Week Four:  I loved this week's content. For me, the Challenge to Survive series is an excellent resource to learn background knowledge and to refer to in order to have accurate information in which to build units and lessons. Victor third grade focuses on the Salish tribe that was originally living in our valley before the allotment. When the students learn this, they are very curious as to what Salish life was like at the time. Reading books one and two gave me many ideas to build on. I found much of the material a review of content I have already learned, but learned many new things as well. I would like to own these books as I can see myself referring to them often.

The books are beautiful and I love the layout. The features including pictures, charts, and the glossary all make this book original and the perfect way to teach book components and their importance to students. It is also a great way to start a discussion on primary sources. I teach both of those concepts to my third graders and was excited at how well the series lends itself to introducing them. We also work on time lines, and this series is a timeline, so another perfect thing for me! I realize these books are more easily worked with in a middle school setting, but many things can be easily adapted to share with the elementary as well.

I am looking forward to reading the other two books in the series. I'm sure I will get much information and many teaching ideas from them as well.