The Fun in Geography

Let's explore what Geography is all about! Geography is the study of the Earth. The study is divided into five themes such as Location, Place, Human/environmental interaction, Movement, and Region. Each of these five places is different from one another. So, you are probably wondering why geography is super important. Geography does a number of things.  There are four important points why geography is important. 

1. Geography helps students answer the four questions children are curious and ask: What is it? Why is it there? Where is it? What is the significance of its location?

2. Geography helps students understand important connections between the physical and human systems & how they interact on the surface of the Earth.

3. Students are able to practice critical thinking skills about the distribution and different arrangments of people, places, events. Children are able to see the importance and connect their knowledge to the world.

4. Geography mainly captures the imagination of students through a focus on exploration and adventure from different perspectives & media. 

"It's not just learning which way is North, South, East, & West. Or the scale of the map. Geography is the world and all that is in it" 

This is a wonderful quote from a video from Chapter 13 of the text. Click here to watch!

What is Geo-Literacy?

According to Daniel Edelson students need to be geographically literate to make decisions. It is the understanding of the skills that are necessary to make these decisions.There are three components of geo-literacy. 

•  Understanding human & natural systems
• Geographic reasoning
• Systematic decision making

Children have to be able to make effective decisions related to geography. They will understand how our world works, how our world is connected, and how to make well-reasoned decisions.

There are 5 Major Themes of Geography.

1. Location

2.Place

3.Human & environment interaction

4.Movement

5.Regions

There are wonderful activities you can have your students involved in. 

Activites you can include in your elementary classroom!

Location: Design a country, literature around the world, map puzzles, create an atlas.

Place: ABC book of your community, say hello in different languages, collect dirt, create a postage stamp or postcard, or a weather report. 

Human/ Environment Interaction: Read aloud The Lorax to teach students about human interaction, collect your town's growing population, have students identify their wants and needs, collect pictures of your town over 10 years.

Movement: The products we use, commuter graph, roots of their family, interview community elders, license plates from all around.

Regions: Map your school region, time zones, bingo, regions in your community & cultural regions.

There are different tools and analytical concepts for teaching Geography.

technology, maps, scale, change, diversity, models, systems.

There are two beautiful well -known songs you can incorporate when teaching geography. This will engage students and keep them involved. 

This Land is Your Land

America the Beautiful

Geography should be interactive and concrete. They should participate in experiences that will be most familiar to them. Some examples of having students participate in experiences are, neighborhood map art project, interactive geography games, picture books, virtual field trips, building maps, bring Flat Stanley into the classroom! These are all fun interactive experiences for children to be involved in and learn more about geography!

After viewing the power point 103 creatively simple ways to teach Geography  I chose 3 ways I'd like to teach Geography in my future classroom. The first way I'd love to teach geography in the classroom is through clay models. I would love have students create clay models with physcial features with plasticine. As a child, I loved working with clay. It was always engaging and fun! 

Another fun way I'd teach geography in the classroom would be through a Landscape in a Box. A landscape in a box allows students to be creative while learning. 

The next way I'd like to incorporate geography in the classroom would be by having students to participate in Adopt a Rock. The students will have the opportunity to give the rocks a home. The students will name the rock, make-up where it came from, why it is shaped the way it is. The students can take the rock home and take pictures of the rock and the travels the rock went through. The main thing to have kids realize is that every rock matters.

There is a wonderful video that you can watch to learn more about the 5 major themes of geography. Click here!

Artifact Bags are Super COOL!

"Using artifacts, from primary documents to items that can be held in one's hand, is a motivational strategy"(Fuhler, 2006). An artifact bag is a hands-on activity that increases childrens knowledge. Artifact bags can be used with any subject, topic, and grade level. Artifact bags are super engaging and informative. Students are able to become a real live

historian for the day! Artifact bags follow the inquiry investigative process. The inquiry investigative process is shown through artifact bag presentations because students have to figure out what the items are, and why they are in the bag. 

