Check out Two Degrees novel activities to get some ideas for your book unit study. These teaching resources are sure to be a hit with your middle school students.
In his fantastic novel, Alan Gratz tells three stories dealing with disasters that could happen due to climate change.
Sierra Nevada, California
Thirteen-year-old Akira Kristiansen goes horseback riding with her dad one October morning. They ride their horses to the top of a mountain by the giant sequoia trees. There, Akira and her dad run into another father and daughter hiking. Moments later, they see a large fire heading toward them.
Churchill, Manitoba
Thirteen-year-old Owen Mackenzie and his best friend, George Gruyère, decide to go out to the fishing cabin for the night. They stop the snowmobile for a short break only to quickly learn that they are standing between a cub and a mama polar bear.
Miami, Florida
Seventh-grader Natalie Torres watches the weather channel learning Hurricane Reuben, a Category Four-Category Five storm is headed her way. Moments later a river of water comes rushing under the front door and the back wall of the house crashes. Water rushes in. Because of the boarded-up windows, everyone is trapped inside the one-story house with the water rising. Due to her small size, Natalie is able to climb through the small window above the door. Mother tells her not to come back inside and hands her Churro, Tía’s dog. Natalie is swept down the street on a large wave of water.
Gratz is a master at building up each story to a cliffhanger and moving to the next. The “keep the readers waiting” technique makes this high-interest story a real page-turner.
Two Degrees Novel Activities
Novel Study Samples
Grab a free sample of Two Degrees Novel Study. This sample includes the first vocabulary practice, a set of comprehension questions, and a constructed response question. Answer keys are also included.
Two Degrees Novel Activities #1 – Climate Change Awareness
While reading Two Degrees, students will most likely want to research interesting facts about climate change. Here are a few reliable sources for this research.
The World Counts – This interesting website provides live counters for topics such as the amount of CO2 emitted into the atmosphere and the world’s average temperature.
National Geographic Kids – This site explains what climate change is and the effects it has on Earth.
Easy Science for Kids – Students can read interesting facts about climate change.
- Have students select one interesting fact to illustrate on the right side of the page and a second picture on the left side of the page. The drawing must show a before-after relationship as shown in the illustration. After drawing, students can write the interesting fact associated with the drawing either directly on the artwork or on a separate piece of paper to post next to the art piece. These make a great bulletin board.
- Use the novel as a way to start a discussion about climate change and its effects on different parts of the world. This is a great way to tie in geography skills including map-reading and researching different regions of the world.
- Have students research current events related to climate change and compare them to events in the novel.
Two Degrees Novel Activities #2 – Book Trailer
Two Degrees Novel Activities #3 – Author Interview
Two Degrees Novel Activities #4 – Global Warming Vocabulary Booklet
In this printable, students define several global warming terms and list effects of global warming.
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Check out Two Degrees Novel Study on TPT.
