1) How to Make Cherry Pie and see the U.S.A
(For this one, no picture was available on Amazon.) This book goes over all the components that would be needed to make a charry pie and where you in the U.S.A you would have to go find them if the market was closed. I like how this story shows how things are made and how the different parts come from different places. I think most kids are used to just going to the store and they may not have wondered where it all came from. It also shows how different parts of the country grow different things. So this story could be used with discussions of trade, economics, production, US regions, etc. It really can tie into lots of Social Studies topics.
2) How to Make Apple Pie and See the World
This story is similar to the US story, but looks at different countries. I think I would have students follow this up by studying some different cultures or maybe trying foods from different cultures. You really could do some fun activities with both of these books.
Students could become different countries or states and tell you about the products they are known for. I like the idea of instead of just having students make an entire book or project on all different facets of a state or country, maybe just focus on components like food or domestic products. Let them learn one thing well and present it.
With my Social Studies instruction this year, I want to narrow topics a bit instead of always covering huge encompassing topics and periods. I want to chunk the learning and ideas into more manageable parts like trade, transportation, food, etc.
This is great, April! I'm beginning my year with my economics unit- and then continuing it across the year since we create our own town in the unit. I have some posts on it and how I broke it down if you're interested. The first blog post is called Last Kid Picked. But I like your book selections- I hadn't heard of them before, and they will be perfect for when I go over natural, human, and capital resources.
ReplyDelete~Heather
The Meek Moose