geography

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Home : 2001 : April : 3

geography
By Jana

It's a little late in the year, but what about considering a 'Flat Stanley' writing unit, or a postcard exchange unit. If you haven't heard of 'FS', it's based on the book. You send off 'flat stanleys' to schools or addresses
around the US. They stay for a visit and return with a journal explaining the events of the stay-- the neat part is, these host states can include information, brochures, pictures, etc. applicable to their area. When letters return we plot the destinations on a large US map on our bulletin board. We also discuss direction and compare the climate to our own.
This is a great ongoing

project, you can send the Stanleys off on as many trips as you'd like. It's a very meaninful way to focus on the states-- you could do a world wide project as well.

At the beginning of the year my 1st graders didn't even have the concept that we lived in a city within a state within a larger group of states called the US. Now they can discuss directions as well as remembering places that our Stanleys have visited, things they did, etc. It's very exciting! You can also do this same sort of thing with postcards-- try to get a postcard from every state and plot the results as you go.