June Month-By-Month Pocket Charts Activity by Scholastic SC-0439073502-907350

Flag day Activity Materials

• 34- by 42-inch pocket chart
• 9 white sentence strips or 3 each of red (or pink), white, and blue
• flag and star templates (pages 79–80)
• red and blue markers
• card stock
• scissors
• an American flag (optional)

Flag day Activity Setting Up

1. Write each line of the poem on a separate sentence strip. If possible, arrange the strips in a red, white, and blue pattern.
2. Copy the flag template on card stock. Color the flag and cut it out.
3. Place the poem and flag in the pocket chart.

Flag day teaching With the Pocket Chart

1. Use this poem to help you teach the class about our flag. Read the poem to the class.
2. Show the flag and point out the stars and stripes. Invite children to count the stars with you. There are 50 stars, one for each state. Explain that the number of stars has changed over the years as territories joined the union.
3. Have children count the stripes. Explain that even though the number of stars has changed, the 13 stripes have remained the same all throughout. They represent the original British colonies that joined to form the United States. (The extent of your history lesson will depend on the ages of the children in your class.)
4. Have the class read the poem with you.

Flag day follow-up Activities

• Let the children help you cut 50 stars using the template. Use the 50 stars for various math activities.
• Have children carefully observe how the 50 stars are arranged on the flag. Ask, “How else could the stars be arranged in the rectangle? How could it be rearranged if another star were added?” (You may want to use an overhead transparency of the flag for this activity.)
• Challenge older children to research the history of our flag, states, and state flags. You may even have them research flags from other countries.
• Make a copy of the flag for each child. Instruct each child on how to color the flag.

Flag Day Literature Links
Our Flag by Eleanor Ayer (Millbrook, 1994)
If You Lived in Colonial Times by Ann McGovern (Scholastic, 1992)
The Boston Coffee Party by Doreen Rappaport (HarperCollins, 1996)
We the People: The Constitution of the Unites States of America by Peter Spier (Doubleday, 1987)
Our National Holidays by Karen Spies (Millbrook, 1994)

June is a tune

Purpose
Children celebrate and learn about summer.

June is a tune Pocket Chart Poem
June Is a Tune by Sarah Wilson
June is a tune
that jumps on a stair.
June is a rose
in a little girl’s hair.
June is a bumble
of one small bee.
June is a hug
from the sunshine
to me.

June is a tune Materials

• 34- by 42-inch pocket chart
• 10 sentence strips
• sun, flower, girl, and bee templates (page 80)
• colored markers
• card stock
• scissors

June is a tune Setting Up

1. Write each line of the poem on a separate sentence strip.
2. Copy the templates on card stock. Then color them and cut them out.
3. Place the sentence strips and templates in the pocket chart.

June is a tune Teaching With the Pocket Chart

1. Tell the children that summer officially begins around June 21. Explain that the first day of summer is actually the longest day of the year.
2. Read the poem with your class.
3. Engage the children in a discussion about the characteristics of summer. Ask, “What does summer mean to you?” Encourage them to describe summer, especially as related to their senses—the sights, smells, and sounds that remind them of summer. List their descriptions on the board or chart paper.
4. Reread the poem with your class. Invite children to act out parts of the poem, such as the bumblebee, the child climbing stairs, and the warm feeling of the sun.

June is a tune Follow-up Activities

• Using the list of summer sights and sounds, make a summer mural. Have children draw themselves in the mural. This makes a great end-of-year project to fill those last few days with creative fun.
• Have each child make a mobile of the things they like to do in the summer. Start with a piece of 10- by 12-inch tagboard on which each child writes the word “summer”. Punch holes along the bottom edge and tie string from which to hang drawn or cut-out pictures of their favorite summer activities. Help them glue their pictures to tagboard and hang them to their mobiles.
• Invite older children to design a postcard depicting their vacation plans on a 4- by 6- inch index card. Encourage children to exchange addresses with their friends for summer pen pals.

Literature Links
The Seasons of Arnold’s Apple Tree by Gail Gibbons (Harcourt Brace, Jovanovich, 1984)
Night Letters by Palmyra LoMonaco (Dutton, 1996)
The Little Boat by Kathy Henderson (Candlewick, 1998)