Ninja/Action Unit (June)
I was so excited about this unit! Unfortunately, June is a month of catching up, last minute testing, language samples, and end of the year field trips and parties. This means that I was only able to use 2 of the awesome ninja books I had checked out from the library.
I used The Boy Who Cried Ninja and Wink-The Ninja Who Wanted to Nap for working on vocabulary and story retelling.
I was disappointed that The Boy Who Cried Ninja had very little in fact to do with ninjas, but it did make for a great book for 1st-3rd graders to work on retelling skills. Wink-The Ninja Who Wanted to Nap had awesome illustrations (simple, cut paper style), but the story was pretty confusing for my younger students (Wink was trying to avoid his fans so that he could rest) and did not make a lot of sense if you are unfamiliar with the other book by the same author: Wink- The Ninja Who Wanted to be Noticed.
Since ninja vocabulary seemed to be completely unnecessary for my life skills classrooms, I worked on verb/action words for Bingo. This was very successful, and I almost wished I had done it earlier in the year since verbs are such an important part of language.
Overall, it was fun to put books together on a topic of my choice and not worry about state testing, grade level curriculum, etc. for my theme. Maybe next June I’ll try out some of the other ninja books, or go for a new topic of my interest all together! Suggestions for ninja books or for fun topics for next June?
I haven’t read the ninja books, but they look interesting. I agree, verbs are important for all kids and their communication. It’s good to know which books are good for which age.
I saw this and thought of you:
http://www.thinkfun.com/smartplayblog/?p=1435
Hope to see you at the campout!
Hmm… I haven’t read a lot of ninja books lately. I bet my boys would love them though.
The only book we have at the library is Wink: the Ninja who Wanted to be Noticed. Maybe I will have to check it out!