Continent Adventure

Targeted Learners

This lesson was designed for second grade students and addresses geography standards relating to identifying and locating the seven continents, major rivers and major mountains of the world. The lesson also helps students understand the difference between a continent and a country and to locate and learn about countries relating to their heritage.

In order to enhance student’s understanding and promote development of meaningful connections, it is helpful to conduct this study of the continents after students have had the opportunity to investigate their own heritage with family members. This will be beneficial in addressing standards 2.7 and 2.9 referenced below.

Massachusetts History and Social Science Curriculum Framework Standards
2.1 On a map of the world, locate all of the continents: North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and Antarctica.
2.4 Locate five major rivers in the world: the Mississippi, Amazon, Volga, Yangtze, and Nile.
2.5 Locate major mountains or mountain ranges in the world such as the Andes, Alps, Himalayas, Mt. Everest, Mt. McKinley, and the Rocky Mountains.
2.6 Explain the difference between a continent and a country and give examples of each.
2.7 On a map of the world, locate the continent, regions, or countries from which students, their parents, guardians, grandparents, or other relatives or ancestors came. With the help of family members and the school librarian, describe traditional food, customs, sports and games, and music of the place they came from.
2.9 With the help of the school librarian, identify and describe well-known sites, events, or landmarks in at least three different countries from which students’ families come and explain why they are important.

Massachusetts English Language Arts Standards
Standard 2: Questioning, Listening, and Contributing - Students will pose questions, listen to the ideas of others, and contribute their own information or ideas in group discussions or interviews in order to acquire new knowledge.
Standard 13: Nonfiction - Students will identify, analyze, and apply knowledge of the purposes, structure, and elements of nonfiction or informational materials and provide evidence from the text to support their understanding.
Standard 20: Consideration of Audience and Purpose - Students will write for different audiences and purposes.
Standard 24: Research - Students will gather information from a variety of sources, analyze and evaluate the quality of the information they obtain, and use it to answer their own questions.

Process

The introduction and research portion of this lesson will require 2-3 45-minute class periods and includes time for teacher to model navigation and use of some websites. The group travel brochure project will require an additional 1-2 45-minute class periods. Sharing of the brochures can be done whole class or in small groups at the discretion of the teacher. The last portion of the lesson involving the individual continent comparison, rating and voting will require 1 45-minute class period.

Heterogeneous groups should be utilized and higher level readers should be paired with lower level readers to aid with reading tasks. Students may conduct the research at separate computers or may share one computer and browse the websites together.

The teacher may wish to supplement this lesson with fiction and non-fiction read-alouds or video relating to the continents/countries. Check with your school library for availability of relevant material.

Resources Needed

The following resources will be needed to complete this lesson:

     *  Computer with Internet access for each student or group of students

     *  Travel Log worksheet (double-sided)

     *  Travel Brochure worksheet (enlarged and double-sided)

     *  Venn diagram

     *  Pencils, crayons, colored pencils

This lesson makes use of various websites. Links to these websites can be found under “Process” on the student page. Also, an additional teacher, aide or parent volunteer would be beneficial, particularly during the research stage.

Evaluation

Students will be evaluated using the rubric found on the student page under “Evaluation”. Students will be engaged with new information and will demonstrate their knowledge of the standards through their written work and oral presentation. Written work that will be used in the evaluation process will include: Travel Log, Travel Brochure, and Venn diagram.

Credits & References

Clip art from http://www.phillipmartin.info/clipart/geo_continents.htm
Created with the help of WebQuest training materials found at http://webquest.org/index.php