I got to make my own artifact bag! My artifact bag contained items that related to The Voyages of Christopher Columbus, which was my unit plan topic. I had the opportunity to go a flee market the weekend before the artifact bag was due. I found 3 very cool items there! I was excited to share my artifact bag because my items were tangible. 

The first artifact I included in my bag was an Italian flag. An Italian flag represented Christopher Columbus' nationality. 

The second artifact I included in my bag was a compass. I found this compass at the flee market. I thought it was really cool because it was important to Columbus's journey. Without the compass, Columbus would have had a hard time figuring out which way to sail to reach land

The third item in my bag was a map. Columbus took 4 voyages after discovering America. He also used a map to help him figure out how to reach land!

The last item I included was this little pilgrim I found at the flee-market. This pilgrim represents the Taino people who were already in the Americas once Columbus arrived.

At the end of my presentation, my group and the group we were paired with (Kristen and Cassandra) were able to figure out that the artifacts belong to Columbus. During class, we shared our artifact bags with our group and group 3. Kristen and Cassandras artifact bags were interesting. They were on the Spanish conquistadors. The artifacts they created were really cool. Kristen included armor worn by the conquistadors. Cassandra included a fake bullet which was really cool. Cassandra included a piece of headwear that she made by herself that mirrored Moctezuma's headpiece

.

In my presentation, I included a book to learn more about Columbus. This book tells the story of Columbus and takes you through his journeys. This is a great book for children who want to learn more about Columbus from reading!

I also included a website where you can learn more information about Columbus. 

Overall I love the artifact bags. Creating the artifact bag was really fun. I loved that I was able to get tangible items. I will most definitely be using these in my future classroom. Artifact bags are great for students to research. They can be used to introduce a topic or to end the unit. It is great for the visual learners, and it is just really FUN!


Click on the links below to explore the class' individual artifact bags!
My Artifact Bag Presentation 
Alexis Artifact Bag
Gauen's Artifact Bag
Rachel's Artifact Bag
Cierra's Artifact Bag
Cassandra's Artifact Bag
Amanda's Artifact Bag
Kim's Artifact Bag
Aimee's Artifat Bag

Mystery in Artifact Bags

This week in class we participated in a Mystery Bag activity. We learned how to make history alive through an artifact bag lesson. The task was to choose a mystery bag and figure out what the significance was in the items. I worked with Kim, Rachel, and Alexis. My group & I were given a bag with very interesting artifacts. We were excited to open the mystery bag, unwrap our items and begin our research on what these items were and who do they belong to! The first item we unwrapped was this one doll. In each doll was another doll. The doll opened and had another inside it. After researching we found out these dolls were called Matryoshka. We found out Matryoshka is a doll which was first made in 1890 in Russia. These dolls are used for decoration and entertainment. Matryoshka is a popular item in the Russian culture. The next item we discovered was gzhel pottery. The pottery is a beautiful blue and white consisting of designs. Gzhel pottery is pottery created in the 19th century. After researching we found out that this was pottery from the Russian culture. Gzhel is named after a city located in Southeast Moscow, Russia. This pottery can be used for a number of different things. For example, gzhel pottery can be used for decoration, vases, candlesticks, clocks, tea, and dinner sets & more. The third item we found in the bag was an award for Dr. Smirnova! This award was presented to her. The award was the National Teachers Training Academy of Science.  She got this award in 2005 after she came to America from Russia! We had to translate this award this way we could figure out what it meant. It was in the Russian language. This was a really cool experience because we got to work together and figure out what these items were and how they related to each other. The gzhel & Matryoshka are both Russian decorations. This activity was hands on and engaging. I really love the idea of Mystery bags because it encourges students to want to learn. To end the activity we had to fill out a chart which asked us the 5 W's: Who, What, When, Where, Why. Ultimately, we all used the inquiry method to figure out what the artifacts symbolized. We had to use the information given, conduct a investigation, and conclude  our investigation with an conclusion which explained our evidence. Each group presented their bags & we came to the conlcusion that this was all about Dr. Smirnova. 

