Students trekked across the United States to explore our nation’s national parks.
In reading class students compared and contrasted different national parks. They created souvenirs for each park they visited. They made t-shirts, keychains, mugs, pennants, and stuffed animals.
This week in math, students successfully planned road trips to the Jersey Shore, New York City, Canada, and Philadelphia! Together, they worked to determine their pit stops along the way, and the duration of each road trip. They counted out $500.00 for their road trip budgets and learned how to make $100.00 using denominations of $100, $50, $20, $10, $5, and $1 dollar bills! Then the students had to decide what food they could eat and places they could visit within their budget. They quickly realized that money doesn’t go very far and they needed to make better choices if they wanted to do many things!
In social studies class students learned different map skills. They learned the cardinal directions on a compass rose, longitude, latitude and how to locate places on a map. Students chose a different national park to research the different landforms, natural resources, wildlife and places of interest.
Writers went on an exciting road trip this past week! Students were asked, ”If you could bring one thing on a road trip, what would it be?” Students mentioned money, food and of course, their families! They explored Yellowstone, Crater Lake, The Grand Canyon, and many other national parks through SMART board technology and Google Expedition VR Glasses. Students worked independently on iPads and Chrome books to do further research on their chosen national park. Writers applied what they learned by making park planners, postcards, and brochures.
They will be finishing the summer exploring comics!
