Tornadoes

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Tornadoes

• A literature focus unit
• By Jim Petrik

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Literature Selections

• Wild Weather. Tornadoes! -Lorraine Hopping
• Chasing Tornadoes Laurie Lindop
• Aunt Minnie and the Twister- Mary Prigger
• One Day in the Prairie- Jean Craighead George
• Farmer Brown Goes Round and Round-Teri Sloat
• The Magic School Bus Twister Trouble-Ann
  Schreiber
• The Case of the Swirling Killer Tornado-John
  Erickson
• Twister on Tuesday-Mary Pope Osborne
• One Lucky Girl-George Lyon

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Literature Selections Continued

• Do Tornadoes Really Twist? Melvin Berger
• Tornado Poems- Arnold Adoff
• Woofs Scary Adventure- Danae Dobson
• Night of the Twisters-Ivy Ruckman
• Heavy Weather- Bruce Sterling

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Unit Plan

• Students will gain a better understanding of how
  tornadoes form and where and when they are most
  likely to occur.
• Students will also do a variety of activities
  dealing with tornadoes in class.

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Cross Curricular Ideas
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Cross Curricular Ideas Cont.
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Unit Plan-Language Arts Web
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Strategies

• Making Connections- Students will write a story
  about a tornado they saw.
• Tapping Prior Knowledge- Students will think
  about what they already know as they read the
  book Tornado Alert and complete the worksheets
• Visualizing- Students will watch a movie and
  visit websites dealing with tornadoes

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Skills

• Print
• Sound out words using phonics
• Comprehension
• Separate facts and opinions
• Identify cause and effect
• Language
• Appreciate Rhyme and other poetic devices
• Recognize parts of speech
• Use punctuation marks

• Reference
• Read and make graphs, tables and diagrams
• Research on Internet
• Study
• Follow directions
• Make outlines and clusters

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Technology Resources

• Movie/DVDs
• Movie on Tornado Alley
• Websites/Internet Activities
• www.fema.com
• http//www.chaseday.com/tornadoes.htm

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Grouping Patterns

• Whole Group
• Discussion of tornadoes
• KWL charts
• Tornado Bulletin Board
• Watching Videos
• Graphing/Polling class
• Reading Poems to class
• Play Tornado Tag

• Small Group
• Viewing Websites
• Peer editing
• Discussing the book Do Tornadoes Really Twist?
• Make a tornado from 2 pop bottles
• Independently
• Read Do Tornadoes Really Twist?
• Make Tornado Collage
• Poem WritingStory Writing

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Time Schedule
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Assessment

• 6 1 Writing Traits (Stories and Poems)
• Teacher Observation of group work
• Tornado Science Project (Observation and how well
  it works)
• Math Polls and Graphs (Participation)
• Discuss and question large group after watching
  movies and visiting websites
• Spelling Test with Tornado Vocab
• Tornado Collage (Grade on completion and how well
  it looks)

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THE END