SUNSETS ACROSS THE USA

Types of communities

To begin, a student uses watercolors to paint on a 4" x 6" sheet of tagboard a colorful sunset. After the paint dries, he uses a pencil to draw a silhouette of an urban, suburban, or rural scene along the bottom of the card. Then he uses a black marker to outline and color the silhouette. Finally, the student writes on the back of his resulting postcard a friendly letter to his family describing the sights and sounds of the area.

OUR STATE IS GREAT

State Community

After students research important facts about their state and its culture, have each student cut out a cardstock shape of the state. Next, guide the student to draw or cut out from magazines and glue to his project pictures that represent the state, such as forms of wildlife, landmarks, and products. Then guide the student to write a paragraph about the state's unique features. Post students' work on a display titled "Celebrating Our Great State!"

AROUND THE WORLD

Using an atlas

Students work in pairs to explore this reference book. First, write on the board a list of world locations. Give each student pair a number of sticky notes equal to the number of locations listed and have the pair write each location on a different sticky note. On your signal, have each pair use an atlas to find each location and flag the page with the corresponding sticky note. After a predetermined length of time, have the pairs stop and share their findings with the class. If desired, provide a small prize to the duo that correctly flagged the most locations.

NEW WORLDS OF INFORMATION

Parts of a reference book

Give each small group of students a reference book and a sheet of construction paper. Direct the group to review the book's contents and write its type (such as atlas, dictionary, encyclopedia, or thesaurus) on the paper. Draw a chart on the board with different reference books and characteristics as shown. Announce an action, such as, "Stand if your book is organized in ABC order." If the characteristic is found in a group's book, direct one student in the group to hold the paper displaying the type of book, while the rest of the group completes the action. Verify students' responses and check off the reference materials the characteristic applies to. If desired, ask a follow-up question for each characteristic.