for teachers

Here’s a quick and easy-to-use guide for using this web site as a teaching tool in the classroom.

It all begins with the book…

Start by reading The Lemonade War out loud to your students. Once they’ve come to know Evan and Jessie, they’ll be much more interested in exploring the activities on this web site. Houghton Mifflin offers a free, comprehensive Teacher’s Guide for the book that includes a wide variety of activities to help make curriculum connections in your classroom.

Language Arts Connections

Writing in Genres

Students often study writing by genres: informational, personal narrative, descriptive/fiction, biography/autobiography, and persuasive. Several of these genres are represented in activities on this website.

Visit the “blowup” page. Here you’ll find examples of personal narratives: kids writing about arguments they’ve had with people they are close to (a sibling, a parent, a close friend). Explore some of the stories. What makes some more compelling than others? How close do your students feel to the writer after reading a particular story? Now have your students write their own “blowup” stories. Carry each one through first draft, revision, and final draft.

Visit the “burp!” page. Recipes are a form of informational writing. There are two parts to a recipe: the list of ingredients and the directions. Each part needs to be precise. Talk with your students about what might happen if the author of a recipe forgot to include an ingredient or left out a step. Have your students write their own recipes. These can be for something as simple as a ham-and-cheese sandwich or a banana-split. Have students trade recipes and try out the directions at home.

Visit the “biz” page. These stories offer more examples of personal narratives by kids. Here, they tell about money-making businesses they operate. Ask your students to answer these questions after reading a story: What does the kid provide (a product or a service)? How does he/she run the business? What materials are needed? What is the cost of operating the business? How does he/she advertise? How much money does he/she make? What are some obstacles that are faced in running the business? Now, ask your students to write their own personal narratives that describe businesses (real or imagined) that they might run.

Visit the “biz” page for a lesson in persuasive writing. Advertising is certainly a form of persuasive writing. Have your students choose one of the kid-run businesses on this page and then create an effective advertisement for the business. What elements are necessary to persuade someone to buy a product or service? Who can come up with the best advertisement?

Send a postcard

Have your students visit the “buddy” page to send an ecard to a friend. Encourage them to follow proper letter etiquette: Date, Salutation, Text, Signature. Have your students practice proofreading skills. Suggest that they include a question in their message to elicit a reply.

Math Connections

Problem-solving Strategies

The “brains” page offers a list of eleven problem-solving strategies. As your students solve the brains Problem of the Week, make sure they identify which strategies they are using. Share the various strategies so that students see that there are many different ways to solve a single word problem. Have your students choose a single strategy and then write a word problem that can be solved using that strategy.

Fractions

Visit the “burp!” page and check out this week’s recipe. Have your students double the recipe—what must they do to the list of ingredients? Have you students cut the recipe in half. What must they do to the list of ingredients?

Measurements

Visit the “burp!” page and check out this week’s recipe. How many different ways can your students express the list of ingredients? (For example: a stick of butter can be expressed as 8 tablespoons; one cup can be expressed as half a pint.) How many conversions can they come up with? Why can’t you convert ounces (weight) to cups (volume)?

Social Competency Connections

Conflict Resolution

Visit the “blowup” page. Here, your students will find some strategies for dealing with conflict. Talk with your students about how Evan and Jessie might have prevented the Lemonade War. Then ask your students to write a description of a “blowup” from their own experience. How might they have prevented it? You can turn these personal narratives into play scripts and have the kids act out the situations. The audience members can hold up signs suggesting what step in the conflict-solving strategy is being used (such as: Active Listening or Mediator).

Send a Postcard

Talk to your students about the comment card that Megan sent to Jessie. Why did the comment card make Jessie feel better? Ask your students, “Can you think of someone you know who might be feeling bad about something?” Have each student brainstorm a situation (real or imagined) and send an ecard to that person, just as Megan gave her comment card to Jessie.