These activities are self-contained units that cover everything from creative writing to dictionary usage to research skills. They are simple to make, requiring few materials (paper, marking pens, large mailing envelopes) and easy to store and implement. I have used them as learning centers or as whole group activities. I add activities to the units and create new ones each year. This year I'm working on themes for cats, colors, and books. I hope to have them ready to go for the next school year.

Directions:

1. Create a rough silhouette of a shape that is appropriate for the theme. Make a pattern from oaktag or light weight cardboard.
2. Trace the pattern onto white paper, making enough shapes for the number of activities involved in the theme.
3. With marking pens, decorate one side of the shape.
4. On the other side of the shape write the activity.
5. Laminate or cover the shape with clear contact paper for durability.
6. Trace a shape onto a large envelope.
7. Color the shape the same as you did the others.
8. Write the name of the theme on the envelope and any directions you wish to give your students about completing the activities.
9. Laminate or cover the envelope with clear contact paper.
10. Place the shapes in the envelope and make them readily available to your students.
11. Your Mini-Thematic Unit is ready to use.

Themes and Activities:

• Write a poem about your favorite flower. Then draw the flower on your paper.
• Look up these words in the dictionary. Write the definitions on your paper. Make a crossword puzzle using the words and definitions:
  • stamen
  • leaf
  • petal
  • soil
  • pistol
  • arrangement
  • stem
  • transplant
  • annuals
  • perennials
  • pot
• Survey at least 25 people to see what their favorite flower is. Graph your results.
• Visit a local greenhouse or florist to find out the correct way to make a flower arrangement. Draw a diagram illustrating the proper way to arrange flowers.
• How did flowers receive their names? For example- Bleeding Hearts, Touch-me-nots, Hens and Chicks, Black Eye Susans. Choose three or four flowers. Study them carefully and consider their names. Write a paragraph that explains how you think each flwer got its name.
• Collect pictures of flowers from magazines or newspapers or draw your own. Make a flwer dictionary. Try to find a flower for each letter of the alphabet.
• All states have a state flower. Choose five states. Draw their outlines and then draw a picture of their flowers inside each silhouette.

• You are in charge of collecting the money for the school candy sale. When you count the money you find you are $50 short. What will you do to find the money? Write about it.
• Make a mobile of your favorite mystery novel. Put the title and author on one end, a picture on another. Write the summary and put it in the middle. Hang up your mobile when you finish.
• Look up these words in the dictionary. Write their definitions in your own words. Make a word search with the words.
  • sever
  • famine
  • integral
  • query
  • decrepit
  • wrath
  • mutilate
  • flourish
  • rogue
  • bogus
  • investigator
• You are a detective. Design a poster to make others want to hire you to solve a case.
• Write your own mystery story. Rmemeber a good mystery needs to have clues so that the reader can try to solve it as he/she is reading.
• Amy is nine years old. One day her necklace disappears. She comes to you for help in solving this mystery. What will you do? Write about it.

• Read several legends. How are they alike? How are they different? Write two paragraphs, one comparing legends, the other contrasting them.
• Write your own legend about some important event in your life. For example: the great snowstorm of 1996.
• The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is an interesting story. Read it. Make a mobile of the characters in the story. Include their illustrations and a few sentences describing them.
• Look up these words in the dictionary and write a definition for each. Then write a paragraph explaining what a legend is using the words.
  • legend
  • fanciful
  • reality
  • hero
  • heroine
  • characteristics
• Survey at least 20 people to find out who their favorite legendary character is. Chart your results.
• After reading several legends, describe which is your favorite. Design a poster advertising this legend. Put enough information on the poster to interest others in reading it, but don't tell the entire story.
• Make a chart comparing at least seven legendary characters. Include their name, their country, special characteristics, and what made them famous.
• American legendary characters include Pecos Bill, John Henry, and Paul Bunyan. Choose one of these or another to read about. Write an original story using this character as the main character.
• Write your own legend after having read several. Develop a hero/heroine and villain. Decide on the characteristics of your hero/heroine and villain. Design a colorful cover for your story.

• Survey at least 30 people to see if they believe in ghosts. Graph your results.
• Pretend a wicked witch is coming to town. You have been hired as her publicist. Write an ad for the local newspaper advertising her arrival.
• Cut out pictures of witches and ghosts and make a collage.
• Create a cartoon about your favorite ghost or witch story. Make it at least four frames.
• Pretend you are a witch. Would you be a good witch or a bad witch? Write a paragraph telling all about you.
• Write a ghost story. Make a colorful cover for your story.
• Choose your favorite ghost or witch story. Make a poster advertising it so that others will want to read it.
• Look up these words in the dictionary. Write their definitions in your own words. Write a story using the words.
  • ghost
  • boo
  • brew
  • potion
  • broom
  • witch
  • scary
  • eerie
  • cauldron

• Computers have become an accepted part of most people's lives. Write a paragraph or two explaining how your life would be different if there were suddenly no more computers.
• Survey at least 30 people to see if they own a personal home computer. Graph your results.
• Look up these words in the dictionary. Write their definitions in your own words. Write an explanatory paragraph story using all of the words.
  • computer
  • technology
  • electronics
  • microchip
  • silicon
  • processor
  • monitor
  • interface
  • video
  • program
  • software
• Write a story where a computer is the main character. Include dialogue in your story.
• Compare the computers of today with what you think computers will be like in twenty years. Write one paragraph of comparison and one of contrast.
• Imagine you have been transported 100 years in the past. How would you explain a computer to an American frontier person.

