Joy

Illustration of the night sky and astronomical instruments

Al-Jawza’ Folktale

Learners are introduced to the Al-Jawza’ folktale. Learners complete a gallery walk of the thinking routine “What do you already know? What do you wonder about? What have you learned today?”

Unit:Astronomy

Includes

AlJawza constellation images (slides 1-3), AlJawza folktale, Astronomy unit vocabulary

ScienceSocial Studies5th Grade

Constellation Tour

Learners will investigate the seasonal appearance of stars in the night sky using movement and storytelling.

Unit:Astronomy

Includes

Well bucket constellation, Pictures of Seasonal Stars, Constellation tour student roles, Constellation tour script

Learners choose a phenomenon created by the movement of the Earth and a way to represent it through a graphical display of data. Learners create a folktale that explains the phenomenon including an understanding of why this mattered to our ancestors.

Unit:Astronomy

Includes

Final project planning sheet and rubric

Connecting to Special Places

Learners brainstorm special places and think about what makes it special. Learners use inspiration from various artists to bring their chosen places alive.

Includes

Special places handout, Mentor texts and artists

Sound maps

Learners explore representations of different sounds as they create sound maps.

Includes

You Draw My Hum lesson plan, Nia Fekri, Sonic hunt handout, Lesson slides

Dream Maps

Learners create multimedia maps of their dream places and worlds inspired by decolonial mapping.

Includes

Dream maps handout

Final Project

Learners work to memorialize some of their favorite places through collaborative art.

Includes

Examples of murals and collaborative design, Special places handout (from lesson 2), Mentor texts and artists (from lesson 2), Final project example

Illustration of food shared around a table and the stories it carries

Can a Picture Tell a Thousand Words?

Learners begin to understand that storytelling is multimodal. Learners experiment in creating a wordless story inspired by a mentor text.

Includes

Storytelling scaffold: people and places

Life Around a Table

Learners create a visual representation of a tablescape or sofra, drawing the foods they might eat, the objects that might be strewn on their table, and adding dialogue that is commonly heard.

Includes

Sample tablescape / sofra

How Can I Bring My Stories to Life?

Learners will brainstorm different special moments with a loved one and create a comic strip/storyboard to represent it. Learners experiment with figurative language to bring their writing to life.

Includes

Comic book template, Ten Ways to Hear Snow (Arabic excerpt)

Creating Recipe Stories

Learners will use their family interviews to create multimodal recipe stories.

Includes

Family interview connections

Oral Storytelling

Learners will explore different examples of oral storytelling practices like Zajal, hekaye, and harvesting songs.

Includes

Food and Stories unit vocabulary, Examples of oral storytelling, Oral storytelling observation tool

Preparing for Final Presentations Day 1

Learners will complete and revise two chosen pieces from their portfolios and reflect on their growth.

Includes

Checklist for final presentations, Portfolio reflection, Family letters

Preparing for Final Presentations Day 2

Learners will self-assess using a rubric and prepare for their presentations.

Includes

Checklist for final presentations, Family letters, Rubric for final presentations

Arabic Language ArtsScienceKindergarten

What do seeds need?

Learners read the mentor text, بذور by نور الهدى محمد and understand the things that seeds need to grow into healthy plants through a hands-on planting activity.

Collection:Arabic Language Arts Mentor Text Lessons

Includes

"What does a seed need?" anchor chart