|
If We Came to Your City
| Locating Keypals on a World Map |
As your students make new friends around the world have them locate their friends on a map. Mark the city with a flag and each time new friends are made, mark their spot as well. What is the time difference between your city and the city of the keypals?
If you are a social studies teacher and you have chosen keypals from a specific country with the intention of having your students gain first hand information from people who live in the country, now is the time to begin. What topics do you want them to learn more about? Focus the students on the topics that are part of your curriculum.
- History
- Geography
- Culture and Customs
- Language
- Food
- Weather
- Local politics
| What Makes Your Area Special? |
Each teacher will encourage the students to read about their home town and share interesting facts about it with their friends. Are there any websites that feature places in your town? Have your students search for your city/town on the web and make a list of interesting URL's to send to their friends. They might find websites about:
- museums
- resort areas
- science centers
- historical information
- gardens and a zoo
- aquarium
- castles
Online mentors in the UK, Liz Exton and Bob Liddle, exchanged e-mail with my students and sent them to places in the United Kingdom with these links:
- You might want to plan a small field trip to an important place in your town and have the students take notepads and pens. Using descriptive writing skills they can take notes and later describe the scene to their friends. Students in the Kidlink "Through Our Eyes" project do a similar activity for a 3 month project.
- Are there any historical landmarks in your area? Visit the Kidlink Landmark Game and see how a teacher developed a project about landmarks.
- Are there any famous people from your town? Tell your keypals about them. What makes these people famous? For what accomplishment are they known?
- Plan a virtual trip to your town for your keypal. Kidlink's Virtual Vacation module of the "Who am I?" program is filled with ideas for students wishing to take a virtual vacation.
- Kidlink's "Where Do I Live?" module of the "Who am I?" program also offers many topics for students to discuss.
- Suggest that each class prepare a travel brochure for the other. What important places will they include in the brochure? What special features about your city or town would the students highlight in a travel brochure?
Back to the Menu
|