Literature Activity- Picture Book Adventure for Social Studies

I had to miss a day of school because both of my children were sick and so was I. When I was gone my class did a picture book activity in groups, since I wasn't there I did it on my own. I did the activity on based on the books "Colorful Leaves" by Maria Fleming and "Autumn's First Leaf" by Steve Metzger and Illustrated by Aaron Zenz. The assignment had us choose a picture book that has a strong geographical awareness theme, and we had to create a learning adventure the integrates Social Studies and the Arts.

In my activity I had the student's write a Haiku poem about how leaves impact our lives. They were learning about how human systems and physical systems have an impact on each other. My standards are: SS.3.3.11 2007 Environment and Society: Identify and describe the relationship between human systems and physical systems and the impact they have on each other.

EL.3.5.7 2006 Write responses to literature that:demonstrate: an understanding of what is read in the form of poetry.

I thought that this assignment was going to be harder then it turned out to be. I could see myself doing something like this in my future classroom.