Saturday, October 5, 2013

Community and Mapping Fun!!

I blogged earlier about our first PBL -- "New School Brochure" (which ties our community and mapping lessons together) and thought I would back up and let y'all know what we did to build up to this project. 

--FIRST--
COMMUNITY- After spending the first couple weeks talking about what a community is, beginning with our own classroom community! We went over rules and procedures and how they help keep our classroom community a safe place to be. We also discussed how we each bring something special and unique to our community. 
MAPPING- At the same time we were discussing mapping. We read "Me on a Map" and created little flip books of where we are on the map, beginning with our planet and ending with our address. I asked the kids if an alien friend from another planet how would they find you? The students also created detailed maps of their homes. 

--SECOND--
COMMUNITY- We then moved on to town communities by reading "Boom Town" (a wonderful story about a family who move for the gold rush to a place with nothing and she begins making and selling pies while convincing others to open up shops like stables, banks, schools, churches....). 
MAPPING- The kids created their own town maps with streets and different businesses, schools, churches, neighborhoods and ect. On the back of their maps they had to say why that place on their map was important to have in a community. 

**This really bridged the two together and prepared them for the project**

--THIRD--
We learned about compasses. Each student got a compass and we walked around the school finding out which way the nurse's clinic faced, what direction the office was in and ect. The kids LOVED it!!!! They were so transfixed on their compasses and watching them move with each turn that they were seriously running into walls and each other!! They caught on quickly after the experienced the compasses hands-on. 

--FOURTH--
PROJECT TIME! See my PBL post: 
to learn more about how I implemented our first PBL in our classroom! 

Happy Teaching Friends!


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