Blaze+Russell



**Lesson Plan:** [] This activity is an alternative to the boring memorization of the 50 U.S. states through coloring or plain reciting. With this lesson, kids get exercise and enjoy playing a game that helps them learn without repetition. It's basically a twister game. And making your very own United States map is easy. You just need a cheap shower curtain and an overhead projector. Instead of a spinner, you can make your own game cards with commands and clues appropriate to your grade level. In our case, 5th grade. An example of a card drawn could be, "Put your left foot on the largest state that begins with the letter "M".

This seems to be a great interactive game which will capture the students attention while "disguising" the fact that they are learning. A modifier to the lesson plan could be that the students could make their own smaller versions of the game to take home and play with their family and friends. The only potential problem that I noted was that this could be a difficult game to play with an entire class, so finding a way to create groups or teams might be a good idea. Kids are often motivated by competition and thus a team based activity could be very beneficial.
 * Catherine's Response:**

As already stated above, the only drawback I perceived is that it would be very difficult to play this game with a class of 30 kids. Probably the best way to remedy this would be to use this is some sort of geography [|stations lesson], where there are multiple activities having to do with learning U.S. geography. Having the kids stay at one station for 15 or 20 minutes will allow them a variety of different types of play focused on one topic and keep up their attention span.
 * Tara's Response:**

Perhaps having more than one game going at once would help. It would be extra work, no doubt about that, but having the entire class involved makes for a more focused classroom. Although, if your plan is to include all fifty states on a single mat... well, that seems a bit excessive. I can't even imagine how such a game would go down. Learning wise, this a great idea. It's fun and interactive while keeping with the purpose of the activity.
 * Allison's Response:**