This winter, third grade students at Lyseth Elementary School participated in a Side x Side bookmaking program integrated with a literacy and science unit on weather. The program incorporated both poetry and factual information about weather and was led virtually over Google Meet by Side x Side teaching artists Gretchen Berg and Anne Ackerman. With Ackerman, students learned how to illustrate informational writing on how the water cycle works, the difference between weather and climate, the kinds of tools used for measuring weather, and extreme weather. Students also created an illustrated “pocket guide to clouds” to help with cloud identification. In the meantime, students worked with Berg to write poems focused on an element of weather. The poems were then illustrated to become a part of each student’s final book. The program culminated with a pandemic-friendly outdoor visit by the teaching artists who celebrated the students and their completed books through the classroom windows! The books were then exhibited in the school for the entire school community to enjoy.

Watch the Showcase: