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Design a Hat with a Job Using littleBits (STEAM)
Children will prototype different hat designs and with inputs and outputs using littleBits to design and make a hat with a job.
Children will follow Design Technology curriculum objectives as they prototype, design, make, and evaluate their hats.
A digital copy of the pack is available for editing and sharing on Google Classroom and Seesaw with download.

Design Your Own Candle (STEAM)
2014 National Curriculum of England’s Design Technology (Key Stage 2) objectives will be followed, as children learn about the history of candles and candle making before prototyping, designing, making, and evaluating their own candle.
A link to a digital file for editing and sharing on Google Classroom or Seesaw is available with download.

Fortune Hunters: Geography of Gems (Persuasive Writing about Mining)
Children will investigate different gemstones and where they are found around the world. They will also do a study of how the gemstones are extracted from the earth and will write a persuasive text about whether mining should continue or stop.
This pack includes lesson plans, rubrics, and editable rubrics to support with the learning process. Lessons and objectives are aligned with the objectives from the 2014 National Curriculum of England, and lesson plans list links to the CCSS in the United States.
A digital copy for editing and sharing on digital platforms is available with download.

Bridge to Terabithia Novel Study
This resource is designed to be used during Reading Workshop and is to be used with Bridge to Terabithia by Katharine Paterson.
*Updated to include additional opportunities to show understanding under "Digging Deeper", including theme, setting analysis, and excerpts from the text.
ABOUT THE NOVEL: Jess Aarons has been practicing all summer so he can be the fastest runner in the fifth grade. And he almost is, until the new girl in school, Leslie Burke, outpaces him. The two become fast friends and spend most days in the woods behind Leslie’s house, where they invent an enchanted land called Terabithia. One morning, Leslie goes to Terabithia without Jess and a tragedy occurs. It will take the love of his family and the strength that Leslie has given him for Jess to be able to deal with his grief.
ABOUT THE RESOURCE: Designed in alignment with the 2014 National Curriculum of England’s reading objectives for Year 6, the pack includes: Chapter Summaries, Comprehension Questions, Digging Deeper Opportunities (includes character studies and plot studies), Creative Writing Tasks, and Non-Fiction Tasks related to content of the novel (milking cows, racing, scuba diving, Jacques Cousteau, Smithsonian).
Resource is provided as a PDF but a digital copy of the pack is available for editing and sharing on Google Classroom and Seesaw available with download.
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Hatchet Novel Study
The Girl of Ink and Stars Novel Study
The Skeleton Tree Novel Study
The Lie Tree Novel Study
Navigating Early Novel Study

A Skinful of Shadows Novel Study *Updated
This resource is designed to be used during Reading Workshop and is to be used with A Skinful of Shadows by Frances Hardinge
and has been updated for deeper learning with additional tasks for character analysis, literary motifs, themes, and extracts from the text.
ABOUT THE NOVEL: A Skinful of Shadows is a dark YA historical fantasy set in the early part of the English Civil War. Makepeace is an illegitimate daughter of the aristocratic Fellmotte family, and as such, she shares their unique hereditary gift: the capacity to be possessed by ghosts. Reluctant to accept her appointed destiny as vessel for a coterie of her ancestors, she escapes. As she flees the pursuing Fellmottes across war-torn England, she accumulates a motley crew of her own allies, including outcasts, misfits, criminals, and one extremely angry dead bear.
ABOUT THE RESOURCE: Designed in alignment with the 2014 National Curriculum of England’s reading objectives for Year 6, the pack includes:
- Background information on the historical context (English Civil War)
- Chapter Summaries
- Comprehension Questions
- Digging Deeper Opportunities (includes character studies and plot studies)
- Creative Writing Tasks
- Non-Fiction Tasks related to content of the novel (Puritans, King Charles, Lambeth Palace, Traitor's Gate, witchcraft).
Resource is provided as a PDF but a digital copy of the pack is available for editing and sharing on Google Classroom and Seesaw available with download.
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You might also like:
A Skinful of Shadows Novel Study + STEAM BUNDLE
From the same author --> The Lie Tree Novel Study
Other Novel Studies
The Girl of Ink and Stars Novel Study
The Skeleton Tree Novel Study
Wolf Hollow Novel Study
Turtles All The Way Down Novel Study
Navigating Early Novel Study

