AUTHOR CONNECTIONS:
Author Jim Murphy won the Newbery Honor
Book Award for his book The Great Fire.
Jim Murphy grew up in New Jersey and became interested in history in middle school. But he felt that most of the books he read as a kid were boring and too
full of names and dates, and too empty of action. As a result, he
has written over two dozen books, most dealing with American history and has won
many honors for his work. See his photo and learn more about how he learned
to become a writer at http://www.cbcbooks.org/html/jim_murphy.html
CURRICULAR CONNECTIONS:
 Research
Projects About Other Notable Blizzards: Divide class into six small
groups; each group will be responsible for researching, writing a report, and
presenting their findings on other memorable blizzards that have transpired. Those
possibilities include: Armistice Day Storm (November 11-12, 1940), The Great
Midwest Blizzard (January 26-27, 1967), Blizzard of 1978 (January 25-27, 1978),
Superstorm of 1993—also dubbed the "Storm of the Century" (March
12-13, 1993), Blizzard of 1996 (Jan. 7, 1996), and the January 24, 2000, new millennium
storm that hit the East Coast. Utilizing the resources available on the
Internet, students may want to attempt to interview people who lived through the
various storms.
Create
and Maintain a Weather Station: Invite a local meteorologist or an energetic
high school science teacher to speak to your class; she or he will share expertise
and advice on creating a weather station at your school. Students will track
and record daily—or twice a day for greater accuracy—temperature, precipitation,
wind direction, wind speed, humidity, pressure, and cloud type. Collect
data for one month; numerical data can also be entered into a simple spreadsheet-type
program and manipulated to create impressive visual charts and graphs. Students
can also create a wall chart to display data. Students can also write about
predictions, how they made the weather station, and the events they observed.
Research
Subway Systems of U. S. Cities: As students listen to Murphy’s Blizzard! They learn that: “The blizzard also caused Alfred
Ely Beach’s 1849 dream of an underground railways system to be set in motion
at long last.” The Boston Subway was the first of its kind in the United
States, opening in 1897. The first subway line in New York City Subway opened
in 1904, and other cities, including Chicago and Philadelphia, followed soon thereafter
with the installation of underground rail systems. Divide class into four
groups to research these four cities’ efforts to build their subways; share
findings with entire class.
Natural
Disasters: Murphy concludes his book by saying: “No matter
how many pieces of equipment we develop, no matter how many ways we try to predict
weather patterns, nature always has the potential to surprise and overwhelm us.”
Have each student select one of the natural disasters in the world, which
include: tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, and fires. The
student will then conduct research on one specific event of their chosen natural
disaster and share in a PowerPoint presentation.
FOR FURTHER LISTENING AND READING:
 INTO
THIN AIR: A PERSONAL ACCOUNT OF THE MOUNT EVEREST DISASTER by Jon Krakauer (Anchor
Books, 1998)
THE
PERILOUS JOURNEY OF THE DONNER PARTY by Marian Calabro (Houghton Mifflin, 1999)
GONE
A-WHALING: THE LURE OF THE SEA AND THE HUNT FOR THE GREAT WHALE by Jim Murphy
(Clarion, 1998)
 SHIPWRECK AT THE BOTTOM OF THE WORLD - Jennifer Armstrong. Book and
audiobook available from Audio Bookshelf.
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