Sorry Day Apology Book

1. As students investigate historical events from around the world, have them discuss positive and negative outcomes from these events.
2. Organize students in small group to select a singe historical event and complete in-depth research on that event.
3. Once student research is complete, have each group prepare a booklet representing their analysis of the event, including both positive and negative outcomes. Also ask students to include how human kind could make amends for any perceived wrongs that are out-growths from the event.
4. Fold a stack of white paper into quarters. Unfold it once, like an open book in front of you. With Crayola® Scissors, cut out a piece of fun foam a bit larger all around than the book pages.
5. To bind the pages together at the center fold, ask an adult to help you use a large yarn needle. Poke five holes down the spine of the fold. With sturdy thread, sew the pages together. Come up through the bottom hole and leave a tail of thread dangling. Go down through the next hole and come up into the center hole. Go down the fourth and up through the top hole. Reverse your direction going down the up holes and up the down holes. Notice that you are making a solid line of thread along the book’s center spine. Leave another long tail of thread at the bottom. Knot the beginning and end of the thread.
6. Cut open the folds along the top of the pages to create separate pages. Close the pages to form a book.
7. To make the book’s sturdy cover, spread the top first page with Crayola School Glue. Stick it to the open piece of fun foam. Smooth out any bubbles. Open the book and glue the last page to the foam. Make sure the book can be closed with ease and that the pages lie flat when open or closed. Air dry the book flat.
8. Think about historical episodes that you have learned about and that you never want to occur again. How can you visually depict that on the cover of your book? Draw the cover with Crayola Oil Pastels. As you draw, blend and smooth the pastels with paper towels.
9. Inside, use Crayola Erasable Colored Pencils to write and illustrate historic facts. For highlights on your drawings, erase small sections. Include personal apologies for any hurt and harm. How can people make new beginnings that promote harmony and justice?

LA: Read and comprehend informational texts, including history/social studies, science, and technical texts, at the high end of the grade level text complexity band independently and proficiently.

LA: Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate conversational, general academic, and domain specific words and phrases, including those that signal spatial and temporal relationships.

LA: Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about grade level topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.

LA: Conduct short research projects to answer a question, drawing on several sources and refocusing the inquiry when appropriate.

LA: Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and organization are appropriateto task, purpose, and audience."

MATH: Apply and extend previous understandings of multiplication and division to multiply and divide fractions.

SS: Demonstrate an understanding that different people may describe the same event or situation in diverse ways, citing reasons for the differences in views.

SS: Compare and contrast different stories or accounts about past events, people, places, or situations, identifying how they contribute to our understanding of the past.

SS: Show how groups and institutions work to meet individual needs and promote the common good, and identify examples of where they fail to do so.

SS: Identify and describe factors that contribute to cooperation and cause disputes within and among groups and nations.

VA: Students will initiate making works of art and design by experimenting, imagining and identifying content.

VA: Students will investigate, plan and work through materials and ideas to make works of art and design. Use visual structures of art to communicate ideas.

The discipline of apology is part of various cultures and religions around the world. Encourage students to investigate the role of the apology in both the Japanese and Australian cultures. How might they compose apologies for "wrong doings" in history?