Organizing a book launch
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Age Group
Students ages 6 and 7
When
November and December
Broad areas of learning
Career planning and entrepreneurship
Citizenship and community life
Activity summary
Following an in-class discussion on needs and wants, students will have the opportunity to describe, write, and illustrate their dreams in a collaborative book. With your help, students will gather everyone's stories about their dreams and make a book. Families and friends are then invited to the book launch which will be organized to finance an end of the year excursion.
Main objectives
- Distinguishing between wants and needs
- Explain a dream clearly
- Familiarize themselves with the costs and tasks of planning an event
- Find ways to finance an event
Competencies
Subject-specific competencies
Discipline | Competencies | Progressions of learning |
|---|---|---|
English Language Arts |
|
|
Visual Arts | To produce individual works in the visual arts (QEP 2011) | To translate ideas, use transforming gestures :
|
Ethics and religious culture | Engages in Dialogue (QEP 2011) | Reflects on ethical questions (QEP 2011) E.g., what is the difference between a need and a want? |
Cross-curricular competencies
- Uses creativity (QEP 2011)
- Adopts effective work methods (QEP 2011)
- Achieves his/her potential (QEP 2011)
- Cooperates with others (QEP 2011)
Preparation
Students learn to distinguish needs from wants and to reflect on their dreams and aspirations.
Time required
20 minutes
Teaching material
Task 1
Distinguish needs from wants
Task 1 objective
By the end of this task, students will be able to distinguish the differences between needs and wants.
Instructions
- Orchestrate a discussion using the needs and wants sheet.
- Hand out the My Needs and My Wants.
- Ask them to cut out the images and to arrange them on the sheet according to their understanding of needs and wants.
- Engage in a group discussion about the activity and complete the worksheet on the board to give students the opportunity to verify their answers.
Time required
20 minutes
Teaching material
Task 2
Reflect on dreams
Task 2 objective
By the end of this task, students will be able to explain their dreams and ambitions clearly to the rest of the group.
Instructions
- Ask students about their dreams.
- Show the kite-shaped word map on the board. Then, complete the map with the students’ dreams, divided into categories.
Examples :
- What I want to be
- What I want to do
- What I want to have
- What I want...
Development
Students must illustrate their dreams, match images and connect them to dreams, verify these connections, organize a book launch and participate in the financial process of the book launch.
Time required
3 periods of 20 minutes
Teaching material
Task 1
Illustrate a dream
Task 1 objective
By the end of this task, students will be able to describe, write, and illustrate their dreams.
Instructions
- Have students write their dreams down individually and ask them to use complete sentences
- Invite students to draw their dreams on another page and explain how this drawing will allow them to play an image–dream association game.
- Clearly number each student’s story and write a letter of the alphabet, in caps, in a visible spot on each drawing.
- Display the stories and drawings all around the classroom.
Time required
2 periods of 20 minutes
Teaching material
Task 2
Match images to dreams
Task 2 objectives
By the end of this task, students will be able to properly associate dream descriptions and match them with the corresponding image.
Instructions
- Invite students to take part in the image-dream association game.
- Hand each student an answer sheet.
- Play soft and soothing music.
- Ask students to read the dream descriptions by whispering to themselves and match it with the correct illustration.
Time required
20 minutes
Task 3
Verify matches made
Task 3 objectives
By the end of the task, students will be able to assess their reading comprehension and their writing process.
Instructions
- Ask students to take turns reading their dream out loud.
- Ask students to find the illustration that matches the dream read.
- Examples of questions to ask:
- Which drawing goes with this description?
- What are the clues allow us to discover it?
- Ask students to verify the answers on their answer sheet.
- Question students on their choice and ask them to provide details about their dream.
- Repeat this reflective sharing process until all students have answered. Spend no more than 15 minutes on this.
Time required
2 periods of 20 minutes
Task 4
Publish the book and organize financing
Task 4 objectives
By the end of this task, students will have participated in a budget planning process for an event which includes costs and financing choices.
Instructions
- Propose that students publish a book about their dreams, including their descriptions and images.
- Discuss with students the costs related to publishing the book, either having it printed on the school’s photocopier or at a print centre.
- Discuss as a group the various other costs to take into account.
- Ask students for ideas on how to finance the production of the book.
- Once the money is raised, ask students about a dream they would like to see come true for the class.
- Let students come up with various possibilities and discuss how realistic and achievable these dreams are.
Time required
3 periods of 20 minutes
Teaching material
Sociogram Test: Elementary
Task 5
Take part in the book launch
Task 5 objectives
By the end of this task, students will have taken part in the organization of the book launch event.
Instructions
- Ask students to work in cooperation to organize the book launch and recommend the formation of committees.
- Have students participate in setting up the committees.
Evaluation
Evaluate the students’ oral communication, written communication and knowledge of cooperation.
Time required
45 minutes and 5 minutes per student
Teaching material
Task 1
Evaluate oral communication
Task 1 objectives
By the end of this task, students will be evaluated on their oral communication competencies
Instructions
- Ask students to find images representing their dreams.
- Invite students to modify the images they select by putting their picture on it or that of the people who are also in their dream and to draw an environment that fits this dream (e.g., road, home, school, etc.).
- Ask students to take turns presenting their dream to the class by answering the questions in the Preparation step.
Time required
45 minutes
Task 2
Evaluate written communication
Task 2 objectives
By the end of this task, students will be evaluated on their written English language arts competencies.
Instructions
- Evaluate the students’ written communication competencies.
- To do so, hand out the word-image or phrase-image evaluation grid, which illustrates children’s dreams.
- Ask the students to write one or more phrases that describe the dreams.
Time required
45 minutes
Task 3
Evaluate written comprehension (reading)
Task 3 objectives
By the end of this task, students will be evaluated on their English language arts written comprehension competencies.
Instructions
- Evaluate the students’ written comprehension (reading).
- To do so, hand out the word-image or phrase-image evaluation grid, which illustrates children’s dreams.
- Ask the students to write one or more sentences that describe the dreams.
Time required
15 minutes
Teaching material
Task 4
Evaluate cooperative abilities
Task 4 objectives
By the end of this task, students will be evaluated on their short-text writing competencies and knowledge of cooperation.
Instructions
Give students self-assessment forms and ask them to rate their own level of involvement in the various committees.
Reinforcement
Consolidate the developed competencies through organizing an activity similar to the book launch.
Time required
Depends on project scope
1-Make the connection between the competencies and the learning progression of English
Instructions
Play the image and dream matching game again, this time using other themes:
- Describe a Halloween or party costume.
- Describe a trip or their latest vacation.
- Describe an object or a page out of a story.
2-Make the connection with the cooperative competencies acquired.
Instructions
Create committees, like those described at the development stage, for other events:
- Present a play.
- Show the work done.
- Put together a singing or poetry show.