Ten Thematic Strands in Social Studies

Adventure Annie Goes to Work has curriculum connections in the Social Studies content area.  It may be used to address three of the Ten Thematic Strands in Social Studies that underlie the NCSS (National Council for the Social Studies) Standards as published in Expectations of Excellence: Curriculum Standards for Social Studies:

Strand III. People, Places, and Environments

Strand IV. Individual Development and Identity

Strand V. Institutions, Groups, and Individuals

Standards for the English Language Arts

Adventure Annie Goes to Work also offers curriculum connections in the Language Arts.  It may be used to address five of the 12 standards as published in Standards for the English Language Arts by the NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) and the IRA (International Reading Association):

Standard 3 (strategies for comprehension, interpretation, evaluation, and appreciation of texts)

Standard 4 (strategies for effective spoken, written, and visual communication)

Standard 6 (applied knowledge of language, media, and genre)

Standard 7 (research process)

Standard 11 (knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical participation)

In addition, many of the activities address Information Literacy standards as outlined by the American Association of School Librarians in AASL Standards for the 21st-Century Learner.

CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS

Book Pairing: Mapping

Before reading Adventure Annie Goes to Work to your students, share these two books with your students as an introduction to mapping for young children.  Then lead a discussion of the importance of mapping:

Sweeney, Joan.  Me on the Map.  With illustrations by Annette Cable. New York: Knopf, 1996. ISBN: 0517700956
    This book is a playful introduction to maps and geography in which the narrator shares
    “maps” she has drawn of her room, her house, her street, and all the way to her country on a map of the world.

Leedy, Loreen.  Mapping Penny’s World.  New York: Henry Holt, 2000. ISBN: 0805061789
    When Lisa's class studies map-making, she begins with a map of her bedroom but soon
    moves on to map her dog Penny’s world.  She includes all of the elements necessary for
    map reading such as scale and a key to her symbols.

You may also want to brainstorm as many uses of a map as possible.

Mapping Annie’s Adventures

After reading Adventure Annie Goes to Work to your students, ask them to consider the geography of the story.  Where does most of the story take place?  As you look back through the book, ask them to list each of the places where the action of the story unfolds, particularly the places in Mommy’s office.

Invite students to create individual maps of the office by drawing the various locations you have listed above on a self-created map.  When their maps are complete, students may be able to recite the story by retracing Annie’s progress on the maps they have drawn.  This is a particularly good exercise for visual learners.  In addition, research has shown that non-linguistic representation enhances achievement for all learners.

Adventurers Check Their Maps

When the Big Report is missing at Mommy’s office, Adventure Annie knows that she will need to check a map in order to find it. But she doesn’t HAVE a map, so she creates one. 

Invite your students to study Annie’s map and list the supplies she needed to make that map.  Then, plan a map of your school, or if you are feeling very adventurous, a map of the school’s neighborhood.  In order to do so, begin by brainstorming the many places that might be located on the map.  Then, discuss the importance of each one using a set of criteria that you establish as a group.  Once you have narrowed the list, cover the wall (or floor) with chart paper and invite students, in pairs, to work on a section of the map.

In order to work most effectively, you may want to instruct students to design pictures of the locations (the library, the cafeteria, etc.) and cut them out at their seats then mount them on the larger map with tape.

Mommy and Daddy Go to Work

Adventure Annie Goes to Work offers a perfect launch into a careers unit for primary grade students.  After reading the book, ask students to speculate about what Mommy’s job might be.  For each response, ask student to support their claims by providing “evidence” that this could be her job.

After you have a long list of office jobs that Annie’s mother may have, open the floor up to students to add to the list jobs their parents or immediate family members have and where those jobs take place, listing them on a T-chart.

                JOB                                        LOCATION

__________________________________________________________ 
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Career Exploration: Speakers

Invite parents and immediate family members in to your class to discuss their jobs.  Before speakers arrive, develop a set of questions that you will ask each speaker.  Record those responses and then allow students to ask other questions specific to each speaker’s job. [Note: For those students whose family members cannot come to the classroom, consider an interview using Skype or other Voice over IP (VoIP) software.]

When your speakers have completed their visits, create a class career book, asking students to illustrate one of the speakers at his or her job.  Type up the interview question and answer of each student’s choice and attach it to the illustration. Or, if you are practicing hand writing skills, allow each student to copy the question and answer onto their paper.

Career Exploration: Research

Invite each student to choose one career they have heard about from the speakers or, in some cases, a career that the student has a particular passion for, and conduct a beginning research project in the library media center.

Working in concert with your school library media specialist, design a research project that allows each student to find the answers to his or her questions about his or her chosen career.  In working with Kindergarten and first grade students, sometimes the most effective model is individual or paired research times, so that students have the librarian’s undivided attention to find answers to their questions.

If you are not accustomed to doing research projects with your very young students, you may want to read the following article and discuss it with your library media specialist, who will have further ideas:

        Fisher, Penny, Ellen Heath, and Megan Price. “Kindergarten Research.” Knowledge Quest, 33:2

Book Pairing: Careers

After reading Adventure Annie Goes to Work to your students, share titles from these nonfiction book series with your students to further their knowledge about adults and the work place.

Miller, Heather. This is What I Want to Be series. Heinemann, 2003.

Rau, Dana Meachan. Benchmark Rebus: Jobs in Town series. Marshall Cavendish, 2008.