Section One (Left)

1. A list of all the books and materials we used.
   This helps the children to recognize the work that goes into a study. It also provides them with a list of resources to go back to if they have further questions or topics they want to learn about.

2. Lists: What do I know about Inuits? What do I want to know about Inuits?
   In this introductory assignment, children made lists of what they knew about Inuits and what they wanted to know about Inuits. (Matchbook fold, Dinah Zike’s Big Book of Books.)

3. Art: Pointillism
   We read Very Last First Time by Jan Andrews. In Five in a Row, Vol. 1, Jane Claire Lambert suggests that the paintings in this book are somewhat pointillist. We painted our own pointillist scenes. This child also chose to make colors swatches and include mixing directions so that she could recreate some of her favorite colors in the future. ("Colors I Mixed With Paint.")

4. "I Compared Myself With the Inuit"
   We made Venn Diagrams to compare our lives with those of the Inuit people.

5. List of Arctic Animals
   After reading a variety of non-fiction books, the children compiled lists of Arctic animals.

Section Two (Right)

1. Building Igloos--photos and comments by the children
   We attempted to build igloos from ice cubes. We found more success in our second attempt with marshmallows and peanut butter.

2. Science: Levers
   Lambert (FIAR, Vol. 1) notes that the main character, Eva, in Very Last First Time uses a lever. The children tried various levers inside and then moved outside to explore how various lengths of wood might lift a heavy rock. They made a mini-book about levers. Photos record their learning. The children explained what they learned in dialog balloons.

3. The Arctic
   We studied animals, vegetation, land formations and climate of the Arctic. The children recorded their findings. (Envelope fold, page 67 of Dinah Zike’s Big Book of Books.)

4. Lift-the-flap booklet: Very Last First Time
   After reading Very Last First Time, the children drew a picture and wrote a sentence describing how Eva went to look for mussels. We used a suggestion from the Five in a Row archives and made a working example of the tide flowing beneath the ice. Photos of this went into the booklet along with a Canadian flag and a map of Canada highlighting where the story took place.

5. Balto: Comparison/Contrast, Movie Versus Book
   We watched a movie and read a book about Balto. The children and I discussed how the movie and book were different and how they were alike. The children recorded their results in a Venn diagram. (Three-Part Book used as a Venn Diagram, p. 42 of Dinah Zike’s Big Book of Projects.)

6. What did I learn?
   The children generated a list of all the things they learned during this unit. They also told about their favorite parts of the study.

7. Front Cover
   Includes original artwork done in Prismacolor pencils and a poem about the Arctic called "The Wolf Cry" by Lew Sarett that the child especially enjoyed.

8. Back Cover
   A bag is stapled to the back cover to hold a pop-up book the child wrote about one of the main characters from the book, Stone Fox.

Go to Portfolder Sample 2.