Get Your Kicks on Route 66

I know that I love a good road trip now and then, but one thing I haven't done is take a trip on Route 66. To me, it has always symbolized a new found freedom Americans felt and an overall feeling of happiness once the Great Depression and World War II subsided. More Americans were able to afford cars and to travel. One of our guided reading groups recently read a book titled, "Route 66" and wanted more information. I found this great website that ties in facts and pictures of the road's attractions with fitness.  It's called www.PaceTrek.com and my students just loved it!

I especially recommend the slideshow that plays the song "Get Your Kicks on Route 66" along with pictures from the famous road.

Younger kids may recognize Route 66 from the Disney Movie Cars. You can get more information to read, download and print coloring pages, and watch videos at this Interstate Highway Project Resources Page.

Emily Priddy has created a great free guidebook to Route 66 for kids that you can download for free! Just click on the image below.

You can also download a free Route 66 worksheet by clicking on the image.

Just remember...life is a highway!

Meeting Patricia Polacco!!!

Today, Patricia Polacco visited our school! She has been going to schools in New Jersey for several days and got laryngitis three days ago, but she was still a great sport.

She told us how she comes up with her illustrations...

and even brought her Keeping Quilt! This one is actually a replica created to replace her 130 year old family heirloom, which is now displayed at a museum in Finlay, Ohio.

She told us about her uses of the quilt as a child, including one not mentioned in the book....she used it as a Superman cape!

She said that when she misses a family member, all she has to do is touch parts of the quilt (such as the edge, which was made from her Babushka's scarf) or read a book she has written about them...and they come alive again!

To see what we did to prepare for her visit and read other Polacco posts, click here. If you've never read her books or met her, you can watch this video, where she explains how she became an author and illustrator.

Click here for more Patricia Polacco videos on her website.

Meteor!

Today, we read Meteor. Tomorrow, we meet Patricia Polacco! This was the first book she ever wrote, and it's based on a true story about a meteor that fell from the sky into her grandparents' backyard. Since we just finished up our astronomy unit, my students thought that it was the coolest thing ever. 

Did you know that Patricia and her hometown hold a Meteor Festival every year in July in Michigan?! You get to visit Meteor Ridge Farm, 

see where the meteor landed in her grandparents' backyard when she was a child, 

eat "Thunder Cupcakes" (Have you read Thundercake?! That was my first Polacco book), visit Patricia's Art Studio, 

the Graves House,

and the GAW Center for Arts. You also can listen to Patricia talk about her life and books. Admission is only $10 for adults and free for kids under 12. You can see pictures from the Meteor Festival here.

I promised my students that I'd post pictures of meteors I saw over spring break at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC. They're pretty large and come in many colors and shapes!

The Keeping Quilt

We just finished reading The Keeping Quilt by Patricia Polacco. It's a touching story of her family's journey to America and their celebrations that have occurred with the quilt, from weddings to births to deaths. 

Since she's visiting our school on Friday, (I can't believe it's so soon either!) we made a class quilt out of pictures students had drawn since we started reading her books. Here are a few of the "squares" we made.

and her is most of our quilt:

The Butterfly

In preparation for our butterfly study, we read Patricia Polacco's The Butterfly. It's an account of the Holcaust from the point of view of a child - Patricia's great-aunt Monique - in France as she helps Jews escape and hide. Monique becomes friends with a girl named Severine, who is hiding in her cellar with her family. The butterfly in the story symbolizes freedom, as the girls pray that Severine and her parents may one day return to their normal lives. Eventually, Severine must leave Monique's home as their cover has been blown. She loses her parents to a Nazi concentration camp, but survives and reunites with her long lost friend.

Here is a clip from a play that was adapted from the book:

We watched this YouTube Monarch Butterfly video

as well as this time lapse video of a butterfly emerging from its crysalis.

We created these cute butterfly life cycle plates that I started making with my class years ago. (This pic is from Somewhat Simple though. Click the pic to see how to make them!

We also created symmetric butterflies.

Butterfly Quiz