Introducing new units for Amplify CKLA and Amplify Caminos K–5

“Every child is an artist,” said Picasso, meaning that every child uses art to explore and understand the world around them. Art and the World Around Us honors that truth by introducing Kindergarten students to some of the ways in which artists have explored and understood the worlds around them, too.

This domain introduces students to artists from different time periods, countries, and cultures. Throughout the unit, students learn about different kinds of art and how artists use the world around them as they make art. They also connect this to what they have already learned about the earth, plants, and animals in other Amplify CKLA and Amplify Caminos domains: Farms/Granjas, Plants/Plantas, and Taking Care of the Earth/Cuidar el planeta Tierra. In addition, students connect this to what they have learned about sculptors in the Presidents and American Symbols/Presidentes y símbolos de los Estados Unidos domain. As they explore different artists and artistic traditions, they develop their ideas about how humans are connected to each other and to the world around them.

As you read the texts in this unit, students may observe ways in which the characters or subjects are both similar to and different from students. This is a good opportunity to teach students awareness and sensitivity, building on the idea that all people share some things in common, and have other things that make them unique. This unit also offers an excellent opportunity to collaborate with your school’s art teacher, as many lessons have suggested activities to help students understand the kind of art they are studying.

Within this unit, students have opportunities to:

• Use details to describe art.
• Identify three ways to create art.
• Identify characteristics of cave art.
• Sequence the steps of making pottery.
• Describe how artists can create work connected to the world around them.
• Describe what makes Kehinde Wiley’s portraits unique.
• Explain how the texture of a surface can affect artwork created on it.
• Explain what a sculpture is.
• Describe what makes James Turrell’s artwork about the sky unique.
• Explain what a museum is and what kinds of things you can see or do there.

Instruction in this unit revolves around the following collection of high-interest authentic trade books. One copy of each trade book is included with the unit materials.

• The First Drawing by Mordicai Gerstein
• Van Gogh and the Sunflowers by Laurence Anholt
• My Name is Georgia by Jeanette Winter
• A Life Made by Hand by Andrea D’Aquino
• Rainbow Weaver by Linda Elovitz Marshall
• Luna Loves Art by Joseph Coelho

This domain introduces students to adventure stories set around the world and challenges students to dig into the adventures through research. By listening to the Read-Alouds and trade books, students increase their vocabulary and reading comprehension skills, learn valuable lessons about perseverance and teamwork, and become familiar with gathering information for research.

In this unit, students study the careers of real-world explorers Dr. Eugenie Clark and Sophia Danenberg, marvel at the inventions of Jacques Cousteau, think critically about how teamwork and collaboration can make greater adventures possible, learn about the science and technology that enable adventures, and research some of the ways humans have confronted challenges at the edges of the world, from the oceans below to space above.

Each lesson in the domain builds students’ research skills as they ask questions, gather information, and write a paragraph about their findings. Students share what they have learned about adventures in an Adventure Gallery Walkthrough. By taking on the persona of one of the adventurers they meet in the Read-Alouds and trade books, students deliver their final paragraphs as if they are a “speaking portrait” of that person. Students are invited to dress up as that adventurer if they desire.

In addition, teachers can set aside time outside of the instructional block to create the picture frames students will hold as they present to the Adventure Gallery Walk guests. Frames can be made from shirt boxes, cardboard, construction paper, or any art supplies that are on hand. This might be an opportunity to collaborate with the school’s art department if resources are available. Another option is to ask students to make their frames at home with their caregivers. On the day of the Adventure Gallery Walk, students will be the hosts and take on specific jobs, such as welcoming the guests, describing their work throughout the unit, and pointing out the areas of study on the domain bulletin board. You can find a complete list of student jobs in Lesson 13.

This unit builds upon the following Amplify CKLA and Amplify Caminos units that students will have encountered in the previous grade.

• Nursery Rhymes and Fables/Rimas y fábulas infantiles (Kindergarten)
• Stories/Cuentos (Kindergarten)

The specific core content targeted in these domains is particularly relevant to the Read-Alouds students will hear in Adventure Stories: Tales from the Edge of the World. The background knowledge students bring to this unit will greatly enhance their understanding of the trade books used in this unit.

Instruction in this unit revolves around the following collection of high-interest authentic trade books. One copy of each trade book is included with the unit materials.

