Tuesday Times--Expedition

Hello Everyone,

The first and second grade crews have launched into their first expedition, called Where in the World is Moscow! In the last two weeks the students have been building up their background knowledge and learning important information that will guide them through the expedition. As you may guess from the name of the expedition, we will focus on using mapping and geography skills to discuss the location of different towns or cities called Moscow all over the globe.

We launched the expedition with a mystery piece where the students had to examine a series of maps. The students recorded some things that they noticed and some things that they wondered for each map. After a class discussion, they synthesized what they had learned and wrote a definition of the word map. A map, they decided, is “a thing that shows you where places are.” This definition may be modified throughout the course of our expedition.

Following this brief introduction to maps, we examined other maps and determined what made some maps more useful than others. The students discovered by comparing two different maps of the same location that in order for a map to be fully functional, it needs a number of features, such as a key, labels, a compass rose, and a scale. After identifying these important features, the students worked with partners and modified a map of our classroom. The initial map, drawn by me, was lacking all of those important things that a quality map should have. I was really impressed with how the students worked together to make the map much more useful—they cooperated and collaborated with each other to come up with some very nice products. If you’re interested in seeing these maps, stop by—they’re hanging on the wall right outside of our classroom.

Finally, to wrap up this portion of the expedition, the students used maps to guide Ms. Clayton back to school last Friday. Ms. Clayton, who was quite possibly kidnapped by Viola Swamp (see Miss Nelson is Missing, by James Marshall), had to be found and shown her way back to school. The students walked possible routes back to PPSEL, recorded those routes on maps, and then sent them in a message to Ms. Clayton. Luckily, Ms. Clayton managed to follow the maps and made it back to school by the end of the day.

We are just beginning our first case study for this expedition, where we will be examining our Moscow—its geography, architecture, and people. Stay tuned for more on this.