I received some excellent ideas from last weeks target. Thank you to
everyone who replied. I am pasting the contributions below.
Emily Peterson
LMS
East Moriches Elementary School
k2ree@optonline.net
With 4th grade I have two lessons.
Lesson 1:
I have questions that I ask the kids to answer using the Almanac. We
talk about the various parts of the almanac that will aid them in
finding their answers.
Lesson 2:
I created a Jeopardy game with questions from the Almanac. I divide the
group into 2 and we play until all the questions have been answered.
Across the top the categories are Landmarks, History, Entertainment,
Misc., and World. I have 5 questions for each category worth 100, 200,
300, 400, and 500 points respectively. I mounted card pockets with 100,
200, etc on them, onto tagboard along with the categories. Then, I
laminated it and used a razor blade to cut the pockets open. I put the
questions inside the pockets so all I have to do is pull out the
question and the answer is with it as well.
Springer, Natalie
Our fourth graders look at the populations for the largest Texas cities
(we are in Texas) for 1850-1990 - they write down the city and
populations then make a graph in Excel. This is a library/technology
lesson. If your state has enough cities in the Almanac this could work
for you or an adaptation.
Lynette Morgan, MLS
World Almanac publishes a game called World Almania it
is a cross between academic bowl and jeopardy. I put my
students in teams and had them work together to find the
answers. It has preliminary lessons on using the index,
table of contents, keywords, and chapter tabs. It was
fantastic. Then each class chose a team and we had a
school wide tournament similar to a baseball tournament
with brackets and winners. These kids now know how to
use an almanac. It was the best purchase I ever made. I
used it with 3rd, 4th and 5th grade.
Susan Wooten
I recommend that you buy the kit from World Almanac. I used them with a 6th
grade class I used to teach. I used the MS level, but I know they have them
for
elementary as well. It comes with a video, which is really dorky, but the
kids
still like it and a bunch of black-line masters with different activities.
Some
are harder than others which is good when the kids in the class are on
different
levels. I used to let my students work in pairs. I highly recommend them.
Juliann
I use the World Almanac for Kids version. With the third graders I just
introd.
the table of contents, have them sit in a circle, turn to the birthday page
and
have them go around in the circle and say when their birthday is and what
famous
person was born on that day. They love it. Then I show them the website
www.worldalmanacforkids.com I'm sure it would work just as well w/4th
grade.
Our fourth graders study US regions in SS and have to do the state reports.
During March for "Read Across America" I give them a blank map of the US and
they have to use the Almanac to fill in the states. Extra credit if they put
the
capitals in, too. Then anytime they read a book set in that state they color
in
the state. Person (in each class) w/the most states colored in by the end of
April gets a prize (free ice cream, pick from prize box, paperback book,
etc. )
Judy Finucane
I do two weeks. How to use the index, and a sample jeopardy game to spark
their interest. Then the following week, we do a jeopardy game where all the
"questions" can be found by using the index. It took a bit of time to set up
the questions into my powerpoint jeopardy template, but it was worth it.
Students had a ball and didn't want to stop for book exchange.
~Marie
Hi,
I bought new almanacs and they came with a game called Almania. It's
jeopardy
styled game (square of questions, different categories) that students play
using
the almanacs. I let each table be a team (each student has their own
almanac).
When I got the game, I thought it was not going to be a winner, but after
playing it one time, that's all my fifth graders want to do. I'm going to
order
another set of questions, then start to write my own. Good Luck!
Wendy
I do an activity with our kids. It's Almanac Jeopardy. I tell them that
only when they've mastered how to use the almanac will they be "worthy" to
play. I go over all the ins and outs of the almanac and we do practice
questions. I bought a little buzzer system (an eggspert, I think it's
called) and used that until this year when I just got an actual jeopardy
unit with the buzzers. The incentive is always the same. I have paperback
books that I save from my book fair profit and each winning team member
(there are 3 kids per team) get to choose a book to keep. The cool part is
that after they read the book, a lot of the kids give it back to the library
so it becomes part of the permanent location. I hope this helps you! The
kids love it. The new software comes with certificates you can print out
and it's so awesome to use. Parents can't believe how excited kids are to
be in my class.
Cherie LeMay
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