Book - Unit Plans (Hoot)

Hoot is one of my favorite books to read with fourth graders towards the end of the year. It goes well with our study of animals and how humans impact the environment (and it has the added bonus of having a movie to show afterward!).

I talked a new fourth grade teacher into giving it a try (which turned out to be fortuitous because they are doing a birding day this week with a local birding group). We borrowed a class set from another school and checked out the book on CD from the local library as well as the movie (warning the word "dammit" is used in the book...I never noticed before but this teacher did...after the kids went "ooooooo" they got over it). While I was looking for some Hoot lesson plans online for her I came across a site that had an EXCELLENT Hoot unit plan. It was so good (they had sample pages online to view) that I purchased it for $20 (gasp!). I thought their questions and activities provided good higher order thinking questions (good practice for the upcoming transition to Common Core). It included chapter tests as well. Some of the items are "advance" (imagery, irony, symbolism) but definitely dobable.

The teacher LOVES it and would definitely consider other purchases from the same site. Here in South Carolina teacher's are given state money at the beginning of the year (I want to say $200) and often grade levels have some money to spend. It would definitely be worth it to review the site and purchase other book units. The units are billed as "Middle School" units but they have books that we read in elementary school (i.e. Because of Winn-Dixie, Bud Not Buddy, and Tuck Everlasting to name a few).

http://www.sandtpublications.com/hootlessonplans.html

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Notebooking, Teaching, and Technology

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