Saving the City of Ember

     Have you read that book, City of Ember?? If not, you should.  My children ate.it.up.  I love the book!! I recently went to the NSTA conference in San Antonio and attended a workshop using this book as a bridge between literacy, science, and math.  I read the book aloud to the class, although it would be fantastic as a whole class novel.  We created machines to do a simple task in the City of Ember. (simple machines, physics). We did not get to do everything that I had wanted to do with the book, more later on, but we did a few investigations. Finally we got to watch the movie was part of our countdown.  And what goes better with a movie than popcorn?

     So you may be wondering what else could you do with the book. Well thanks to NSTA I have a whole slew of ideas! They had their students actually measure out the distance of the city and walk it outside so the kids could see that the city was actually very tiny.  They had them create machines, but they suggested taking it a step further.  It was suggested that you set up a store and supply room just like in the book, around the school, you will also need a trash heap in your room.  Kids could "shop" the trash heap everyday and search for things to help them with their machine.  They each got a limited budget to spend at the store or supply depot so they had to get creative with their designs. I am super bummed I didn't get  time to do all this this year. But, I can guarantee will we be doing it next year!!