Chickadee

Ideas for using the Chickadee Award books with your class this year:

The Branch

Since we just recently had a major storm, students will be given an opportunity to share their stories as they relate to the book. Also show news coverage of past major Maine storms. Some examples:

2013 Ice Storm: https://bangordailynews.com/2013/12/23/news/state/some-mainers-may-not-have-power-until-friday-as-utility-crews-fight-losing-battle-against-ice/

1998 Ice Storm: https://www.mainememory.net/artifact/33981?popup=1

2017 Wind Storm: http://www.pressherald.com/2017/10/30/wind-storm-batters-maine-knocking-trees-power-lines/

What would you make from a broken tree limb? Have students write or draw their responses, or create a large tree bulletin board and have each student write their response on a branch.

A Hat for Mrs Goldman

Make pompoms: http://www.handimania.com/diy/2-incredible-ways-to-make-yarn-pom-poms.html

materials: plastic forks, scissors, lots of yarn

Video showing knitting close-up:

Casting on starts around 2:30 and knitting starts around 6:00

For younger students: Play Action Hats http://www.preschoolexpress.com/toddler_station07/hats_mar07.shtml

Give each child a hat (or a printout of a hat to hold) and have them act out what the person who wears that type of hat might do. Example: baseball cap, student will pantomime throwing a ball and swinging a bat.

Good resources for hat clipart: Open Clipart, My-Cute-Graphics, Wikimedia Commons

Dear Dragon:

Write to the author or illustrator as a class

https://www.joshfunkbooks.com/form

Dragon Eye craft: If you have supply money available, this is a neat craft to consider. http://craftyourhappiness.com/2015/09/08/dragon-eyes-dragon-craft/

Make a huge handprint dragon. The idea at the link below could definitely be scaled up to fit any number of handprints. You could include responses to the story, drawings, or questions for the author on each handprint.

https://www.activityvillage.co.uk/handprint-dragon

Writing Center: For younger kids, set up a writing center where students use real cards, envelopes, stamps (stickers), and pens to play letter writing and mail delivery

Good Trick Walking Stick

Can you see the walking stick bug in this video? (hint: it's very large!)

Create a page with walking stick clip art in a few places. Ask them to draw scenery (trees, leaves, rocks, etc.) to attempt to cover the walking sticks.

Or, create papers like Eric Carle and have students cut them into shapes like leaves, sticks, rocks, etc. Have them create a scene and then hide a walking stick bug in their creation.

Hammer and Nails

Make a class list/chart of things they like to do versus things the adults in their lives like to do.

Make a Venn Diagram of the items on the list. Some things might overlap.

Use the Smartboard or iPad to create the Venn Diagram and kids drag items to their appropriate place. You can also make a Venn Diagram on paper or using tape on the floor.

Show photos or video of a construction project being built.

Maybe Something Beautiful

If funds are available, you can purchase and show the video to accompany this story: http://maybesomethingbeautiful.com/portfolio/the-video/

Make a large mural that every child can contribute to.

If this is your final book, give each child an index card. Have them create a design inspired by their favorite book, or any Chickadee book they enjoyed. Collage all of the cards from the school into a Chickadee mural. Optional: color code the cards, so each book's card or artwork would be a certain color.

Memoirs of a Parrot

Videos of talking parrots:

https://www.ted.com/talks/einstein_the_parrot_talks_and_squawks (can turn subtitles off by clicking speech bubble and selecting off)

America's Got Talent bird act:

Anticipation Guide: Give students an anticipation guide about parrots, with true/false and other questions about parrots. They will guess their answers, then use the photos and facts sheet or other sources to find the actual true answers. Review the true answers as a class.

Photos can be found on Flickr's Creative Commons site or Wikimedia Commons

We used this parrot fact sheet: https://www.parrots.org/kids/activities/Parrot%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf

You are welcome to use our Anticipation Guide! Find it here:

Parrot Anticipation Guide

There are plenty more videos on YouTube of people saying tongue twisters, mostly geared for English language learners. Preview first, but many of them are suitable for classroom use.

Water Princess

There are amazing lessons online to teach kids about water scarcity in very impactful ways. Here are a few I liked:

Use waxed paper, water, and a straw to simulate the journey of water from well to home in places where water is scarce: http://www.pbs.org/parents/adventures-in-learning/2016/05/water-conservation-awareness-activity/

How much water does it take to produce these common foods? All materials are created for you. https://kidworldcitizen.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/32212how_much_water_game.pdf

Ideas to help visualize the issues present in water scarce regions, using common household materials and great math tie-ins: asiasociety.org/files/lp-watersecurity-activites.doc

Whoosh!

Ideas for water gun games: https://www.pinterest.com/explore/water-gun-games/?lp=true

The Ellen show has featured kid inventors many times in the past. The clips are available on YouTube.

Students draw or write about an invention they would like to make.