At a time when most African Americans were slaves, Benjamin Banneker was born free in 1731. Known and admired for his work in science, mathematics, and astronomy, he built a strike clock based on his own drawings and using a pocket-knife at the age of 22. The resource includes a lesson plan/book card, a design challenge, and copy of a design thinking journal that provide guidance on using the book to inspire students' curiosity for design thinking. Maker Challenge: Find a discarded object that can be taken apart. Take apart the item and make your own Things Come Apart arrangement.

A document is included in the resources folder that lists the complete standards-alignment for this book activity.

In order to show the world that the completed Brooklyn Bridge was strong enough, P.T. Barnum and his twenty-one elephants parade across to prove to everyone that the bridge is safe. The resource includes a lesson plan/book card, a design challenge, and copy of a design thinking journal that provide guidance on using the book to inspire students' curiosity for design thinking. Maker Challenge: Build a bridge between two tables or chairs that will hold one elephant per student in the class. Each student designs their own “elephant” using materials in the classroom.

A document is included in the resources folder that lists the complete standards-alignment for this book activity.

Lonnie Johnson tried to create a new cooling system for refrigerators and air conditioners, but instead created the mechanics for one of the top twenty toys of all time, the Super Soaker. From childhood to adulthood, Lonnie had a love for rockets, robots, inventions, and a mind for creativity. He was driven toward innovation through his persistence and passion for problem solving, tinkering, and building. These traits served him well as we went on to work for NASA as an engineer. The resource includes a lesson plan/book card, a design challenge, and copy of a design thinking journal that provide guidance on using the book to inspire students' curiosity for design thinking. Maker Challenge: Students will use materials on hand to invent and design a new toy or game.

A document is included in the resources folder that lists the complete standards-alignment for this book activity.

Emma Lilian Todd was a self-taught engineer who tackled one of the greatest challenges of the early 1900s: designing an airplane. As an adult, typing up patents at the U.S. Patent Office, Lilian built inventions in her mind, including many designs for flying machines. However, they all seemed too impractical. Lilian knew she could design one that worked. She took inspiration from both nature and her many failures, driving herself to perfect the design that would eventually successfully fly. The resource includes a lesson plan/book card, a design challenge, and copy of a design thinking journal that provide guidance on using the book to inspire students' curiosity for design thinking. Maker Challenge: Design a new mode of transportation (air, sea, or ground) or select a current mode of transportation and improve it then use household items to create a prototype of your new or updated invention.

A document is included in the resources folder that lists the complete standards-alignment for this book activity.

Zaha Hadid grew up in Baghdad, Iraq, and dreamed of designing her own cities. After studying architecture in London, she opened her own studio and started designing buildings. But as a Muslim woman, Hadid faced many obstacles. Determined to succeed, she worked hard for many years, and achieved her goals—and now you can see the buildings Hadid has designed all over the world. The resource includes a lesson plan/book card, a design challenge, and copy of a design thinking journal that provide guidance on using the book to inspire students' curiosity for design thinking. Maker Challenge: Identify an area in your school that is very traditional. Redesign it to better fit the needs of the end-users. Then sketch out a new design, and then create a physical prototype of the new design to scale.

A document is included in the resources folder that lists the complete standards-alignment for this book activity.

The students will work with a partner on a "scavenger hunt" for fairy tales.  They will use their personal Raz Kids account to look for fairy tales to read.  They will use a graphic organizer to review the stories and find/list the different components of fairy tales.  After learning the key characteristics of a fairy tale, the students will write their own fairy tale. This fairy tale will include at least four out of the seven key characteristics found in fairy tales.  According to the writing goals of the Common Core state standards, the students should be able to write narratives that include a sequence of events, characters' thoughts and feelings as well as details to describe actions.  This lesson will occur over a course of several days. I will spend time during each Writer's Workshop block to check in with each student to ensure that they are using their graphic organizer and knowledge of fairy tales to compose their own story.

In this unit, students continue to explore the characteristics of chapter books by reading and engaging with the beginning chapter book series Zapato Power. Building off of what students learned in Unit 2, Pinky and Rex, students will explore what it means for two people to be friends and how friends are able to help each other by examining the somewhat unusual friendship between Freddie and Mr. Vaslov, an older man who lives and works in Freddie’s apartment building. Over the course of the unit students will also be challenged to think about what it means to be a superhero, and the differences between using “super” powers and brain power to solve problems. It is important to note that these books are part of a beginning chapter book series; therefore, there are aspects of the plot that are less developed or not as powerful as other books that students read in the progression. The chapter book series does, however, introduce students to a male Hispanic protagonist, something that is often missing from children’s literature, and helps students explore similar themes and topics from other units with texts that are accessible. It is our hope that this unit, in connection with other units from the sequence, will set students up for success in reading and understanding longer chapter books.

This unit should be done predominately as shared or independent reading; therefore, this unit gives students a chance to practice the reading skills they have developed in previous units. Similar to with Pinky and Rex, students will be challenged to think about how authors develop characters over the course of a single text and how that understanding builds as they read more books in a series about the same characters. Particularly, students will focus on character motivation and what motivates both of the main characters, Freddie and Mr. Vaslov. Students will also begin to notice the different types of descriptive language authors include, specifically figurative language, and how figurative language helps a reader better understand characters and how they are feeling. Finally, students will begin to notice how chapter titles are a clue for what is important in a chapter and can be used to guide retells and summaries of the key events within a chapter.