Links for Wangari’s Trees of Peace
The Green Belt Movement: http://greenbeltmovement.org/index.php
Taking Root: http://takingrootfilm.com/
Vermont Tree Society: www.vermonttreesociety.org/
Living and Non-Living
Every year our kindergarten teachers teach a unit on how to tell whether something is living or non-living. Wangari’s Trees of Peace is a great fit for this unit. After discussing what is alive in the book and what is not, kindergarten students can show what they know using a graphic organizer.
Equipment needed: computer
Software needed: Kidspiration
1. Demonstrate Kidspiration. Show students how to scroll through the pictures and how to place a picture on the T chart.
2. Encourage students to put at least 5 images on each side of the T chart.
3. Allow students as long as needed to finish their T chart, assisting students who need additional help.
Please feel free to email me at jphillips@wswsu.org for a copy of this template if you have Kidspiration.
Animating the life cycle of a plant
Second grade students study plants at our school. As a culminating activity they create a KidPix animation demonstrating their knowledge of how a plant starts as a seed, grows and flowers. The same process could yield an animation about trees.
Equipment needed: computer, color printer (optional) and projector
Software needed: drawing software such as KidPix or drawing software and presentation software (Keynote or PowerPoint)
1. Outline criteria for the animation.
2. Demonstrate “building” on a drawing. Start with a picture of the ground and sky and save as “plant 1.” Add a seed and save as “plant 2.” Continue in this fashion for a few more slides, asking students what else they need to add and saving in the same fashion.
3. Students begin working on their own pictures, building on each slide.
4. When all students have finished their slides, demonstrate putting them together into a slide show. Demonstrate changing the timing and the transitions between slides. For an animation, you want no transitions.
5. Assist students as they develop their slide shows and turn them into animations.
6. Print slide shows as a comic and allow students to cut and reassemble them to make a flip book.
8. Slide shows can be exported in the form of a QuickTime movie to be shared online or on a DVD.
