V: Very Last First Time

Letters U & V: Very Last First Time

When we did this week’s curriculum, we skipped U because of snowday, but these two letters worked well to combine, especially with this book. If you’re on a Co-op schedule and need to make up a day somewhere – this lesson will help you do just that.

If you used the book, Immi’s Gift, earlier this year, this is a good time to refer back to the Inuit Indians

Things I Need:

Very Last First Time book
Letter U/V Handwriting
Sheet (printable version here)
Map showing Canada (Ungava Bay Area)
Watercolors
Water cups
q-tips
paper for watercolors
variety of rocks

Review: T, can say TH …. Three Names … (Three Thing / This
That)

Introduce Story and the Letters of the Day

U
says U (like in cut and hut and Ungava (where our story takes place), sometimes U (tube, cube, rude, Inuit (like the girl in our story who is an Inuit Indian). And
what comes right after U?

V… and V says … V. Right? Does it always say V? Valley,
Victory, Violin, and our story for today,

Our story is called: “Very Last First Time”

Intro to the Story & Questions for Discussion:

Have you ever had a very last first time doing something? Is
there anything you didn’t used to be old enough to do, but now you are able to
do it? (getting the mail, feeding a pet, setting the table, brushing your teeth
by yourself, getting dressed)

Our story takes place in Canada, very close to the Artic.

Does anyone know where Canada is? (Country above us,
touching northern states and Alaska)

Does anyone remember another book we read that took place in
this area? (Immi’s Gift)

Immi was an Inuit Indian, just like the girl in this story.
The Inuits live in this area of Northern Canada, and especially around the
Ungava Bay. (Can you say Ungava?) What is the name of this continent? (North America). If you are following along with the curriculum, ask if they remember anything about the
Inuits.

Indian tribe that lived around the Arctic for
hundreds of years.
Clothes made of animal skins
Tundra too cold to grow food/trees, so ate
mostly meat hunted from the sea with harpoons, and some fish and berries. (In
this story we learn about something else they ate)
A harvested whale could feed an entire community
for a year. All parts were used – fat (blubber) to burn oil in lamps, bones for
houses and dog sleds, 20 men to kill a whale.

Inuit Vocab (optional):

Inuit: the people

Inuk: one Inuit

Inuksuk – a pile of stones to keep
someone from getting lost

Igloo – home

Show 3 Minute Video of Ungava Bay

If you want to really understand what is happening in the book, The Very Last First Time, this YouTube clip is PERFECT. Really, it is wonderful. And it’s only a couple of minutes. Watch it, show it to your class. They will understand what’s going on a lot better.

Read the story & Questions to Discuss

Eva is going on a journey by herself for the first time. She has taken this journey many many times before, but today, she is going on her own.

How do you think she feels?

How would you feel?

Create your own Inuksuk

Using a variety of smooth stones, let the kids stack two or three to create their own “Inuksuk”

Then, encourage them to -try- to draw their inuksuk using a technique called, “pointillism”.

The illustrator (do
you know what an illustrator is?) Uses a technique called “Pointillism” in her
pictures. You can look it up if you’d like the fancy definition. But basically, instead of using lines, pointillism is using tiny points or dots to create an image. We used Q-tips and water colors for our drawings.Encourage the kiddos to try to paint the Inusk we just made. Then on the other side of our
paper, paint anything you’d like to. Try to keep it simple. Blending colors is
okay, but don’t drag your qtip across the paper … you just want to make dots.