Last Updated on July 3, 2020 by Laura
May the Fourth Be With You is a favorite day in our school library. You may have seen my earlier post about our Star Wars scavenger hunt. While trying to plan engaging activities for our students during distance learning, my physical education and music colleagues and I decided to try Star Wars Week again. Read all about our Harry Potter Week for Distance Learning! (You can read about our previous collaborations: Irish Culture, Native American Culture, Harry Potter Week)
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For distance learning music classes, students got to listen to some Star Wars music and learn about the instruments playing the music. For remote learning physical education lessons, students had mindful minutes and light saber challenges. In the library, we looked at our library’s collection of Star Wars electronic books, did a directed drawing, lego challenge, and a Star Wars Scavenger Hunt.
Promote Electronic Books
Our school library uses Follett’s Destiny system. In Destiny Discover, I created a Collection of Star Wars eBooks that are available to our students. I was happy that we had 11 different titles, since I have been working hard to promote electronic books to our students during the school closure. I told them if a book looks good, they could check it out or put it on hold. I had previously created a tutorial for them for eBooks, and linked it in my directions. Several students ended up checking out Star Wars eBooks during this time!
May the Fourth Be With You Directed Drawing
I purchased The Book Wrangler’s Star Wars Directed Drawing resource on Teachers Pay Teachers last year for Star Wars Week in our building. For distance learning, I chose some student pages using the Print to PDF method and shared them with my kids through Microsoft Teams. I asked kids to draw their favorite Star Wars character and share it with me through email or in their Teams classes. I challenged them to use legos or items found around their homes to create a Star Wars character or ship and share a photo with me as well.
A Special Star Wars Story
I had recently purchased a copy of The Galaxy Needs You by Caitlin Kennedy, Illustrated by Eda Kaban. It is an uplifting picture book about perseverance and self confidence with Rey as the main character. My favorite quote, “And when things seem dark… remember to look to the light… because the galaxy needs you.” A perfect message for our school communities right now! I recorded myself reading the book and uploaded it via my Clever page (following the publisher’s current guidelines).
Star Wars Scavenger Hunt (At Home Version!)
I modified my original Star Wars Scavenger Hunt for use in students’ homes. My directions: “Make a Star Wars scavenger hunt for your family. If you have a printer, you can print mine. Or you can make your own!” I figured that since they have access to the directed drawing resource, they could easily create their own scavenger hunt even without a printer!
Have fun with May the Fourth Be With You!
If you would like to use this Star Wars scavenger Hunt resource with your students for your own May the Fourth Be With You lessons while we’re distance learning, you can download it for free here. Be sure to follow the Print to PDF method to share just the scavenger hunt pages with your students!
Trapped! Outside the Library
Did you know we have a Facebook group for school librarians to share resources, ideas, and support as we face a variety of different teaching and learning situations due to the pandemic? When you subscribe to my weekly newsletter, you will receive an invitation to join the group in Sunday’s email!
Keep the fun and engaging lessons going!
If you have some great ideas for celebrating May the Fourth Be With You with your students while distance learning, please share them in the comments below!
Be the light!
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