing friction, determining density, using jumping and bouncing balls to understand
gravity, creating a mini-planetarium, discovering how sound travels and how mirrors
produce images, and more. Literature links include Jump, Frog, Jump! (Kalan), Amazing Look
Through Book (Emberley), How Much is Million? (Schwartz), The Doorbell Rang
(Hutchins), In the Future (Stewart), How Pizza Came to Queens (Kaur), Anno's Counting
House (Anno), A Minute is a Minute (Neasi), The Tomorrow Book (Schwerin), Chicken Bucks
(Sharpe), The Invitation ( Smee), Science Fun With A Flashlight (Sherman), The Balancing
Girl (Rabe), In the Night Kitchen (Sendak), Farmer Mack Measures His Pig (Johnston), City
(Macaulay), Eating Fractions (McMillan), Something BIG Has Been Here (Prelustsky), Kitchen
Chemistry (Gardner), Air is All Around You (Branley), The Listening Walk (Showers), Who is
the Beast? (Baker), Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (Barrett), Scuffy the Tugboat
(Crampton), The Magic School Bus: Lost in the Solar System (Cole), Gravity is a Mystery
(Madden), The Sky is Full of Stars (Bond), Mushroom in the Rain (Ginsburg), The King Who
Rained (Gwynne), First Flight (McPhail), Amazing Magnets (Catherall), and many more. Cat.
# EP-006. $8.06-D
 Success
with Unit Studies, A How To Book by Valerie Bendt, Common Sense Press.
Chapter headings are
- What are Unit Studies Anyway?
- Research
- Reading
- Writing
- Recording
- Reporting
- Resources
The appendix contains sample charts and diagrams to help you plan your study. The
author has included some blank ones you have permission to reproduce to help you get
organized. 88 pages. The author has written notes of inspiration and experience in the
very wide margins. There's plenty of room left for your own notes. BTH-4813. $14.50-D
 Talent
Scout: Units for Developing Multiple Talents by Carolyn Powell. For
grades 4-6. This resource helps nurture all of the multiple intelligences in the
curriculum. It contains 24 units covering a wide variety of topics, each with a different
activity for each of the seven intelligences. There is also a section with instructions
for teachers who want to tailor activities to their specific subjects or needs. The
activities can be done as half or whole day festivals as the conclusion of a unit, used in
learning centers or in small group or individual enrichment projects. Answers are
included. 63 pages. BTH-573. $10.76-D
 Three
Cheers for Series for Grades 1-2; The monthly titles in
this series link activities to state and national standards and also meet
accreditation standards for child-created bulletin boards. The activities follow
the school calendar and reflect the philosophy that children have different
learning styles. The activities are based on the research of Howard Gardner,
whose theory of multiple intelligences validates teaching thematically and using
a variety of approaches to help children learn. For more specific information on
the individual titles and pricing,
please click here.
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 Understanding Advertising:
History, Persuasion Techniques, Mass Media, Target Audiences, Ad Creation by
Katherine Howe and Judith Edelstein. Produced by Dandy Lion Publications.
- Squeezed between the covers of this book is a tantalizing unit designed to increase
students' understanding of the advertising pressures they face everyday and also give them
opportunities to create their own ads. Learn how advertisements appeal to human needs,
persuasion techniques used, advertisements in different media, and what makes
advertisements effective - useful information for everyone. Learning to analyze
advertising is an important skill in today's world where children and adults alike are
bombarded with an endless stream of TV and radio ads, not to mention those in magazines
and newspapers -- and those in-your-face ads in email and on the Internet.
Includes: detailed group lessons, worksheets, and special projects, reproducible for
classroom use. 48 pages. For grades 4-6. Cat.# DL-129. $9.86-D
Unit Study Journal: Record Keeping for All Unit Studies, by Amanda Bennett. Gives the teacher a place to record resources for the study,
questions students have, field trips, assignments, and a daily log. Cat. #1561, $7.19-D
 Using Picture Books with Older Students,
Book 1 by Joyce Roberts and Tammy Hall. Produced by Dandy Lion.
Publications.
- Bring the literary joy and visual delight of picture
books into your intermediate or middle school classroom. This is the first in a two-book
series. Each book contains three units, each covering a different theme using four dynamic
books. This book includes:
-
- Caring for the Earth (The Great Kapok Tree, A
River Ran Wild, City Green, Just a Dream)
- Bridges Across Generations (The
Patchwork Quilt, The Old, Old Man and the Very Little Boy, Grandpa's Song, Sachiko Means
Happiness)
- Who are the Homeless? (Fly Away Home, A Rose
for Abby, Space Travelers, Working Cotton).
- Designed to integrate literature, thinking skills and
the creative arts, the units use Bloom's taxonomy and Gardner's seven intelligences to
create activities that students will gladly complete. Each study guide includes high-level
thinking questions, creative activities, and a reproducible worksheet. Each unit is
completed with thematic culminating activities and a bibliography of related books. 64
pages. For grades 5-8. Cat. #DL-104. $9.86-D
 Using
Picture Books with Older Students, Book 2 by Joyce Roberts and Tammy Hall.
Produced by Dandy Lion. Publications. This is the second
in a two-part series. Each of the two books contains three units, each covering a
different theme using four dynamic books. This book includes:
- Bridging Cultures (O Canada, This Land is My
Land, Tree of Cranes, The Keeping Quilt)
- Times of Pain (My Hiroshima, Rose
Blanche, Now Let Me Fly, The Bracelet)
- Times of Healing (The Wall, Smoky Night,
Sadako, Let the Celebrations Begin!).
- Designed to integrate literature, thinking skills and
the creative arts, the units use Bloom's taxonomy and Gardner's seven intelligences to
create activities that students will gladly complete. Each study guide includes high-level
thinking questions, creative activities, and a reproducible worksheet. Each unit is
completed with thematic culminating activities and a bibliography of related books. 64
pages. For grades 5-8. Cat. #DL-105. $9.86-D
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