I’m linking up with Collaboration Cuties on this rainy Sunday!
The book I want to share with you today was one of my very favorite books when I was in elementary school. I love being able to share books with my kiddos that I read when I was their age!
Island of the Blue Dolphins is historical fiction. It is based on the story of an Indian girl who lived on an island off the coast of California by herself for 18 years. Karana is the name of the girl in the book. She loses her tribe and her family, and has to learn to survive alone on the island. Our curriculum requires us to teach about six different tribes, one of which are a Northwest tribe, very much like Karana’s, so it goes along perfectly with our Native American unit.
The story is beautifully written. The time and place of the book are described in such great detail- I use it as a mentor text to help students incorporate setting into their own writing. It also has some great similes, metaphors, and personification in it! You can download a freebie I created here or by clicking on the image below.
I also found a great (free!) Scholastic unit that you can download here to go with the book that has some great lesson ideas!
I was so excited that my kiddos loved this book as much as I did! This is the first chapter book of the year that I read to them, and even just last week, one of my kiddos was still making connections with it!
What are your favorite books to read with Social Studies integration? Go link up with Collaboration Cuties to share, and get some other great ideas!
I also want to link this up to Fifth In The Middle’s awesome SS linky! 🙂
