This is the last installment of my
Geography Series, Geography V: Americas (sorry Australia) and pretty much follows the same format of Introduction of Countries, Study Map, Play Game, but tweaked just a little bit. I would think that after 5 of the same type of lesson it would get boring after a while, but the kids really like the 'write the answer and hold it above your head game.'
The Americas:
- Native Speaker introduces the concept of America the subareas. 5 minutes.
- Native Speaker brainstorms as many countries as possible and categorizes them into the various subareas. 5 minutes.
- Students are divided into groups and perform American worksheet. 10 minutes.
- Native Speaker goes over the American worksheet with students. 25 minutes.
Notes:
- I combined North America and South America into one lesson since the number of countries in each continent is rather small.
- The Caribbean has many territories in addition to countries but I ignored most of them to make the area more manageable.
- Since the worksheet is divided into three maps (North America, South America, and the Caribbean) I first made groups of six and within each group I made two people responsible for each respective map.
- Predictably the kids knew about U.S.A. and Canada but got lost with the lesser known countries of the Caribbean and South America. Brazil and Cuba and the only ones that they really know.
- This lesson, like the Geography II, III, IV, can be taught in two routes. The fist route involves the kids memorizing the study map and turning Africa worksheet into a multi round game. The second glosses over the worksheet and goes into the Traveler IQ game.
- The division of the Americas is somewhat ambiguous. I followed the economic division during the introduction but the worksheets focus on continental divisions with a separate map for the Caribbean. When taking up the America worksheets the 3 groups easily transforms into a game with 3 rounds:
- As outlined in the lesson, you give the each group maps and tell them to memorize it for five minutes.
- You hand out the worksheet and take the map away despite their protests and give them ten minutes to fill in the map.
- Around the five minute mark they'll start to sputter so offer a hint by providing the list of countries for spelling purposes.
- When they're approaching the ninth or so minute I have volunteer from each group come up to my desk and pick up a small white board, a dry eraser and a marker.
- Each questions takes the form of a country picture (Microsoft clip-art surprisingly covers all countries in America, except for Cuba - but I made my own version) and the number on the worksheet. A correct answer requires the group to properly spell the country on the white board and raise the white board above their head.
- I present the beginning of each round with a list of countries. If they're smart they'll feverishly copy this list down somewhere and have a valid stockpile of answers; just writing one country down and continually showing it for each question will result in at least one correct answer.
- I was able to play the Traveler IQ game like a giant Price is Right game because I have a access to a lab with an internet connected computer and a screen projector.
- As outlined in the lesson you give the each group a study map but you also give them the worksheet at the same time. I handed out both the study map and the worksheet face down to set up a race competition.
- Give them X minutes to fill in the blanks or stop when one group has finished.
- Remove the study maps and leave them with only their worksheets as reference material.
- The Traveler IQ Game prompts the user with a place that the he or she has to find and click on a map. The closest the user gets, the more points the user scores, and the further the user gets in the multi level game.
- Each group elects a captain and that captain plays the game on the computer *without* the worksheet.
- The rest of the group watches the captain's progress via the computer projector and helps the captain by yelling North, South, East, West to guide the captain to the correct location before the time runs out. Though the kids usually forget this and slip into Korean directions.
- Keep track of score and repeat until you have one group. Then if you need more time you can break up the group into individual and compete for the smartest kid in the class. At this point the students should have seen enough answers from previous rounds to make it through 3,4 or even 5 levels.
- Since the captain on the computer has his back towards the projector screen, I usually stand beside the screen and circle the correct area with my hand to give the group a general direction of where the captain should place his flag.
The South America
study map, the Caribbean
study map, the North America
study map, and the
map test come from
worldatlas.com.
The Traveler IQ Game is found at
TravelPod.
Everything else was found in
Microsoft Clipart; the clip art style that I use is
1409 and it's large enough to cover most countries.
More information about my lessons can be found
here.