The Book of Dust (Vol. 1) Novel Study
This resource is designed to be used during Reading Workshop and is to be used with The Book of Dust by Philip Pullman.
ABOUT THE NOVEL: Malcolm Polstead is the kind of boy who notices everything but is not much noticed himself. And so perhaps it was inevitable that he would become a spy…
Malcolm’s parents run an inn called the Trout, on the banks of the river Thames, and all of Oxford passes through its doors. Malcolm and his daemon, Asta, routinely overhear news and gossip, and the occasional scandal, but during a winter of unceasing rain, Malcolm catches wind of something new: intrigue.
He finds a secret message inquiring about a dangerous substance called Dust - and the spy it was intended for finds him.
When she asks Malcolm to keep his eyes open, he sees suspicious characters everywhere: the explorer Lord Asriel, clearly on the run; enforcement agents from the Magisterium; a gyptian named Coram with warnings just for Malcolm; and a beautiful woman with an evil monkey for a daemon. All are asking about the same thing: a girl - just a baby - named Lyra.
Lyra is the kind of person who draws people in like magnets. And Malcolm will brave any danger, and make shocking sacrifices, to bring her safely through the storm.
ABOUT THE RESOURCE: Designed in alignment with the 2014 National Curriculum of England’s reading objectives for Year 6, the pack includes: Background information on the novel (about the setting, about daemons), Chapter Summaries, Comprehension Questions, Digging Deeper Opportunities (includes character studies and plot studies), Creative Writing Tasks, and Non-Fiction Tasks related to content of the novel (daemons, spies, Aurora, priory).
Resource is provided as a PDF but a digital copy of the pack is available for editing and sharing on Google Classroom and Seesaw available with download.
You might also like:
<a title=“The Book of Dust (Vol. 1) Novel Study + STEAM BUNDLE” href=“/teaching-resource/the-book-of-dust-vol-1-novel-study-steam-bundle-11855090”>The Book of Dust (Vol. 1) Novel Study + STEAM BUNDLE</a>

Once Upon a Dream: A Twisted Tale Novel Study
**This resource is designed to be used during Reading Workshop and is to be used with Once Upon a Time: A Twisted Tale by Liz Braswell. The pack has been designed in alignment with the 2014 National Curriculum of England’s reading objectives for Year 6.
**
ABOUT THE NOVEL: What if the sleeping beauty never woke up?Once Upon a Dream marks the second book in a new YA line that reimagines classic Disney stories in surprising new ways.
It should be simple–a dragon defeated, a slumbering princess in a castle, a prince poised to wake her. But when the prince falls asleep as his lips touch the fair maiden’s, it is clear that this fairy tale is far from over.
With a desperate fairy’s last curse controlling her mind, Princess Aurora must escape from a different castle of thorns and navigate a dangerously magical landscape–created from her very own dreams. Aurora isn’t alone–a charming prince is eager to join her quest, and old friends offer their help. But as Maleficent’s agents follow her every move, Aurora struggles to discover who her true allies are and, moreover, who she truly is. Time is running out. Will the sleeping beauty be able to wake herself up?
**ABOUT THE RESOURCE: **This pack includes: Chapter Summaries, Comprehension Questions, Digging Deeper Opportunities (includes character studies and plot studies), Creative Writing Tasks, and Non-Fiction Tasks related to content of the novel (mud dauber wasp, feathers, dungeons, bluebird, medieval armour, foxes).
Resource is provided as a PDF but a digital copy of the pack is available for editing and sharing on Google Classroom and Seesaw available with download.

