Children's Book Press - A Shelter in Our Car

Changemakers
Through group research, students identify one problem facing homeless people and an action they can take to address it. The class plans and follows through on this project, enlisting the help of additional community members as needed.

1 hour initially

small and large groups

CA Social Sciences Standard 3.4: Students discuss the importance of public virtue and the role of citizens, including how to participate in a classroom, in the community, and in civic life.

Flipchart and markers; books on homelessness; computers with Internet access (optional)

Discuss with students what they have learned about homelessness. What challenges do Zettie and Mama face? What could help make their lives easier? Brainstorm a list of things that Zettie and Mama need, such as free food, clothing, affordable housing, steady employment, or understanding from other students and families. Record the list on a flipchart.
Ask class members to pick one issue they would like to change to help children like Zettie. Is it accessing food or clothing? Or is it a policy addressing issues such as housing or employment? Explain to students that they will come up with a project that they can undertake as a group.
In order to plan their project, the students will need to gather information. As a large group, identify the questions they need to answer. Then, break students into groups to research aspects of the problem they have identified. Using the websites and books listed under Resources for information, have each group of students identify the answer to their question.
Next, have the groups share their research findings. Ask them what they can do to address the issue they have learned about. Brainstorm ideas and then select one project that the class can realistically take on.
As a group, come up with an action plan to achieve your goal. Set a deadline for each step of your process. If appropriate, ask students to request help from other community members (see “Writing for Change” in the Language Arts section of this guide).

Other Social Studies Activities

Classroom Visitor: Invite someone to come and talk with your class about the issue of homelessness. It would be preferable to have someone who has been homeless, a homeless advocate, or someone who works directly with people who are homeless. Before the visitor comes to the class, prepare for the speaker by having students talk about appropriate and inappropriate questions to ask. Figure out what type of information they want to gather. After the visit, make sure that students follow up with thank you letters.

Current Events: Over the course of several months (or the year), track the ways that the issue of homelessness gets covered in the local paper. As a class, clip, read, and discuss these articles.

Letters for Change
As a group, students choose a project they would like to undertake to fight homelessness. They identify the people they will need to ask for help and write letters to those community members, explaining the nature of their project and how that person can contribute.

30 minutes a day over two weeks

Whole class; small groups; and pairs

CA Writing Standard 2.3: Students write personal and formal letters, showing awareness of the knowledge and interests of the audience and establishing a purpose and context.

Flipchart and markers; paper and pens or pencils, envelopes and stamps

Plan

	Through the Social Studies activity plan described above, identify a class project to address homelessness. Then, have class members identify who could help them with their project. Make a list of possible resources, such as other students, teachers, family members, community organizations, or elected officials. Next to each potential resource, record how that person could help.
	Divide up the students into groups based on whom they will write to. Have each group brainstorm what they might say to convince someone to help him/her make this change. Why does it matter that many people don't have enough to eat or anywhere to live? What facts could the students use to convince their reader? Are there stories they could tell to make their points?
	Have groups share their lists with the whole class. Record on a flip chart the arguments they will use to persuade their audience.
	In a mini-lesson, model the conventions of letter writing for students. Explain elements such as the date, receiver addresses, salutation, body, closing, and signature.

Draft

	Break students up into pairs to write their letters. Remind students to think about who their reader is, what they want their audience to do, and why they want them to take this action.
	Encourage students to share with their audience what they have learned about homelessness, as a way to convince them to take action. Tell students to refer to the brainstormed lists when they are deciding what to write.

Revise

Ask pairs to trade letters and give each other feedback. Tell students reading each other's work to pretend they had never heard about this project before. Does the letter explain clearly what the project is, why the class has chosen the project, and how the reader can help? If not, what do the authors need to change in their revision?

Edit

With the class, review the elements of a model letter. Ask students to check for these elements in each other's letters as they proofread for spelling and grammar.

Publish

	Ask students to prepare final versions of their letters, addressing and stamping the envelopes themselves then mailing them.
	As a follow-up, have students write thank-you letters to community members who helped them with their project.

Other Writing Activities

	Book Review: As a group, read reviews of books your class has read. Identify the important elements of a review, such as summary and response. Ask the class to write reviews of *A Shelter in Our Car*.
	Being Brave: On page 10, Mama tells Zettie to be brave when she's afraid of the ice-cold water. Ask students to point out other instances when Zettie is brave. Then, have them share situations when they themselves were brave and use those stories as the basis for personal narratives.
	Found Poems: Ask students to read an article about homelessness, such as one of those on the National Coalition for the Homeless website. Then, ask them to write poems about what they learned, using only words found in the article.