• My Name is Gabito/Me llamo Gabito by Monica Brown
• Tomas and the Galápagos Adventure by Carolyn Lunn
• The Astronaut with a Song for the Stars: The Story of Dr. Ellen Ochoa by Julia Finley Mosca
• Mae Among the Stars by Roda Ahmed
• Shark Lady: The True Story of How Eugenie Clark Became the Ocean’s Most Fearless Scientist by Jess Keating
• Manfish by Jennifer Berne
• Keep On! The Story of Matthew Henson, Co-Discoverer of the North Pole by Deborah Hopkinson
• The Top of the World: Climbing Mount Everest by Steve Jenkins

With this domain, students head up, up, and away with an introduction to the soaring history of aviation. Students learn the stories of early aviators, such as the Montgolfier brothers, the Wright brothers, Aída de Acosta, and Amelia Earhart.

During the unit, students study the science of flight, including the physics concept of lift, and research the social impacts of the world of flight. Finally, students let their research skills take flight as they explore key figures from the world of aviation.

The lessons in this domain build on earlier Grade 2 CKLA and Amplify Caminos domains about the westward expansion, early Greek civilizations, and Greek myths, and lay the foundation for learning about other periods of world history in future grades.

This unit builds upon the following Amplify CKLA and Amplify Caminos units that students will have encountered earlier in the year.

• The Ancient Greek Civilization/La civilización griega antigua (Grade 2)
• Greek Myths/Mitos griegos (Grade 2)
• Westward Expansion/La expansión hacia el oeste (Grade 2)

The specific core content targeted in these domains is particularly relevant to the Read-Alouds students will hear in Up, Up, and Away: The Age of Aviation. The background knowledge students bring to this unit will greatly enhance their understanding of the trade books used in this unit.

Instruction in this unit revolves around the following collection of high-interest authentic trade books. One copy of each trade book is included with the unit materials.

• Up and Away!: How Two Brothers Invented the Hot-Air Balloon by Jason Henry
• The Glorious Flight: Across the Channel with Louis Blériot by Alice and Martin Provensen
• The Flying Girl: How Aída de Acosta Learned to Soar by Margarita Engle
• Wood, Wire, Wings: Emma Lilian Todd Invents an Airplane by Kirsten Larson
• Helicopter Man: Igor Sikorsky and His Amazing Invention by Edwin Brit Wyckoff
• The Tuskegee Airmen Story by Lynn Homan and Thomas Reilly
• Skyward: The Story of Female Pilots in WWII by Sally Deng
• Aim for the Skies: Jerrie Mock and Joan Merriam Smith’s Race to Complete Amelia Earhart’s Quest by Aimee Bissonette

This domain teaches students about the vibrant music, poetry, and culture of the Jazz Age in the United States. Students learn about famous writers and musicians like Langston Hughes, Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Melba Liston, Tito Puente, and Miles Davis. They study how the jazz art form took root in the South, then spread to the North to become the sound of the Harlem Renaissance, eventually connecting people around the world in musical expression.

During this unit, students perform guided research to further explore both the history of jazz and what jazz is today. They develop research skills and then use those skills to find deeper connections between the stories and music of the Jazz Age and music today. As students learn about the world of jazz, they collaborate and share ideas with their classmates. They also practice sharing feedback focused on their written work, and, at the end of the unit, students present their research to the group.

The lessons give students opportunities to dive into the rhythms and stories of jazz, utilizing the knowledge sequence in this unit to:

• Collaboratively generate research questions about jazz, jazz musicians, contemporary musicians from the state where they live or have lived, and the evolution of jazz music.
• Utilize Read-Alouds, independent reading, and partner reading to learn about the Jazz Age, the Harlem Renaissance, jazz music, and biographies of celebrated jazz musicians and writers.
• Research the answers to their generated questions, gather information, write a short research essay about a famous jazz musician, write a short essay about a contemporary musician from the state where they live or have lived, and give a presentation about their research.

Within this unit, students have opportunities to:

• Ask relevant questions and make pertinent comments
• Identify details in texts
• Determine key ideas of texts by evaluating details
• Make text-based inferences
• Generate questions based on prior knowledge and gathered information
• Synthesize details across texts to demonstrate comprehension
• Discuss and explain an author’s purpose
• Identify and cite reliable primary and secondary sources of information
• Compose a well-organized and focused informative essay
• Make connections between topics
• Present information using appropriate media

Instruction in this unit revolves around the following collection of high-interest authentic trade books. One copy of each trade book is included with the unit materials.

• Birth of the Cool: How Jazz Great Miles Davis Found His Sound by Kathleen Cornell Berman
• Little Melba and Her Big Trombone by Kathryn Russell-Brown
• Benny Goodman and Teddy Wilson: Taking the Stage as the First Black and White Jazz Band in History by Lesa Cline-Ransome
• Tito Puente, Mambo King by Monica Brown
• Drum Dream Girl: How One Girl’s Courage Changed Music by Margarita Engle
• Duke Ellington: The Piano Prince and His Orchestra by Andrea Pinkney

In this unit, students also read the poem “Harlem” by Langston Hughes. (Available for free through the Academy of American Poets website and the Poetry Foundation website, with recorded audio available through the website for John Hancock College Preparatory High School.)

With this domain, students become tomorrow’s problem solvers in this study of energy in the United States. Analytical reading skills are developed by examining the challenges of early energy innovators. Students then read about current energy practices and young energy change-makers across the world.

Throughout the unit, students conduct research into different sources of energy and present a proposal, putting them in the shoes of future energy innovators. They also use the knowledge sequence in this unit to:

• Collaboratively analyze texts to identify cause-effect and problem-solution relationships.
• Generate questions and conduct research about energy.
• Write an opinion essay making their case for a fuel of the future.
• Create energy proposals using primary and secondary resources.

This unit builds upon the following Amplify CKLA units that students will have encountered in previous grades as well as earlier in the year.

• Plants/Plantas (Grade K)
• The History of the Earth/La historia de la Tierra (Grade 1)
• Eureka! Student Inventor/¡Eureka! El arte de la invención (Grade 4)

The specific core content targeted in these domains is particularly relevant to the Read-Alouds students will hear in Energy: Past, Present, and Future. The background knowledge students bring to this unit will greatly enhance their understanding of the trade books used in this unit.

Instruction in this unit revolves around the following collection of high-interest authentic trade books. One copy of each trade book is included with the unit materials.

• Buried Sunlight: How Fossil Fuels Have Changed the Earth by Molly Bang and Penny Chisholm
• Energy Island: How One Community Harnessed the Wind and Changed their World by Allan Drummond
• The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Picture Book Edition by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer

Within this domain, Students learn about General Granger’s announcement in Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865, a day marked in history as Juneteenth. Texts and multimedia sources will support foundational knowledge-building about the end of slavery in the United States. A review of the first freedom announcement, President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, provides students with background knowledge to further emphasize the significance of Juneteenth in American history.

This unit also takes students on a journey beyond Juneteenth, as they study specific contributions of African Americans from 1865 to the present day. Students participate in a virtual field trip to Emancipation Park in Houston, Texas and use the knowledge sequence in this unit to:

• Collaboratively generate research questions about Juneteenth, The Great Migration, innovators and inventors, education, the humanities, activists, and allies.
• Use Read-Alouds, independent, and partner reading to learn about African American contributions from 1865 to the present.
• Research to find answers to their generated questions, gather information, and write a four-chapter Beyond Juneteenth book.

This unit builds upon the following Amplify CKLA units that students will have encountered in previous grades.

• Native Americans/Los nativos americanos (Grade K)
• A New Nation: American Independence/Una nueva nación: la independencia de los Estados Unidos
  (Grade 1)
• The U.S. Civil War/La Guerra Civil de los Estados Unidos (Grade 2)
• Immigration/La inmigración (Grade 2)
• Native Americans/Los nativos americanos (Grade 5)

The specific core content targeted in these domains is particularly relevant to the Read-Alouds students will hear in Beyond Juneteenth: 1865 to present. The background knowledge students bring to this unit will greatly enhance their understanding of the trade books used in this unit.

Instruction in this unit revolves around the following collection of high-interest authentic trade books. One copy of each trade book is included with the unit materials.

• All Different Now: Juneteenth, the First Day of Freedom by Angela Johnson
• The Great Migration: An American Story by Jacob Lawrence
• Sing a Song: How “Lift Every Voice and Sing” Inspired Generations by Kelly Starling Lyons
• Side by Side/ Lado a lado: The Story of Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez/ La Historia de Dolores Huerta y Cesar Chavez by Monica Brown
• Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters by Barack Obama