Francis Hardinge Novel Study BUNDLE (The Lie Tree & A Skinful of Shadows)
This resource is designed to be used during Reading Workshop and is to be used with two novels written by Francis Hardinge: <a title=“The Lie Tree Novel Study” href=“/teaching-resource/the-lie-tree-novel-study-11821573”>The Lie Tree Novel Study</a> and <a title=“A Skinful of Shadows Novel Study” href=“/teaching-resource/a-skinful-of-shadows-novel-study-11833536”>A Skinful of Shadows Novel Study</a>. The pack has been designed in alignment with the 2014 National Curriculum of England’s reading objectives for Year 6.
ABOUT THE RESOURCE: This pack includes: Chapter Summaries, Comprehension Questions, Digging Deeper Opportunities (includes character studies and plot studies), Creative Writing Tasks, and Non-Fiction Tasks related to content of the novel.
Resource is provided as a PDF but a digital copy of the pack is available for editing and sharing on Google Classroom and Seesaw available with download.

Halloween STEAM: Create a Monster Catcher
Students will evaluate different myths about monsters as well as different trapping devices before designing their own. In the past, I have given students access to littleBits prototyping boards for this STEAM project, but they’re not required.
Resources for researching different monsters and traps are provided.
This unit follows the 2014 National Curriculum of England’s Design Technology objectives.
A digital copy for editing and sharing on Google Classroom and Seesaw is available with download.

Assessment Using Socratic Seminar
Students show off what they’ve learned by participating in a discussion.
In the past, I have used this resource both in Middle School ELA for Novel Study to ensure everyone is caught up on the week’s reading, and also in Middle School Social Studies to synthesize the independent reading and lectures from the week.
This resource includes:
Introducing Socratic Seminar
Preparing for Socratic Seminar
Participating in Socratic Seminar
Evaluating Socratic Seminar
Reflecting on Socratic Seminar
There are differentiated rubrics included, as well as a template for creating your own.
A link is available for editing and sharing the resource on digital platforms with download.

Dune Novel Study
About the Novel: NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE directed by Denis Villeneuve, starring Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Jason Momoa, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Chang Chen,Charlotte Rampling, and Javier Bardem.
Frank Herbert’s classic masterpiece—a triumph of the imagination and one of the bestselling science fiction novels of all time.
Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, heir to a noble family tasked with ruling an inhospitable world where the only thing of value is the “spice” melange, a drug capable of extending life and enhancing consciousness. Coveted across the known universe, melange is a prize worth killing for…
When House Atreides is betrayed, the destruction of Paul’s family will set the boy on a journey toward a destiny greater than he could ever have imagined. And as he evolves into the mysterious man known as Muad’Dib, he will bring to fruition humankind’s most ancient and unattainable dream.
A stunning blend of adventure and mysticism, environmentalism and politics, Dune won the first Nebula Award, shared the Hugo Award, and formed the basis of what is undoubtedly the grandest epic in science fiction.
About the Resource: This pack includes Chapter Summaries, Comprehension Questions, Digging Deeper Opportunities (includes character, setting and plot studies, point of view), Creative Writing Tasks, and Non-Fiction Tasks related to content of the novel (signet rings, water conservation, powerful houses, desert predators, space travel, dehydration, desert travel, ecology).
**Novel study is colour-coded for Book 1: Dune, Book 2: Muad’Dib, and Book 3: The Prophet to allow finding summaries and comprehension questions easier.
Resource is provided as a PDF but a digital copy of the pack is available for editing and sharing on Google Classroom and Seesaw with download.

Echo Mountain Novel Study
About the Novel: After losing almost everything in the Great Depression, Ellie’s family is forced to leave their home in town and start over in the untamed wilderness of nearby Echo Mountain. Ellie has found a welcome freedom, and a love of the natural world, in her new life on the mountain. But there is little joy after a terrible accident leaves her father in a coma. An accident unfairly blamed on Ellie.
Ellie is a girl who takes matters into her own hands, and determined to help her father she will make her way to the top of the mountain in search of the healing secrets of a woman known only as “the hag.” But the hag, and the mountain, still have many untold stories left to reveal.
Historical fiction at its finest, Echo Mountain is celebration of finding your own path and becoming your truest self. Lauren Wolk, the Newbery Honor– and Scott O’Dell Award–winning author of Wolf Hollow and Beyond the Bright Sea, weaves a stunning tale of resilience, persistence, and friendship across three generations of families.
About the Resource: This pack includes Chapter Summaries, Comprehension Questions, Digging Deeper Opportunities (includes character, setting and plot studies, point of view), Creative Writing Tasks, and Non-Fiction Tasks related to content of the novel (Great Depression, coma, honey, black racer, chilblains, luthier, honey bees, Florence Nightingale).
Resource is provided as a PDF but a digital copy of the pack is available for editing and sharing on Google Classroom and Seesaw with download.

