The Kindergarteners at Glenvar Elementary went treasure hunting on Friday to look for “pirate loot!” Using treasure maps and gps units, they found all sorts of goodies while practicing their map skills. They did this in full pirate attire, of course! Here’s some pictures of the event…it was a blast!!
Pirate Geocaching with Kindergarten! on PhotoPeach
Fourth Graders at Clearbrook Elementary are participating in a cross-state Virginia Regions project on the Regions of VA Wiki. While Mrs. Schlosser’s Social Studies classes are participating in some of the projects on the wiki as a group, a few students decided to participate in the podcast project on their own. During their free time, they created a song about the Regions of Virginia. After practicing it, it’s been recorded and posted on the wiki. I’m so impressed that these kids worked on this song on their own, and think they did a great job! It’s a familiar tune…but after I listen to it, I walk around with their song in my head for hours. In case you’d like to listen, here it is:
Regions of VA from Tina Coffey on Vimeo.
You can also find it on the Regions of VA Wiki under podcasts. Nice job, ladies!
If you live in Virginia, there’s still time for your class to jump in an participate in SOME or ALL of the projects on the wiki. Please join us!!
Our 2nd grade students ihave been reading the book, The Journey of Oliver K. Woodman by Darcy Pattison. It’s a story about a wooden man, Oliver K. Woodman, that is sent from an Uncle in Rock Hill, SC to his niece in Redcrest, CA. Oliver moves from place to place in the book through the kindness of strangers who pick him and and help him travel all the way across the United States.
After reading the book, following his travels on google earth, and learning about communities we decided it would be fun for the students to send their own Oliver on a journey. Since students have also been learning about geocaching, we decided to tie the two things together and create a traveling Oliver K. Woodman geobug. We planted him at a local tourist spot, and hope to map him as he makes his way across the United States to Redcrest, CA. Just like in the book, we are counting on the kindness of strangers to move him from one geocache to another. If you run across him, please help us by moving him along. The students would also love to see pictures of his travels!
As he moves, the classes will use their mapping skills to follow him, and hopefully learn a little of geography. We’ll also be interested in what types of communities he move through (urban, suburban, or rural).
You can learn more about this project on our wiki: http://oliverkwoodman.wikispaces.com.
The History on Tap blog is a great place to find resources that match Virginia’s SOLs for Social Studies and History, including games, foldables, presentations, study sheets, and more. It has resources for K-12, including tons of great things for VA Studies. It is updated and maintained by a Lisa Pennington, a Social Studies Specialist in Portsmouth, VA. If you teach social studies content, check it out!