Twenty and Ten
By: Claire Huchet Bishop
This page is a compilation of some of the work my fourth and fifth grade class did when reading the book, Twenty and Ten. We read the book collaboratively and completed many additional activities to enrich their learning experience. Before beginning the book, we reviewed some background information on World War II. The students compiled a bulletin board which we used as a visual aid throughout the story to remember which side everyone was on in the war.
The students colored pictures of each country's flag and helped make the labels. We then collaboratively matched the leader's picture to the country name and flag. The bulletin board was positioned near our reading area and I was able to refer to it easily when reading.
My students did not have a great deal of general knowledge of World War II, so we started the unit by completing an A-Z sheet of important vocabulary that would be used throughout the book and our discussions.
Throughout the book, I chose vocabulary words for the students to work on. At the end of the book, we had a brief quiz to assess their understanding. Each of the students was able to achieve competency on the quiz.
We completed several interactive projects while reading the book. One activity involved having the students imagine that they were being evacuated during World War II. They had to write a list of all the things they would need to bring for the year. We then discussed the differences between their list and what evacuees were allowed to bring. As a class, we explored an interactive website that allowed the students to pack a suitcase of supplies and discuss the importance of trying to mend or make clothes when possible instead of buying new items. Below is a screen shot taken from this activity.