• Using pictures you have around the house, write captions for them that are humorius.
• Create your own cartoon or comic strip stories. make at least four separate frames. Publish them in a weekly paper or a Sunday edition, i.e. black and white or color.
• Try your hand at writing a cartoon from an inanimate object's point of view.
• Caricatures are exaggeration in personality and physical characteristics. Draw a caricature of yourself.
• A friend of yours is having a birthday. Make a birthday card for your friend. Draw a cartoon on the front and write a verse inside.
• Choose five favorite comic strips. Put the ones you like best first and so on. Tell why you choose each cartoon and the order in which you placed them.
• Walt Disney is widely known for his animated cartoons. Find out about his life. Why do you think he is an important American cartoonist?
• Charles Schultz, the cartoonist of "Peanuts," is probably the best known modern cartoonist. Find examples of his earlier work,before "Peanuts." How are these cartoons like Peanuts? How are they different? Write two paragraphs comparing and contrasting his two styles.
• Make up your own comic strip hero/heroine. Decide what this person is to look like and draw him/her. Also design the signature style of clothing this person will wear. For example- Charlie Brown always wears the same clothing.
• Think about exaggerations. What animal character might a person be who eats a lot? talks a lot? has freckles? Now make up two of your own and illustrate them.
• Look up the definitions of the following words. Write a definition for each in your own words. Use each word in a meaningful sentence about comic strips:
  • caption
  • dialogue
  • inanimate
  • animation
  • personification
  • exaggeration
  • editorial
  • caricature
• Draw a cartoon or comic strip about the funniest thing that has ever happened to you. Write dialogue to accompany your cartoon. Remember to enclose the dialogue in a balloon.
• The words in a comic strip are in shapes called balloons. Choose a comic strip you enjoy and write new words or thoughts in each balloon.
• Collect a week's examples of one particular comic strip. Were any phrases repeated? What statements were used to show what the character is like? Was a new character introduced?

• Totem poles were made to tell the history of Native Americans. Create your own totem pole telling the story of your life. Briefly write about the items you place on your totem pole and tell of their significance.
• Draw a diagram of a Native American village showing their way of life.
• Read about the different headdresses worn by Native Americans for different occasions. Create a new ceremony and design a headdress to go along with it. Write a paragraph describing the ceremony and include a colored sketch of the headdress.
• Native Americans make certain designs in their handmade pottery to show ownership or to tell a story. Draw the outline of a bowl on a sheet of paper. Color a design on the bowl that represents your family. Write aparagraph explaining the significance of the design.
• Make a recipe book of Native American food. Design a cover for your recipe book. Include one or two of your own newly created Native American dishes. Choos one recipe to make and share with the members of your class.
• Read some books about Native Americans and their lives. Make a small notebook of sketches of tools, homes, clothing, and weapons used by them.
• Look up the following words in a dictionary. Write the definitions in your own words. Add four new words of your own that are related to Native American life. Make a crossword puzzles using the words and definitions.
  • design
  • weapon
  • teepee
  • longhouse
  • arrow
  • bark
  • bow
  • wigwam
  • totem pole
  • shaman

• There are many different varieties of apples. Research apple varieties and find the names of five different ones. Make a table illustrating the pertinent information about each variety. For example: color, taste, uses of, shape and size.
• Several folktales involve apples. Locate and read at least two. Change the setting and characters of one of the tales so that the story takes place in the present or the future. Retain the basic plot structure and theme. Write your story and include at least one colorful illustration.
• Look up the following words in a dictionary. Write the definitions in your own words. Write an expository paragraph using whose topic is apples; use all the words in your paragraph.
  • varieties
  • graft
  • horticulture
  • orchard
  • pome
  • blossom
  • apple
  • germinate
  • pollinate
• Create an acrostic poem using the letters in the word "apples."
• An old proverb says that "an apple a day keeps the doctor away." How true is this staement? Do some research on the nutritional content of apples. Write a paragraph defending the proverb.
• Write a narrative story from an apple's point of view that describes an adventure.
• Imagine you are an apple hanging from a tree on a hot, sunny summer morning. Next to you is the most interesting-looking apple you have ever seen. Write a conversation the two of you might have.
• Take a popular children's song and change the content of it to be about apples.

• Design a space ship of your own. Be sure to show where you would sleep, eat, exercise, work, lay, etc...
• "Star Wars" is a space adventure story. Write your own space adventure.
• If you were sent to live on another planet where would you go? Who would you take with you? Why? Write a paragraph explaining your answers to these questions.
• Imagine you are a creature from another planet. Draw what you look like. Write what you find to be the most interesting thing about the planet Earth.
• Imagine you are going on an expedition into space. You will be gone for one year. What will you take with you? Make a list of everything you will need. Explain briefly why you will need these items.
• Draw a chart of our solar system's nine planets showing the approximate size of each in relation to the others.
• Research space disasters. Write a paragraph or two about one.
• Virgil Grissom, Neil Armstrong, and John Glenn are some famous astronauts. Find the names of three more astronauts. Make a chart showing:
  • Name(s) of spacecraft in which each has flown
  • Dates of flight(s)
  • Length of time in space
  • Destination
• Look up these words in the dictionary and write their definitions in your own words. Write a poem using these words.
  • orbit
  • meteor
  • gravity
  • revolve
  • satellite
  • comet
  • universe
  • atmosphere
  • astronaut
  • constellation
  • inter-planetary