Six of Crows Novel Study
About the Novel: Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price-and no one knows that better than criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can’'t pull it off alone. . . .
A convict with a thirst for revenge.
A sharpshooter who can’'t walk away from a wager.
A runaway with a privileged past.
A spy known as the Wraith.
A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums.
A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes.
Six dangerous outcasts. One impossible heist. Kaz’s crew is the only thing that might stand between the world and destruction-if they don’t kill each other first.
Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo returns to the breathtaking world of the Grishaverse in this unforgettable tale about the opportunity-and the adventure-of a lifetime.
About the Resource: This 240-page pack includes Chapter Summaries, Comprehension Questions, Digging Deeper Opportunities (includes character, setting and plot studies, point of view), Creative Writing Tasks, and Non-Fiction Tasks related to content of the novel (civil war, fighting pit, battle tank, revolver).
Resource is provided as a PDF but a digital copy of the pack is available for editing and sharing on Google Classroom and Seesaw with download.
Bundle

Mission to Mars Thematic Unit Plan
This 197-page bundle includes six different resources where students will:
Design a mission badge (e-textiles)
Study of the U.S. space program’s chronology (explanation text)
Learn about ecosystems while considering what they would need to survive on Mars (persuasive text)
Study previous rover designs before designing and evaluating one using littleBits
Research significant people and events to the U.S. space program (primary and secondary sources)
Write a short story about a mission to Mars and/or space travel using shifts in formality with flashbacks (narrative writing)
The pack includes different graphic organizers, as well as resources for lower ability pupils.
In the past, I’ve used these resources during a unit on Mars, but they could be used as a stand alone learning outcomes, as well.

The Marrow Thieves Novel Study
**This 143-page resource is designed to be used during Reading Workshop with The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline.
**
About the Novel: Just when you think you have nothing left to lose, they come for your dreams.
Humanity has nearly destroyed its world through global warming, but now an even greater evil lurks. The Indigenous people of North America are being hunted and harvested for their bone marrow, which carries the key to recovering something the rest of the population has lost: the ability to dream. In this dark world, Frenchie and his companions struggle to survive as they make their way up north to the old lands. For now, survival means staying hidden - but what they don’t know is that one of them holds the secret to defeating the marrow thieves.
About the Resource: This pack includes Chapter Summaries, Comprehension Questions, Digging Deeper Opportunities (includes character, setting and plot studies, point of view), Creative Writing Tasks, and Non-Fiction Tasks related to content of the novel (residential schools, round dance, jingle dress, smudging, dreams, sweat lodge, Band Council, hand drum).
A link to a digital file for editing and use in paperless classrooms is available with download.