Your Perfect Place
Students imagine and draw a place that would provide Zettie with shelter.

Two 45-minute sessions

individual and whole class

8 1/2 x 11 copy paper; colored pencils or pastels; butcher paper; tape

Ask students to close their eyes and imagine what Zettie's perfect home would look like. Remind them of all the attributes of a good shelter: it protects people from the elements; it is comfortable; it has what people need to survive. Walk them through their imaginary shelter, having them think about what they see, hear, smell, and touch in this shelter.

Next, tell students that they have the opportunity to create this ideal shelter for Zettie through art. Tell them to draw what they saw, heard, smelled, and touched in their imaginations. Encourage them to think about how they could symbolize something like “warmth” in their pictures.

Encourage students to share their artwork with the class, explaining what they've chosen to draw. As they share, remind students that their shelters are located in communities. Ask the group to brainstorm what they would find in their perfect community and make a list of students' ideas.

Dedicate a wall of your classroom to this art project and post students' work on butcher paper, with considerable space in between each piece of work. The next day, read students the list they created describing the perfect community. Ask the class to draw in the community that was described, connecting each individual shelter to the greater whole.

Other Art Activities

Ask students to create self-portraits or portraits of their families in the style of the illustrations for A Shelter in Our Car. Encourage them to use unusual color combinations and exaggerated facial expressions to express their emotions as Elaine Pedlar does. Use chalk pastels and construction paper.

Greater or Lesser?
Using statistical data on homelessness, students practice comparing fractions and decimal numbers.

30 min.

large groups and pairs

CA Mathematics Standard 3.4: Students know and understand that fractions and decimals are two different representations of the same concept.

Statistics and data on homeless people for your city and the nation; pencils and paper; overhead projector or flipchart and markers

To prepare for the lesson, translate the statistics on homelessness to simple fractions. Create a table comparing the data for your city or a nearby city, and for the nation and display on a flipchart or the overhead projector.

Working in pairs, have students identify which numbers are greater, those measuring homelessness in your city or those measuring homelessness in the nation. Ask them to circle the larger of the two fractions.

Then, tell students that decimals are an alternative way to represent something that is a part of a greater whole. Next to each fraction, write the equivalent decimal. Ask students to go back to their pairs and see if they have changed their minds about which numbers are greater.

Have students share their findings. As students respond, make sure they describe the strategies they used to decide which of the two numbers was larger. Tell them to include whether they changed their responses once they saw the decimal numbers.

As a class, identify the larger number in each comparison. If necessary, ask class members to represent the fraction, counting out students. Clarify that the decimals and the fraction are describing the same amount.

Include a discussion about the moral acceptability of these numbers. Ask the class if fractions are a good way of representing people's distress. Why or why not? Do numbers show the whole picture?

Other Math Activities

Public Opinion: As a class, design a survey about homelessness and possible solutions to the problem. Have students poll other students, family members, or other community members with questions such as “Why do you think people are homeless?” or “What would you do to help a homeless person?” Encourage students to come up with their own questions that the class would like to ask. Gather and categorize your data and create a bar graph representing the opinions of different groups. As a class, discuss your findings.

Spending Wisely: Tell students that Zettie and Mama have to survive on as little money as possible. Give the class a price list for items that Zettie and Mama might buy and ask them to help figure out how to spend as little money as possible. Alternatively, ask students to figure out as many combinations of items as possible for under $10 a day, or under $50 a week.

Getting Through the Day
Students identify the ways that Zettie and Mama find and use the energy they need to survive.

20 min.

whole class and individual

CA Science Standard 1.b: Students know that sources for stored energy take many forms, such as food, fuel, or batteries.

Flipchart and markers or blackboard and chalk

Tell students that energy is something that people use all the time, without even thinking about it. Ask students to point out things in their classroom that use energy. Then, encourage them to brainstorm the things they do that use up energy. Ask students where all this energy comes from.

As a class, make a list of energy sources and their uses (e.g., lights use electric power while people use food).

Have students go back to A Shelter in Our Car. Ask each student to find one example of a type of energy use or source in the book (e.g., cars use gasoline; flashlights use batteries; Zettie and Mama eat spaghetti.) Record these uses under the sources you have already listed.

Other Science Activities

Nutrition: Discuss the elements of a balanced diet with your students. Ask them to analyze what Zettie and Mama eat to see if they're eating healthily, discuss reasons why they weren't eating well, and make recommendations based on what they've learned. As students design their menus, ask them to calculate the cost of the items and think about how much money a family needs to live healthily.

Finding Shelter: Describe the different types of shelters that animals use, such as bears' dens or birds' nests. Analyze each type of shelter to see how the animals successfully adapt to their environment.