Roads

By Marc Harshman

Marshall Cavendish Co. 2002

ISBN 0-7614-5112-9

 

 

Roads is an engaging and poetic story about  travel. A family takes a drive in their van
to visit grandparents. Along the way, they spot other means of transportation, various kinds
of terrain and towns, directional signs and signals. The story reveals that a local familiar place,
the street this family lives on, is connected to the wider world.

 

Pre-reading activity

Ask the students if they have ever visited a relative/friend.

· What did they see along the way?

·How did they feel about their trip?

Chart and compare:

· Where did they go? (mark these places on a map)

· How did they get there?

· How long did it take?

Social Studies

List and identify:

·Traffic signals

· Signs

·Kinds of transportation

 

Discuss:

·Why do you think you would you take one form of transportation or another?

·Which do you think is fastest/slowest?

 

        Make:

·A map of your street

· Your route to school

·Your school building

· Your house

 

Math

Figure out

· How many people in a car? A bus? A train?

·How many wheels on a bicycle? Car? Truck?

 

Measure distance on your maps:

·How many steps between your classroom and the principal’s office?

·How many blocks from your home to school?

·How many miles to…?

· Look at map keys to see how distance is measured.

 

Science

       Discuss mechanics of locomotion:

·Wheels

·Engines

·Gears

·Rockets

·Wings

·Propellers

·Sails

 

       Make models:

·Cars with wheels that turn

·Rubber band propellers

·Paper airplanes

 

Language

        Identify:

·Verbs: stretch, wave, warn…

·Prepositions: beside, above, below, beyond…

 

        What do these phrases mean? How do they make you feel?

·“Trucks thunder beside us.”

· “Eyes are shining there.”

· “Black runs the road. White lines its middle. Silver guards the cliffs.”

· “We stretch. We RUN!”

 

Art/Music/Movement

        Pretend:

· Be a traffic cop

· Be a crossing guard

·  Be a particular vehicle

· Line up chairs  to be train cars

· Set up a bus/train station and study schedules, pay fares, load luggage, find seats

 

        Sing:

· “The Wheels on the ____”

· Make vehicle noises

 

         Draw/Construct:

· Maps

· Vehicles—large ones from refrigerator boxes, small ones from shoe boxes

· Costumes/Signs for pretend play above

· A picture of their travel experience