pretending a city, state, region or country was a "scrapbooker"
This wacky activity was created by NNWP Teacher Consultant Barb Snelgrove.
This original summarizing activity was inspired by Barry Lane's awesome book, 51 Wacky We-Search Reports. Barry's fifty-one writing formats in his book teach students how to summarize (not plagiarize) facts from readings or from class notes. The book also encourages humor in the classroom, and using it will help you build a community among your student writers. If you don't own this book, but like the assignment on this page, we strongly recommend you purchase a copy.
Overview of this Wacky Writing Activity:
Students will demonstrate their understanding of the physical and human features of a city, county or state in a fun and inviting way by producing a scrapbook of a chosen place. The scrapbook, written in the "voice" of the place they are learning about, will include graphics and key information about the particular location. Hopefully, after reading and viewing scrapbooks, fellow students will want to visit those places (and they will be knowledgeable about them as well).
The Set-up:
Mentor Text: Read the picture book, Listen to the Wind. The setting of this book is in Pakistan and includes a scrapbook at the end of it, which gives information about a Pakistani village’s people, resources, landmarks and geography.
Kids love to look at pictures. I know some children who look at scrapbooks for hours on end. I know of some scrapbooks that have been viewed so much that they are falling apart. I also know of some people who stay up until the ‘wee” hours producing scrapbooks in the “scrap-o-rama” style. Tell students about these "scrapbookers," and have them think about this wacky question: "What if places stayed up all night making scrapbooks about themselves?"
This Wacky We-Search project will teach students about geographic locations in a colorful and engaging way. If each of your students were to create a scrapbook of all of the counties in your state, for example, think of the collection of engaging teaching tools you would have?
Before they get started on this project, have students bring in favorite scrapbooks from home and spend a bit of time passing the scrapbooks around the classroom. After students share their scrapbooks, create a quick list of they have learned.
You will need the following materials:
Construction paper
Markers
Templates and/or rulers
Glue
Photographs
Scrapbooking supplies (stickers, die cuts, scraps)
Teacher-made example
Reference materials about geographic locations
you are studying
The Punch:
Explain to your students that they are going to have a scrap-o-rama in their very own classroom! They will create a personal scrapbook page from the point-of-view of a county, city or state that they have been learning about in class. They will need to “delve” a bit more to find specific information on the location that they must “scrapbook.”
Remind your students that scrapbooks are often about vacations and that vacations are fun. Encourage students to write about their place so that everyone would want to visit it.
The scrapbook should include at least eight graphics and explanations/descriptions as follows:
Location (maps)
Weather
A natural or man-made landmark or landform
Natural resource(s) found in this area
An interesting person from this area
An industry of this area
When was this area established or founded
A “little known fact about this place
A Funny Tip:
It would be great for students to come up with an interesting motto about the place whose voice they are “scrapbooking” for. For example, if the place has an abundance of sagebrush, the motto could be: “All for our sagebrush,” or, perhaps, “In sagebrush we trust.”
Sample mottos below. Challenge students to think of creative mottos:
