Thank You For the Get Well Card

Overview
Children imagine dialogues as they read "bed" books by various authors and create activity cards/mini-books that brighten the lives of ill children. By contacting a pediatric hospital unit, they learn about health care and share their experiences with children who are alone and afraid.
For more about Special #3 from Community Portrait in Pictures and Words, e-mail Alex Lambros Pappas, author and AT&T Teacher Disseminator.
Learning Standards
  • Understand and use the writing process effectively.
  • Employ various formats and technology to complete and enhance work.
  • Employ arts to communicate beliefs, experiences, ideas and imagination.
  • Connect what they read with their experiences and the experiences of others.
    • Classroom Activities
    Students develop understanding of enforced bed rest or hospitalization by reading several related books. For their get well cards, they:
  • Get ideas from Gwen Diehn's book Making Books that Fly, Fold, Wrap, etc.
  • Write their personal messages of encouragement for their mini-books.

  • Illustrate the contents and the front cover.
  • Include a fantasy story, jokes or riddles for amusement.
  • Design word games. puzzles and mazes.
  • Enclose a packet of crayons and pencil.
    • Community Activities
    Working with a pediatric ward, students identify sick children and give or send them their activity cards/mini-books.    		 Careers
    Health care providers visit the class, discuss their careers and emphasize the importance of interacting with patients. Students observe the roles of health workers at a hospital.
    Materials
    The Bed Book by Sylvia Plath, 1976: The Trumpet Club; "The Land of Counterpane" by Robert Louis Stevenson from A Child's Garden of Verses, 1995:Applewood Books; When Molly Was in the Hospital by Debbie Duncan, 1994: Rayve Productions; Making Books that Fly, Fold, Wrap, Hide, Pop-Up, Twist and Turn by Gwen Diehn, 1998: Random House; art, writing and bookbinding supplies    		 Technology
    Students use Microsoft Word, KidPix and Photoshop for their activity cards/mini-books.
    Assessment
    Teacher and students review literature for comprehension. Activity cards/mini-books are evaluated for accuracy and expression.

    Web Sites
    Teacher and students research a Collection of Children's Literature Sources at http://www.library.uiuc.edu/edx/s-home.htm