Lesson Plan

Introducing the Travel Pals & The Travel Pal Interactive Notebook

Overview

Students will meet the Travel Pals and begin their Interactive Notebooks.

Objective

Students will:
  • Be introduced to the Travel Pals
  • Complete some basic research on each animal
  • Begin to create entries for their Interactive Notebook

Materials

  • Travel Pals
  • Informational books about each animal or a teacher created power point about each animal
  • Chart paper or overhead to write information
  • Notebooks or binders for each student

Set Up and Prepare

Have Travel Pals sitting in a prominent place for students to see when they walk in the room. Have books, power point, chart paper and notebooks ready for use.

Directions

  1. Introduce the Travel Pals and explain to the students about their exciting adventures that we are about to help them prepare for.
  2. Explain that since the TP will be visiting so many new places and new people, it would be helpful if we created some sheets that gave the caretaker some basic information about each TP.
  3. Show each TP one by one and ask students what are some things they already know about each animal. List responses on chart paper.
  4. Read an informational book about each animal and see what new information can be added to each TP list.
  5. Elicit student support to help you fill out a semi serious and semi humorous informational page on each TP. This will be included in the scrapbook. I am attaching the four that my class created and blank template of questions. You can delete what you don't like and add your own ideas.
  6. Students also write their first journal entry in their Travel Pal Interactive Notebook. Have students write about their favorite pal and their thoughts about the upcoming project. This notebook will be used over the course of this entire project and will be a wonderful souvenir for each student to keep.

Supporting All Learners

All students are able to participate in projects that challenge their own level of learning because there are so many options to respond to what is being learned; oral discussion, writing, art, educational programming, media interaction and more.

Lesson Extensions

Throughout this theme unit, you can keep a Travel Pal hallway display so the whole school may learn along with your class. You can display a U.S. and world map, photos of the Travel Pals from their visits, ongoing projects, updates, recipes, cultural information, websites to check out and more!

Home Connection

Students were allowed to take the Travel Pals home for overnight visits.

Assess Students

A wonderful way to asses your students throughout this project is by utilizing their Travel Pal Interactive Notebook. This notebook was full to bursting with any number of projects from the year and was a wonderful souvenir for each child to have as their own to keep. Here is a list of things to consider putting in the notebook.

  • Photos of the Travel Pal and the students.
  • Students writing about each state the TP visited or famous places or historical figures.
  • Copy and glue fronts and back to postcards sent by the caretakers and the student's responses write a response.
  • Glue in emails and photos from Travel pals as well as student responses.

  • Subjects:
    Creative Writing, Animals, Geography and Map Skills, Travel and Vacations
  • Skills:
    Research Skills, Writing
  • Duration:
    40 Weeks
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