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Reading: Students read 8 different articles during the week-long unit. They will complete a Reading Scavenger Hunt as they read the articles. Activities to use with a read-aloud book are also included.

Writing activities: Students pretend they work for a kite manufacturer and will create a direction sheet to include in a kite kit, instructing buyers on how to put their kites together.

Math worksheets explore the geometric properties of the kite, including identifying a geometric kite, calculating its perimeter, area, and angles. Students will also explore kite tessellations.

Science activities allow students to explore air pressure, and forces of air that affect flight.

Art Students will read and follow directions to build their own sled kite using white kitchen trash bags and bamboo BBQ skewers.

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When I asked a class of third and fourth graders what topics they would choose if they could study anything they wanted, Kites was one of their top choices. Kites is an integrated language arts, math, social studies, science, and art unit focused on exploring the history and uses of kites around the world.

Whether you use Kites as a 1-5 day unit for a substitute (complete detailed substitute lesson plans are included) or you choose to spice up a week with a little something special, your students will have plenty of practice using many of the reading, research, writing, problem solving, and thinking skills you’ve been working on throughout the year. I hope you’ll find it interesting and exciting!

Thematic Unit Materials include:

Overview and Lesson Plan Suggestion
Detailed Substitute Lesson Plans for 5 full days with sample worksheets and answers included in the guide
Student Reading Material: 6 nonfiction, 2 myths
Language Arts Activities (5)
Writing--Students write and illustrate a direction sheet for a kite kit
Math Activities (5)
Science Experiments (5)
Art Project-students build a sled kite
PE Game
Posters that support research and writing instruction

I hope you and your students will find these materials exciting and educational and that they will provide you with an example of thematic teaching in the upper grades. It’s a really effective, efficient, and fun way to provide instruction for a wide variety of students.

Other Thematic Units for this grade level:
Cave Paintings and Petroglyphs
Art of the Pennsylvania Dutch
Loch Ness Monster
Codes & Ciphers

The Bermuda Triangle

The unit will take 5 days to complete.

The unit is appropriate for grades 4-6.

142 pages. PDF 107MB

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Sample

Kites

An Integrated Thematic Unit

If you need a break from the humdrum routine, or you want to start or end the year with a surprising twist, this integrated language arts, science, math, and social studies unit may be just what you are looking for. A topic chosen by students for a fun week of alternative learning.

Thematic Teacher

Educational Materials for Literacy Through Art, Science, and Social Studies.

Sample

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