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Class Activities for Heroes o Have students each come up with their own definitions for the word “hero.”  Then direct students to write a reflection comparing their definition with the definition of “hero” in the dictionary.  o Teach students what adjectives are.  As a class, come up with adjectives which describe heroes.  o Read Hot Fudge Hero by Pat Brisson aloud to the class over the period of one week.  Ask students why the main character  was a hero. o Teach students about venn-diagrams.  Together as a class create a venn-diagram comparing Superman and Abraham Lincoln, two heroes; one real-life and one fantasy.  o Make a class book about heroes.  Assign an adjective to each student and have them choose a person or character who exemplifies that adjective.  Then have students create a page which includes a drawing and an explanation of the hero and adjective.  Compile the pages to create a book.  o Be technologically friendly!  Have students do a webquest on the PBS website http://www.pbs.org/wnet/heroes/about.html which is a site dedicated to the heroes of Ground Zero.  Create questions which students must answer while on the site, and have the children write a reflection using Microsoft Word addressing how they felt while surfing the site once they are finished with the activity.  Class Activities for Travel o To begin to teach students about travel, teach the concept and function of a passport.  Have students make their own passports and use those passports at school.  Each time a student enters or exits the classroom, the passport must be stamped.   If possible, get other teachers to cooperate and stamp passports during specials such as P.E., music, etc.  At the end of the unit, students can look through their passports to see when and where they have traveled. o Teach students about the importance of travel through a unit lesson on diversity.  During each of the three weeks in the unit, teach students about a different culture including background, language, people, and the safety of that country for travel.  o Teach students how to write haiku poems, and have each student write a different poem about an area of the world that they have traveled to and what they saw there and liked about it.  Then have students write another poem about a place they someday wish to visit.  o Teach students the various methods of transportation.   Have students reseach important historical events in which different forms of transportation were used and if they are still currently being used.   Look at the positives of each method as well as the negatives to each and have students compare two specific types and which they prefer in a reflection essay.  o In math, have students calculate distances between various states and countries.  o Have each student choose a country to research.  By the end of the unit, students should have completed research on their country including culture, people, traditions, and geography.  Each student will do an oral poster presentation for the class on their country for their final project,  Class Activities for Community o Discuss the importance of rules in a functioning society or community.  Create a classroom management plan as a class including rules and consequences for breaking policies.  o In order to teach students how important it is to become involved in the community, do a service project for a local organization.  Have the class run a canned food drive or spend a few hours as a class making cards for people at a local nursing home.  o Celebrate diversity in the classroom by emphasizing the importance of each individual and recognizing the strengths and differences each student brings to the classroom.  In order to see how diversity is important in a community, have students find two differences and two similarities between themselves and each student in the classroom.  Have students write a reflection on how the activity made them feel and what they appreciate about their classmates and what they think their peers can help them learn