Fire Keeper's Daughter Novel Study
**This 304-page resource is designed to be used during Reading Workshop with Fire Keeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley.
**
About the Novel: With four starred reviews, Angeline Boulley’s debut novel, Firekeeper’s Daughter, is a groundbreaking YA thriller about a Native teen who must root out the corruption in her community, perfect for readers of Angie Thomas and Tommy Orange.
Eighteen-year-old Daunis Fontaine has never quite fit in, both in her hometown and on the nearby Ojibwe reservation. She dreams of a fresh start at college, but when family tragedy strikes, Daunis puts her future on hold to look after her fragile mother. The only bright spot is meeting Jamie, the charming new recruit on her brother Levi’s hockey team.
Yet even as Daunis falls for Jamie, she senses the dashing hockey star is hiding something. Everything comes to light when Daunis witnesses a shocking murder, thrusting her into an FBI investigation of a lethal new drug.
Reluctantly, Daunis agrees to go undercover, drawing on her knowledge of chemistry and Ojibwe traditional medicine to track down the source. But the search for truth is more complicated than Daunis imagined, exposing secrets and old scars. At the same time, she grows concerned with an investigation that seems more focused on punishing the offenders than protecting the victims.
Now, as the deceptions—and deaths—keep growing, Daunis must learn what it means to be a strong Anishinaabe kwe (Ojibwe woman) and how far she’ll go for her community, even if it tears apart the only world she’s ever known.
About the Resource: This pack includes Chapter Summaries, Comprehension Questions, Digging Deeper Opportunities (includes character, setting and plot studies, point of view), Creative Writing Tasks, and Non-Fiction Tasks related to content of the novel (Sault Ste. Marie, Lake Superior, Soo Locks, sweetgrass, scars, Fancy Shawl Regalia, Traditional dancers, Jingle Dress Regalia, drum group, Ojibwe Fire Keeper, Sixties Scoop, John Herrington, smoke dance).
A link to a digital file for editing and use in paperless classrooms is available with download.

Yellowface Novel Study
**This resource is designed to be used during Reading Workshop with Yellowface by R.F. Kuang.
**
About the Novel: Authors June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars. But Athena’s a literary darling. June Hayward is literally nobody. Who wants stories about basic white girls, June thinks.
So when June witnesses Athena’s death in a freak accident, she acts on impulse: she steals Athena’s just-finished masterpiece, an experimental novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers during World War I.
So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song—complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? Doesn’t this piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller? That’s what June claims, and the New York Times bestseller list seems to agree.
But June can’t get away from Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens to bring June’s (stolen) success down around her. As June races to protect her secret, she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.
With its totally immersive first-person voice, Yellowface grapples with questions of diversity, racism, and cultural appropriation, as well as the terrifying alienation of social media. R.F. Kuang’s novel is timely, razor-sharp, and eminently readable.
About the Resource: This pack includes Chapter Summaries, Comprehension Questions, Digging Deeper Opportunities (includes character, setting and plot studies, point of view), Creative Writing Tasks, and Non-Fiction Tasks related to content of the novel (pandan, Chinese Labour Corps, Marlin Literary Archive, Highlander Syndrome, orientalism, Korean War, Wayback Machine, Kuomintang, KMT and move to Taiwan, One-Child Policy, missing Chinese survivors of Titanic, Jade Squad, Chinese Mafia, sycamore trees).
A link to a digital file for editing and use in paperless classrooms is available with download.

Write a Eulogy for Blackbeard FREEBIE
Included is a mini writing assignment that I have used for an extra credit opportunity in grades 7 and 8 ELA and Social Studies.
Students will have a background in pirates before being given the assignment, but it is also adaptable for different significant people, as well. When I have assigned it, I have also reviewed features of eulogies and compared them to different styles of writing.

'Pimp my Insect' Explanation Text FREEBIE!
*Updated with new graphics
In this resource, children will study different insects to see how they have adapted to their ecosystems.
Children will then design their own insect and write an explanation text about its adaptations and how they make it successful.
A digital copy of the resource is available to editing and sharing on Google Classroom and Seesaw by following link provided at download.
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Honey Bee Study with Maths and Scratch
Insect Study - Adapted Insect Forms
Insect Study - Evolution & Inheritance
Colony Collapse Disorder - Persuasion Text
Honeycomb and Honey Bee Printing

Make me a Conquistador - CV Persuasive Writing FREEBIE!
*Updated with new graphics
Children will practice their writing with changes in formality by writing a cover letter and CV as a Conquistador.
Other packs that can support this pack:
Mayan Civilisation Study: History & Geography
Diet of a Conquistador: Science & DT
Mayan Civilisation Study: Art & DT
In the past, I have used this pack at the end of a unit looking at the Conquistadors and their conquest of the New World so that the children are able to contextualise the CVs. Alternatively, the King of Spain might post a job advert and the same English standards can be met that way.
A digital copy of the file is available for editing and sharing on Google Classroom and Seesaw by following the link provided with download.