How I Spent My Summer Vacation

How I Spent My Summer Vacation - Activity Two

Activity Two: Are We There Yet?

1. Read the book How I Spent My Summer Vacation with your students.
Find this book in the library, or here is direct link to purchase the book, new or used, from Amazon.com: How I Spent My Summer Vacation (Dragonfly Books)

2. As you are reading the story, ask students to focus on the various settings found in the story. You can use the setting printables we have created. (The age of your students will determine the depth of this focus.)

3. After reading the story, have a class discussion about the settings. You can create charts to help students identify the events that took place in the various settings of the story.

4. Just like Wallace, your students traveled to a variety of "settings" during the course of their summer vacation. These settings may have been in their own neighborhood, city, state, country, or around the world. Whatever the case may be, students will create a list of their summer vacation destinations. (This may require some help from parents.)

5. Once students have completed their list of destinations, they will use paper and/or electronic resources to calculate the number of miles they traveled during their own summer vacation.

6. Once all students in the class have their total calculated, use the classroom mileage page to combine the mileage traveled by each student to find the total miles traveled by your class. I will be collecting these totals and entering them into a spreadsheet where everyone can view the totals for all participating classes. (Directions for this step will come at a later date.)

ACTIVITY PRINTABLES
Setting - younger students
Setting - older students
Mileage Chart - Record the places you traveled to and calculate your mileage.
Mileage Chart Example - As the teacher, you will need to decide how you want to ask your students to complete the chart. Just make sure that everyone complete it the same way so that the mileage is as accurate as possible.
Parent Note - A letter to parents asking for their help with the mileage chart. It's a Word document and ready for you to customize.
Classroom Mileage - Use this form to collect individual student totals and the to calculate your classroom total.

Printable Directions for Activity Two
Directions for sharing information about mileage

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