You can totally judge this book by the cover!

World War I: Putting Up a Front is the perfect book to help teach a social studies lesson on World War I. If you read on into the blog, Billie and Cami talk about how engaging this book is and why kids would want to pick it up and read it. It is not written in “typical” nonfiction fashion. And the end of the book has some awesome resources for teachers!

How can World War I: Putting Up a Front be used to teach a social studies lesson?

Cami: It would help address the standard SS5H4 the student will describe U.S. involvement in World War I and post-World War I America. This book is set up in a magazine form and goes through all the aspects of World War I, including what was going on at home.

Billie: This book would make a great supplement to a social studies lesson on World War I. It also has some awesome activities at the end of the book that would be great classroom wide games, or even individual worksheets.

Do you think that 5^th graders will be interested in reading this book?

Cami: Yes I do, it is a great alternative to reading a text book. It has all the information the students need but it has wonderful pictures and is formatted in a way to keep their interest. The pictures alone would have been enough to make me interested in reading it.

Billie: At first glance, this book looks like a magazine. I think that it would catch their eye just from the cover. It also reads very similar to a magazine. Most nonfiction books are very boring and unappealing. The content is presented in such a way, kids will not want to put this book down!

Do you think this book will be more beneficial in a read aloud setting or a small group setting?

Cami: I think this book would be better in a small group or individual setting. The way I would do it is in small groups I would have them read the paragraphs on each page, then go through each of the points by the pictures, explaining each one.

Billie: I think this book would be very difficult to present in a read aloud setting. It should definitely be tailored to small groups. I also think that the book would have to be broken up into sections. There is so much information provided that if the kids are reading it all at once, they will not absorb the majority of it.

What kind of activities would you do with this book?

Cami: Conveniently enough the back of this book has three activity pages, so one thing I would do is I would make copies and use those because the questions come directly from the book and they are pretty engaging activities. Something else you could do is break the students in the groups and assign them a category and have them use the book to make a poster about their category.

Billie: As Cami and I mentioned before, the activities in the back of the book could definitely come in handy! But one thing I remember doing in elementary school was role playing. I did not enjoy social studies, but when we had to “become” what we were learning I was really interested. I got to put all of my dramatics to good use. I think that a lot of kids would love to do that as well. Now, I wouldn’t suggest acting out the war scene. Although they could definitely act out the other parts such as, what was happening on the home front.

If you are having trouble keeping all of your children engaged when it comes to World War I, this is the book for you! The pictures are awesome and almost all of the information included has a graphic to go with it. We believe this is especially beneficial for visual learners. They will be able to link the information they are learning with the pictures being presented.