Paigem1415 Posted March 14, 2023 Posted March 14, 2023 Hey all! I teach severe/profound disabilities on a high school level, meaning most of my students are non speaking. They chose to read Tress of the Emerald Sea for our next class read aloud book, and I was just wondering if anyone has suggestions for activities/discussion questions/art projects/science experiments to go along with the book! Don’t be afraid to suggest something just because it may not seem like it would work Special Ed- we’re really good at adapting lessons and activities for our kids! Thanks all! 1
Cinnamon Posted March 16, 2023 Posted March 16, 2023 Ooooohhh this sounds awesome! I wish I did books as good as Tress in school. I’m not teacher, I’m fact I’m still a student so I’m not sure if any of these ideas would work but I’d find them cool to do. -Learn about fluidisation and how the spore seas are seas. (Mark Rober has an awesome video about this with sand and he even did a collab with Brandon himself) - Brainstorm ideas of what the other spores do when met with water and draw a picture or write a short story of Tress encountering them or do something similar to create it. Tress spoilers Spoiler We know that the Emerald sea grows into vines, the crimson; spikes. Maybe there’s a Violet sea that becomes tar-like or an Orange sea and that shoots up rocks. - You could do a science experiment with an elephant toothpaste pretending that the yeast mixture is the water going onto the “spores” to make them explode! - tress spoilers Spoiler Come up with some funny/ridiculous things Hoid might’ve said while under his curse -write a creative piece from the perspective of one of the Dougs. Maybe it’s a letter back home recounting events in the story, perhaps a short story how they felt about everything that happened. -Fort’s board was an awesome piece of magical technology that had really useful applications. If you could design a piece of magical technology to help people what would it be and how would it work? I did something sort of similar to this in science (not with magic ) and it was super fun drawing diagrams and making “prototypes”. - Design a cup for Tress’s collection and come up with a Charlie-like outlandish story for it. Discussion questions: I’ll put these in a spoiler box just in case. Spoiler When Tress left the Rock she left asked her parents for their blessing. If you had been in that situation would you have wanted to let someone you love go off into danger? Why did Tress think she was ordinary? If you could pick a different title what would it be? Why do you think Tress pretended to not know Charlie was the duke’s son? In chapter 7 Lem (Tress’s father) is said to not be “poor, he simply didn’t have a lot of money” and later that “he was downright wealthy when it came to the kind of currency that mattered.” What do you think this means? How did you feel in the scene where Tress walking on the Emerald sea? Do you know any Dougs? Fort’s magical board helps him communicate with his crew. Can you think of anything we have in hat helps us communicate? Did you like the narration style Hoid used? How do you think Ulaam felt that crew thought him strange? Do you think he minded, or even perhaps enjoyed it? Salay and Tress both experience immense joy when sailing the ship. What is something that brings you joy? If you were in this story would you think that Tress was a King’s Mask? Over time Tress’s fear of the spores turn into a respect and admiration for the beautiful aether. Can you think of anything that is both dangerous and beautiful? What are some themes that ToTES explores? How did the chapter icons show how the story progressed? Can you come up with a rhyme for the word “bulb”? What would you ask for from Xisis? This was fun! I hope your students enjoy reading ToTES
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