Literary Units

Some people are overwhelmed by the seeming enormity of a unit study.  It might be perceptions of the topics themselves, the resources, the implementation, or all of it taken together.  It is possible to base a unit on a single book and, in many cases, this is a good way for a beginner to get her feet wet.

In most cases, I call a unit based on a book a Literary Unit.  This would be basing a unit on a work of fiction.  You can choose any book, from a picture book for young children to a chapter book or novel for older children, and delve into learning about everything you can that's inside that book.  This could be the setting, learning geography or architecture or whatever is pertinent about the places in the book, as well as the time in which the book takes place.  You could learn more about occupations of the characters in the book.  You could do the things the characters do in the book.  Basically, read the book and look for things to learn about and do.

Though I have never used their materials, there is a company called Five in a Row that has done the work for you in this regard and I have heard many people like their stuff.  Their website has a sample download so you can see what they've done for you.  The idea is that you take a picture book and you read it five days in a row, but each day you focus on a different aspect of that book.  An example might be Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton, wherein one day maybe you learn about foundations in construction, one day sources of heat, one day you learn about steam and its power, one day maybe you tour your own city/town hall, and one day you learn about what the mayor does and the postman, etc.  Find ways to include some writing and math in there.  (And if you've ever read picture books to children, you know that they love repetition and reading their favorites over and over and over, so this would not be redundant.)

There are other cases where you can use a fantastic nonfiction book for the core of your unit.  

The Complete Book of the Night by Sally Tagholm is one such terrific nonfiction book.  It lends itself to some really great field trips, like to a bakery, a nocturnal exhibit at a zoo, a lighthouse, or a nighttime hike.  When we did a unit with this book I found some black notebook paper and bright neon gel pens and we did some writing activities with them.  A glow-in-the-dark art project is fun with this unit.  You could write short stories and tell them using shadow puppets before bedtime, learn some constellations, and make Native American dream catchers.  This book is full of wonderful things!

Another nonfiction book that is perfect for a unit study is All in Just One Cookie by Susan E. Goodman.  Whether you stretch it out with field trips gathering eggs or milking cows, grinding your own flour, or mark on a map where ingredients come from, bake a batch of cookies and appreciate them while reading this book, there is a lot of information packed in here.  It could spur an activity where your child(ren) write a similar book on another treat of their choice, analyzing ingredients and where they come from.

There are so many ways to do a unit study--pick up a book and try one soon!