Wednesday, March 18, 2009

As You Wish - Princess Bride Theme Unit



Completely unintentionally my class is doing a thematic unit on the Princess Bride (one of my top ten favorite movies). Here is the back story, if you just want the resources skip down. Late last week one student and I were hanging out in the classroom while the other students and staff were in the cafeteria. Usually this student listens to music or a book on tape or just chats (via Dynavox) with me, but this day our conversation lead us to the Princess Bride. He said he really wanted to watch it and I happened to have in on my laptop in my iTunes. Besides who am I to deny that kind of fun during someone's lunch break?

I have never seen this student so into anything. He loved The Princess Bride (and who can blame him). This evolved into a classroom wide phenomenon, a couple of staff and the PT had seen the movie and loved it, some others had never seen the movie. We are going to watch in three parts (two down one to go) and we are doing various activities to improve engagement as we watch.

Here are the other things we are gong to do in our spur of the moment Princess Bride theme unit:

General Princess Bride Resources

Arts and Crafts
Free Worksheets (most are for general ed and for the book)

Computer Resources
Science - Study the Capybara (a true rodent of unusual size)http://farm1.static.flickr.com/68/184525337_c113fc9c2f.jpgScience - other ideas
  • sink or float? (play act Vizinni or the Dread Pirate Roberts tossing things overboard and see if they sink or float)
  • learn about eels
  • learn about suction
  • learn about water wheels

Cooking
  • Miracle Max Revival Pills (aka Rice Crispy Treat balls painted in melted chocolate)Miracle Max by xamonster.
Adapted PE
  • using pool toy "noodles" have a fencing match or joust a ball of a tee
  • make an obstacle course that includes sitting on a large bolster roll (Buttercup's horse), sitting on a scooter board and pulling across the floor using a rope (the cliffs of insanity), "noodle jousting" (see above - sword fight), steering around obstacles and then going for a swim in a ball pit (the fire swamp and quick sand), pushing a wheelbarrow (storming the castle)
Sensory
  • sensory box filled with sand (aka quick sand in the fire swamp) and plastic rodent toys (our dollar store has these)

Be sure to check Adapted Learning and Classroom Suite Exchange (I will be posting Boardmaker items to Adapted Learning this weekend.)

5 comments:

  1. Love it love it love it! Thanks for sharing these great ideas for a "big kid" movie. One of my favorites too. Sometimes those spur of the moment ideas turn out to be the best ones (and the most fun). BTW--I came out as Buttercup but I think I need to retake the test (didn't like her description AT ALL!). :-)
    Alicia
    smdteacher.blogspot.com

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  2. Oh, this is fantastic! And considering all of the staff here are Princess Bride obsessed, some of this will be okay with the adults here! :) Thanks!

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  3. I puffy heart you for this post and doing this unit. I'll be bookmarking it for sure!

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  4. Love this movie! This is a great post! It just came out on Blu-Ray and I'm so excited!

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  5. Love this movie...this is such a great post! So excited that it's finally out on Blu-Ray.

    Oh, and I did that quiz...and got Inigo!

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