The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

Below are a few ideas for the fifth grade teachers that they might use while their students are reading the book, "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas."

Discussion Questions:  Click here

Activity Ideas:
    Write a short story or a poem about an unlikely friendship.
    Create a poster or Glogster about the damage caused by prejudice.
    Construct a piece of art—a sculpture, a painting, a drawing, or a comic strip—that depicts something     in the book.  Online comic strip generators to possibly use:  Makebeliefscomix and Pixton.
   
A PDF Teaching Unit:  Click here

Another Unit Study:  Click here

Chapter Summaries:  Click here

Study Questions:  Click here

Survivor Video Testimonies:  IWitness

Integration of Technology:

    Suggestion:  Before you start integrating lots of technology into your curriculum I would suggest creating a classroom blog or use your website in order to store samples of your students' digital creations.  If you're interested in creating a blog, I'd be very glad to show you the basics of blogging.

    Use Wordle in order to create word clouds possibly describing characters, locations, events, etc.

    Use Glogster in order to create posters about the book, characters, etc.

 
    Classtools.net:  1)  Have students write questions and then create arcade games.  2)  Use Timeline in order to place certain events in chronological order.  3)  Upload a photograph to PostIt and let them create posts describing various things in it.  4)  Let groups or pairs of students create a FakeBook for the characters in the book.

     Create a free account for Wallwisher, write a question and let the students post comments in the form of sticky notes.
   
    Create a free account for Youblisher .  Let the students draw pictures depicting certain events in the book, write poems, etc. and create a PDF of them.  This file can be easily uploaded to Youblisher in order to create an online flippable or page turning book of their creations.


   
    Assign each student a certain character, place, event, situation, conversation, etc. in the book.  You will use Screencast-o-matic in order to create screencasts of them reading what they wrote about their assigned topic.  A video of them reading it can also be included in the corner if you like.

     Create a backchannel at Today'sMeet .  This can be a site for ongoing class discussions about the book - even while at home.  (This site may have to be unblocked.)
   
    Have the students to go to PicLits .  This is a poetry writing site inspired by photographs furnished on the site.  Tell them to ignore the photographs but instead use a character, event, etc. in the book and create a poem about it.  They have nouns, verbs, adjectives to choose from that helps them in the writing of their poems.  Awesome website!!!!!!
   
    Let students create talking avatars of the characters using the site called Voki .

   

    Bing Translator allows the students to type in quotes from the book and translate them into German.  They will see the German text and if they click on the speaker icon, they will hear the quote translated also.
   
    Download Google Earth and digitally fly your students from Columbus County to Berlin, Germany and then to Auschwitz, Poland.  It will be a great global education exercise.

    VoiceThread might be used to display students' artwork, poetry, writing, posters, etc.  They can type text or talk about their work while others can make comments also.  Feedback from others is one of the main benefits of VoiceThread.

Click on photo above.

    Thinglink can be used with one of the projects in which the students draw a map of the concentration camp.  This drawing can be scanned and imported into Thinglink.  Key positions or places on the map can be tagged with post-it notes on which descriptions can be written.  If you register for a free account with SoundCloud they will be able to record their descriptions that will be heard when the tag is clicked on.  View a sample here.

     Emotional Meter:  Smyface  This might be used in the project about the various emotions exhibited throughout the book.

     Podcasts can be made using a phone and Ipadio.  Podcasts can be used to explain photographs using Yodio.


     WebQuest:Click here Awesome site

    Fake Cell Phone Texts: iFakeText  This could be used in the project where the students write texts using abbreviations.

   

SOMETHING NEW!!!!!!!!
1/9/13

Why not let the kids write an acrostic style poem using a word from the book?  The word is printed vertically on the paper with each letter as the first letter to each line in the poem.

C   an't go home

A   ngry guards

M  ust remain hopeful

P   rayer

Here is a rubric that I found for poetry.  Looks pretty good to me.  RUBRIC   

What about a monorhyme in which all the lines have the same end rhyme?

Does no one care?
Are they not aware
Of our great despair?
Our fate is so unfair.
Freedom is our prayer.

Fold a narrow piece of paper in an accordian fold.  Draw half of a person like the old paper doll chains.  Open it up and a chain of people holding hands appears.  Let the students color them wearing striped pajamas.  Or they may use words in lines to form the stripes.  When finished, have them write a brief story, paragraph or poem about why these people are holding hands.