Vendor Name: Zeezok
Vendor Contact: Zeezok Contact Form
Name of Product: Z-Guide to the Movies
Price: $12.99
Age Range: elementary through high school
I think we’ve all seen a great movie, one that has a light bulb moment – we think, ‘wow, that would make a great unit study!’ We don’t know where to start or maybe we just don’t have the time to do the work it would take to write our own study, so we don’t worry about it and try to forget it – until we realize there is a Z-Guide to the movies!
With Z-Guides we can easily use a movie to teach a time period in history, is your high school student learning about Ancient Civilizations? Well then check out the movie One Night With the King and the corresponding Z-Guide and they’ll get more out of the movie than if they were just sitting watching it. What if you’re studying Ancient Rome with both your elementary and high school students? There is Ben-Hur and the Z-Guide has two levels one for elementary and one for high school.
Since my girls enjoy American Girl and the movies that go along the girls they asked that I request the Kit Kittredge Z-Guide so that they could delve more into the Great Depression and learn more than just watching the movie. In the Z-Guide you’ll get a “How to Use This Guide”, which outlines on what day which activities should be done. The layout is given for 5 days but it could easily be fitted to a shorter schedule (we do school only 4 days a week) or stretched out for a longer study. Day 1 is Activities 1 and 2, Day 2 are 3 and 4 and so on. Before watching the movie reading the topic overview, movie synopsis and the Activity 1 Movie Review Questions is advised and is included in the Z-Guide.
Activity 1 Movie Review Questions are to be answered while watching the movie, this aids in comprehension and retention of the information given. The questions deal both with the characters as well as the events surrounding the Great Depression. The other activities are to research the Great Depression, learning about hobo signs that were prevalent during that time, vocabulary, writing a newspaper story about an event from the movie, your community or even interviewing a relative who lived during the Great Depression, researching fashion in the 1930’s, figuring out which characters are which by descriptions alone, learning about ironic foreshadowing and foreshadowing irony, worldview and filmmaker’s art and dramatic license.
At the end there are questions that can be discussed by the family and will give everyone time to share their thoughts based on the family’s beliefs. I like how throughout the Z-guide the student is encouraged to think about the issues through a Biblical lens or through Scripture. The topics that are covered in Kit Kittredge are The Great Depression, journalism, prejudice, family unity and hobo life – viewing the movie with the Z-Guide and mom or dad present will go far in learning to look at movies through a Christian perspective.
My girls enjoyed this and it also gave us an enjoyable week of school as we just did some fun learning. My 7 year old did need some help in writing answers but she enjoyed learning right along with her almost 10 year old sister, and one day I’ll be using this for their brother when he’s old enough to get value out of it. So if you’re looking for a way to implement movies into your school then look no further than the Z-Guides from Zeezok.
**If you’d like to see what other homeschooling parents thought about a variety of Z-Guides visit The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew.
**This is a TOS Crew Review. I received a copy of the Z-Guide Kit Kittredge: An American Girl from Zeezok in exchange for my honest opinion, no other compensation was given.
GrowingForChrist 