I posted a request last week for ideas for a 4th grade explorer project and
received some great ideas.
Thank you everyone!
Here's the hit:
I would suggest students write a journal from the perspective of the
explorer, focusing on appropriate vocabulary of the time period. Then
they record their voices reading each passage (we have Macs so I'd use
Garage Band) and add historical images and images from nature, plus
sound effects, to create a podcast. Post on School Tube. Voila!
After groups of students researched a selection of explorers, we posted their
results to Voice Thread, where they could comment on each others' projects, make
connections and comparisons. The result was that they students were more careful
about their research and editing, since they were posting to the Internet, and they
made many interesting comments about the other explorers. And they were excited,
so the research went very well!!
I am working on a project right now!!! I have chosen five NYS explorers
that the kids are going to research in groups. Then they will need to create
a Google Trip of thier explorers with placemarkers describing the explorers
travels and what important contribution they made to NYS. For example-Henry
Hudson they would follow from his country to NY and up the Hudson River. The
Google Trip would incorporate 5 place markers with the information.
This is a great website that helps teach website evaluation.
http://www.allaboutexplorers.com/hunts
hi - do you have apple computers? If so, do you have iweb? I am currently doing a
project with my 5th graders on explorers where they make an iweb (webpage using a
template) as if it were the explorers myspace page and they fill it out with true
and "inferred"/imagined information that the explorer might post. ie. for Ponce de
Leon they'd write a paragraph explaining why "i ponce" am famous. Under favorite
vacation spot: DisneyWorld* . The * tells me the student knows it's a joke but it
has to have some basis in fact. For some italian explorers they might write
favorite food: spaghetti*, favorite movie Titanic*. For some under friends they
might write another explorers name if they truly were friends, books - the one they
wrote themselves, etc. It's pretty 21st century. Photos/maps etc come from
wikimedia commons with links for credit. They link to good websites about the
explorer.
Even if you didn't have apple/iweb you could have them make it with a word doc.
Our Third, Fourth and Fifth graders use several wikis each year in project based
learning. Each student has his/her own page. On that page are the assigned tasks
for that student. Not all students have the same tasks. For example, on our Mr.
Poppers Penguins wiki, each student is assigned a different penguin to research.
Each student is assigned a different chapter to summarize. Each student creates a
dictionary of words in the book that are new to them. In support of these areas,
the students create (higher order thinking) a slide show of pictures of their
penguin using either Slide.com or Smilebox.com and embed it on their wiki page.
They have a choice of using either Voki.com or VoiceThread.com (I have a page set
up for the book) to orally present (podcast) their book summary. Finally, using
Google Earth, they take a screen shot of where their penguin lives in the world and
uploads it to the wiki. Lots of technology skills. Lots of creative presentations
to represent their research.
have you tried looking online at tourism sites for free virtual tours? Or maybe
setting up an electronic meeting with grade school studentt inNew York via a webcam
or some sort a tech? Good Luck.
Stacey Rattner
Library Media Specialist
Castleton Elementary School
80 Scott Avenue
Castleton, NY 12033
(518) 732-7755
srattner@schodack.k12.ny.us <mailto:srattner@schodack.k12.ny.us>
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