Unit Study: World War II

Unit Study: World War II

May 19, 2014

Teaching World War II can be intense. There is an overwhelming amount of material to cover! From the European war, to the Pacific Theater to the American Home Front; the Holocaust and Japanese Internment camps, Axis and Allies, and D-Day, you could easily spend an entire year just covering this topic. There are literally hundreds of children’s books written about this time period!

Thankfully, I’ve done the hard work for you and selected some great books for you to go through. This 9 week unit study uses World War II: The Definitive Visual History as your spine, introducing your child to bigger-than-life personalities on both sides of the conflict. They’ll learn about the events leading up to the war, the rise of Adolf Hitler and the axis powers, the American home front, the war in the Pacific, the Holocaust, espionage, resistance, the Nuremberg trials and more.

I’ve also include a literature component to breathe life into your studies. As a family, you’ll meet Liesel Meminger, a poor orphan living under the Nazi regime who fights back in an unlikely way in the The Book Thief. You’ll follow Eva and Miriam, Jewish twin girls, who are inprisoned at Auschwitz in the memoir I Will Protect You: A True Story of Twins Who Survived Auschwitz.  You’ll live in Japanese-occupied Korea at the end of the war experiencing all of the horrors and triumphs of the aftermath of war in Year of Impossible Goodbyes.

I also include 9 weeks’ worth of readers for your child as well as a set of narration cards. They’ll read about life in Nazi-occupied Europe, find out what it was like to be a soldier caught behind enemy lines and experience life in the Japanese internment camps as well as in a concentration camp (high school only). Some of the books are only for middle grades, and some only for high school.

Because of the intensity of the subject matter, this unit is suitable for middle grades – high school. The lesson plans are 98 pages, and include a reading schedule, narration cards, a literature study of 3 novels, dictation passages, 52 vocabulary words, web resources, map work, writing assignments, projects, a list of optional movies and documentaries, and an end of unit Jeopardy-style trivia game.

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 Purchase the World War II Unit Study  – $12.95

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You can see the entire booklist below

(now powered by Amazon and Bookshop.org):

History:

World War II: The Definitive Visual History from Blitzkrieg to the Atom Bomb  (Spine) – Bookshop.org
World War II: Kids Who Survived Tell Their Stories (Spine) – Bookshop.org

Literature:

The Book Thief – Bookshop.org
I Will Protect You: A True Story of Twins Who Survived Auschwitz – Bookshop.org
Year of Impossible Goodbyes – Bookshop.org

Readers: 

Parallel Journeys – Bookshop.org
Under a War-Torn Sky – Bookshop.org (MG)
Code Name Verity – Bookshop.org (HS)
Paper Wishes – Bookshop.org (MG)
Farwell to Manzanar – Bookshop.org (HS)
Soul Lanterns – Bookshop.org (MG)
Night – Bookshop.org (HS)

(MG = Middle Grade and HS = HIgh School)

Here are some samples of the activity pages:

    

 

 

 

 

 

As a reminder, if you are going to purchase books we would greatly appreciate the use of our provided Amazon or Bookshop.org Links! Thanks!

Disclosure: This list contains affiliate links, meaning I get a small commission if you make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you.

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