Library Digital Content Access


Finding Our Place in the Community

Created By: Janenne Scott, Oakland Elementary School (Bloomington, IL)
Grade Level: 3rd
Content Area: Social Studies
Database Integration: Students will search TDC database for images of our hemisphere, continent, ocean, country, state, and city.


Illinois Learning Standards Achieved

Standard Achieved

Activity that Meets this Standard

State Goal 17.A.1a: Identify physical characteristics of places, both local and global (e.g., locations, roads, regions, bodies of water).

Students will be able to identify their place in the hemisphere, continent, ocean, country, state, and city they live in during the school year.
State Goal 17.A.1b: Identify the characteristics and purposes of geographic representations including maps, globes, graphs, photographs, software, digital images and be able to locate specific places using each. Students will be able to identify their place in the hemisphere, continent, ocean, country, state, and city they live in during the school year.


Objective:

Students will be able to identify their place in the hemisphere, continent, ocean, country, state, and city they live in during the school year.


Time:

Early Fall - six days, each lesson is about 30 minutes.


Procedures/Teaching Activities:

  1. Clear some space in the middle of your classroom.
  2. Have students lie down on the floor in a circle with their heads facing the inside of the circle.
  3. Tell your students today they are traveling on a space ship and must visualize their trip.
  4. Count down 10 to 1 and BLAST OFF into space (make sure they tighten their safety belts).
  5. Dim the lights and take the children on a journey through their city, state, country, ocean, continent, and hemisphere.
  6. Take the trip slowly and talk about each step of the journey - make sure you are naming each appropriate step.
  7. Ask a few of the children how they are feeling about being in a space ship and traveling - ask them what they see - and have them keep repeating where they are in the journey.
  8. After you have reached your hemisphere, bring them back down to earth again repeating each step of the journey.
  9. After they are back on earth, have them return to their seats and pull down the maps or get pictures or overheads of your journey to discuss each phase of the day's adventure.
  10. For the next five days take each stage of the journey and map it - discuss it - compare it - and finally memorize it in relationship to the overall journey.
  11. If possible, have a landing party on the sixth day with astronaut food. (Can be ordered from NASA) - we usually do the ice cream.