Catherine+Jones


 * Summary:** After previewing the specified video, students should be able to identify prominent physical features of each [|continent] and distinguish physical differences between the continents. With this knowledge the children will create a [|papier-mâché] globe where they will be identifying and labeling each of the continents. This will display their knowledge of where each continent is in respect to the others, as well as bringing awareness to shape and size of the continents. Within each continent the students will be asked to identify and recreate prominent features such as major lakes, rivers, mountains etc. When each students' papier-mâché is complete they will have had a hands on experience while learning about geography as well as having a self-made reference to bring home and show to others.

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 * Lesson Plan:**




 * Tara's Response:**

This sounds like a really fun project and a great way for students to learn about the overall geography of the world. My only concern would be the amount of time spent on this project. As a teacher, you only have so much time to teach every single one of the standards. Some ways that the teacher could possibly cut down on the amount of time could be to have students work in pairs or threesomes. This could cut down on some of the time spent on the project. Another fun video to watch would be clips of the television show [|**Planet Earth**]. This is a very recent educational show put out by the Discovery Channel. It shows clips of the different continents in each episode as well as wildlife and geography.

I'm a big fan of papier-mâché and I know that kids are too. This would be an extremely fun project for students to create. And hopefully watching a video beforehand would add to the excitement of learning the continents and their locations. But I have to agree with Tara on the time issue. It seems like it could take up too much of a teacher's time during the day. Papier-mâché can be very messy and time consuming, especially when put into the hands of children. As a teacher, I would just be worried about keeping everyone on task and making sure I didn't spend 3 hours on one lesson.
 * Blaze's Response:**

Papier-mâché is the bomb-dot-com. Seriously, everybody loves papier-mâché. That aside, I agree with Blaze's comment about it being time consuming. Making ONE globe would be hard enough, and we're talking multiples... The educational value of this sort of activity is at the elementary school level, while the execution seems like it would require a level of dexterity and time-management that most children haven't developed at that age. Ignoring the skill issue, you would have to dedicate a few class periods to this project. You can't expect anything involving papier-mâché to be ready in day. There is preparation, assembly, drying, painting, and more drying at the very least. Not to mention clean-up, storage, instructions, etc. I do love the idea though.
 * Allison's Response:**