Here is our presentation!

Gzhel

Matryoshka

Dr. Smirnova's Award

Making History Alive in the Classroom

Here are some more Strategies that can make history alive in the classroom!

Using the technology of today, teachers will have the power to increase the engagement of students in the class! Making History Alive will be filled with meaning, value-based, participatory, and activeness. 

It is important to have students engaged while learning history. Learned from chapter 12 section 6
One strategy that should be used in the classroom is the EPIC strategy. The EPIC strategy:
EXPERIENCES- related to the topic being taught
PERCEPTIONS-feeling that students have, details that they remembered
INFORMATION-teacher shares information about the topic being studied
CONNECTIONS- teacher helps students make connections between the students' experiences and perceptions and the topic being studied. 



Role Playing/ Simulations- Leads children to be engaged and have a better understanding and purpose


Artifacts to get the students engaged in the lesson you will be teaching. Teaching with artifacts is a good way to keep the students engaged. Real life objects from the past are very cool for students to see.

Local History- Interview members of the community or family members that know about the past. You can combine geography and social studies. You can also have the students go to different historical sites in their area and see what makes their area unique.

A website to enhance your learning!

Experiencing Poverty

Yesterday I attended Poverty Simulation. Before attending the simulation I had an understanding of what poverty is, but would never think I would be able to experience it. Well, I didn't necessarily experience real life poverty, but I was put into a situation where I had to pretend. We got to experience one month in poverty through 4 weeks. There were four 15 minute periods. Each "day"(15 minutes) was considered a week. There were different agencies and shops set up in the room that helped/ harmed us. For example, there was the school, mortgage company, bank, quick cash, police department, jail, employment center, health care center. Each person participating in the simulation had a role. We had to stick to that role as much as possible.I was assigned Cindy Chen a mother of 3 who was married to Charles Chen. Cindy worked full time, 40 hours a week, making only 9 dollars an hour.  Her husband was unemployed. They had endless bills to pay, feed the household, and take care of their family... the problem was they didn't have enough money to take pay their bills and buy food. It was such a struggle! During the simulation, I lost my job. I left my employment card at the bank and they fired me. I don't think this was a real reflection on what would happen in the real world. If you leave your ID card somewhere you are most likely to get it back. Since I lost my job my husband applied for a job. He got the job! The only problem was he got his first paycheck, went to cash it, just for the bank to take his check away. The bank closed and took his check and wouldn't give it back. We told the police and he did not do anything about it. I do not believe that would happen in the real world. Although, there were many things that would happen in the real world. In the simulation, my daughter was 16 and pregnant. In our family description it said that she ran off with her boyfriend a lot. My 10-year-old son had to take care of my 8-year-old son. Since I was never home, and my husband was out doing other things such as buying food, our children got into trouble. My daughter came home with drugs and my boys were stealing and getting into trouble. It was impossible to make ends meet 




During the simulation, I realized the frustration people in poverty have to deal with on an everyday basis. No matter how hard and how much you try, NOTHING is enough. Trying to pay your bills, mortgage, car payment, and buying food each week was a struggle. There were weeks we went without food. There were times where we made our children steal transportation passes, and money to help our situation. I just wanted to give up. 
By the end of the simulation, I realized how important being educated on poverty is, especially being a teacher candidate. There are so many children in today's schools that are experiencing poverty. There are many children that I will encounter and have already encountered with my career choice.  School should be a safe place for these children. It is terrible to put children in situations where they feel like they need to help, stay home from school, and take their focus off of being a kid. The simulation changed my perspective on poverty. It influenced me to take the next steps to help those in need. As the holidays begin I realized how fortunate I am. I am so fortunate to live the life I do. I could not imagine what living in poverty every day would be like. I am lucky to have a the oppuntinty to attend college.  I am lucky to have a roof over my head, food to eat, and love from my family. What I am most lucky for is my future as a childhood educator and making children's lives better.