A Colonial America Experience

Students in fourth grade researched topics related to Colonial America using both books and Web resources. Students were encouraged to select a topic that was interesting and meaningful to them and were given the opportunity to work alone or with a partner. Topics studied included food, medicine, Revolutionary War battles, school, transportation, cooking, clothing, toys and games. After completing their research, students were asked to share their learning through a variety of technology tools. Final projects included online glog posters, VoiceThread slideshows, interactive clicker games and geocaching experiences, Google Earth tours and movies. This project-based approach to learning helped students apply basic technology skills in creative and innovative ways.

One group of girls chose to share what they learned about colonial clothing through a geocaching experience. The girls created note cards with pictures of clothing along with note cards describing different jobs and events where the clothing would be worn. The cards were mixed up and eight caches were hidden across campus for parents to find. Once all the caches were located, parents returned and were challenged to match the pictures with the descriptions. The girls then repeated the experience with members of their class. A presentation was reviewing the matches and sharing additional information was then given.

This was a wonderful way to engage the entire audience in the learning experience, and one I will definitely encourage my students to do again. This activity was so successful that I plan on having the entire fourth grade hide caches next year!

Geocaching Fun in Third Grade

I know it has been a while since I have posted on this blog. I took a bit of a hiatus from geoacaching with the students and just started back up again. Fall in Florida has been unseasonably hot - too hot to be outside all day long with four classes of students. Here is a summary of our first activity of the year.

Third graders were excited to participate in their first geocaching activity of the year. After spending a day researching the basics of this treasure hunting game along with learning how GPS technologies work, the students were anxious to use handheld GPS to locate caches hidden across the campus.

Working with partners, students acquired satellites and navigated through the various screens to program the GPS to locate a specific cache. After discussion about how to use the built-in compass, students set off on the hunt.

Once caches were located, students removed envelopes containing pictures and facts about building toys from the 20th century. As students are using K’Nex in their study of motion and design in their classrooms, I thought they would be interested in learning about other building toys used throughout history.


Students returned to the lab and used an online tool to create a timeline. The use of timelines will be extended when the students begin studying European explorers.

USA Landmark Google Earth Tour

Finally created my own tour in Google Earth. I've played around with the program for years, have used it in my teaching of geography, and have allowed students to explore the program. I was determined to have the students use it more this year. The first grade students kicked off their America unit this week, so I decided to take them on a tour of ten US landmarks. Starting off at our school, students visited the:

White House
Lincoln Memorial
Washington Monument
Statue of Liberty
Empire State Building
Niagara Falls
Grand Canyon
Mount Rushmore
Golden Gate Bridge
Independence Hall & The Liberty Bell

I used the Get Info feature to add interesting facts as well as a picture for each stop. I used heading 2 tags to enlarge my text and tag to add photos from my Flickr account. I used many of my own photos as well as Wikimedia and Flickr Creative Commons for others. Students read the information at each stop and answered questions about the readings. High readers were paired with lower readers as needed. The students were engaged from start to finish.

Introducing GPS and Geocaching Lesson Plan - 3rd Grade

Third grade students participated in a WebQuest to learn about GPS and geocaching. Using pre-selected Web sites, they researched GPS, learned about satellites and GPS receivers, and read about the sport of geocaching. Each student then researched and answered a specific question on a class VoiceThread.

Students also had fun putting their new GPS knowledge to work as they searched for caches around campus. Working with partners, each group was assigned a cache to locate. Once the cache was found, they used an online graphing tool, Create a Graph, to create a bar graph of the cache's contents.

Travel Bug Tip - Make Your Own

My second grade students again released a set of travel bugs. This year's group decided to keep their bugs in the United States, and I am happy to report that after two short weeks, three of them are on the move. Two arrived in Maryland after visiting the Capitol, Washington Monument, the Library of Congress, and Arlington National Cemetery. The other is on a train to NYC. Both of the geocachers who picked up our bugs have written to my students and taken lots of pictures along the way.

If you are considering sending off a travel bug, I'd like to suggest something that has worked out very well for us. Instead of finding an object to attach to the tag, make your own and include the mission of the bug with it. (Laminated tags at your local copy store work well.) Also, let people know that the bug was created by students. I truly feel having this information included with the bug has helped move all of them along so quickly. Since March 2009, our eight bugs have been in 18 states, three countries and have traveled more than 22,000 miles!

GPS and Geocaching WebQuest

I'm so excited to get started with geocaching again. This week, I am reintroducing my 3rd graders to the sport. This class of 3rd graders learned about geocaching through the travel bugs we released last year. They also spent some time geocaching on our campus. But their knowledge of GPS and how it works is superficial. I have created this quick WebQuest to give students a history about GPS and how it works. They will also review important vocabulary related to GPS and geocaching. Finally, they will be creating a VoiceThread to share what they have learned with other teachers and students.

Google Earth Intro -2nd Grade

For their first visit to the computer lab, second grade students were asked to demonstrate their present knowledge of the world by drawing their own map. Each child was given a piece of paper and asked to think about the maps they have seen before. For fifteen minutes they sketched and labeled - and when it was all done, these young cartographers learned that it is really hard to make a world map that looks like the world!

So begins their geographic journey. As they study the seven continents in their classrooms throughout the school year, they will also participate in a variety of technology experiences with tools such as online atlases, encyclopedias, hand-held GPS and Google Earth in the lab.

Today, they learned how to fly around Google Earth viewing satellite imagery, maps, and terrain. After moving form Earth > Continent > Country > State > City and seeing our school from a "bird's eye view," they flew to their own homes. (This required students writing their home address on a note card before coming to the lab.) The students were delighted to see their rooftops as well as those of their friends. This was a great introductory activity that I will definitely use again next year.

Bird's Eye View of Shorecrest