Greetings! Welcome to our class wiki. We are Amy, Kathie, Susie, Kate, Elizabeth and Cyra, graduate students of Lesley University. Our cohort is based in Maine.

For our Drama and Critical Literacy course we have created lesson plans based on the story Mrs. Rumphius written and illustrated by Mainer, Barbara Cooney. These lessons have been designed to transform a story into an improvised play to be performed by elementary students.

We chose this book to be performed by fourth grade students. Introducing a Maine writer/illustrator at this grade level aligns with their Maine studies unit. As you will see the following lesson plans can be adapted to other grade levels as well as integrated with specialists.

For a summary of Cooney's book and drawings based on her illustrations, check out our story map!

As an integrated arts program our goal in this unit is to assist the students in accomplishing the individual goals presented here:

1.) Literacy: To interpret the story of Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney

2.) Social: To encourage students to do something in their lives to make the world a more beautiful place and to identify people in the community who have achieved this goal.

3.) Science: To learn about the life cycles of plants through the study of lupine.

These goals are addressed in each of our six lesson plans. Lesson one assists students in recalling the story and relating to it personally. In Lesson two students develop a creative extension to the story. Lesson three allows students to explore and creatively express the story. Lesson four helps students understand the lupine cycle. Lesson five musically expresses the process of the lupine seed spread and lesson six helps students to recognize people in the community who make the world a more beautiful place.

Lesson 1: Letter to Grandpa

Lesson 2: What Will Little Alice Do?

Lesson 3: Drawing the Places We Go and the People We Meet

Lesson 4: Morphing sculptures to music-An understanding of the lupine germination process

Lesson 5: Rhythm Machine

Lesson 6: People in Our Community

To find out how these lessons address the Maine Learning Results, click here!

For our group reflections and process, click here!

*Miss Rumphius cover image retrieved 4/22/07 from http://www.lookingglassreview.com/assets/images/Miss_Rumphius.jpg
*intro written by Kathie Dieffenbach
*goals and lesson plan summary written by Cyra Morrill