In 1492, Columbus Sailed the Ocean Blue ...

BUT.....

Which OCEAN?? Continents and oceans are not particularly fifth grade standards, however, every year I discover that a large portion of my class still struggles to name and identify the 5 oceans and 7 continents. Hence our mini unit during Exploration. Here are some of my favorite activities for review:

After learning about longitude and latitude (a fifth grade standard), I separate the kiddos onto pairs to create a balloon globe. They really have to use good logical thinking skills, as well as maps and globes, to place the continents in their correct place between the Equator and the Prime Meridian. 

This activity really helps them visual the globe better. If you are interested in purchasing the globe set it is available on TPT HERE. 

During our centers, I have a small maps and globes booklet that is one of my CAN DO stations for the week. This booklet is a FREEBIE that you can get HERE!

HERE are some awesome FREE geography map and globe word wall words as well. 

Another great activity to do for review around the holidays is THIS  FREEBIE where students use map skills to track Santa. 

Hopefully you can use some of these activities to help your students review or teach vital geography knowledge :) 

Cultural Heritage Project

Before Thanksgiving every year, I explain our big Christmas Heritage Project to the kiddos. I introduce the project and encourage them to talk to their parents/grandparents over break to find out about their family's heritage and roots. 

The Project: 
After break, students share their family roots and we begin our research at school on how their ancestral country/culture celebrates "Christmas" or a winter holiday around the same time (ex. Diwali, Chinese New Year, etc.) . Students then do a web quest that has different Christmas Around the World websites to help guide their research. 
Some of my favorites include:
Santa Net 
Why Christmas
The North Pole
Christmas Around the World
Kids Travel
They use an I-chart to record their findings. After they have discovered a lot about their country and their celebrations, we use our information to write a short paragraph about the holiday, type them up the computer, and add a caption.

Researching how our countries celebrate Christmas or a winter holiday

 Reading LOTS of books on our countries 

The "at home" part of the project is the creation of an  Ornament that illustrates a tradition from the way their culture celebrates Christmas/Winter Holiday.

I use a rubric to grade their presentation of the ornament - it reflects: effort, whether it matches a tradition or just of the country, an in depth explanation of the tradition, and if the project was turned in on time.

 Presenting our Ornaments

In writing, students wrote an informational compare and contrast  essay

Incorporating geography, we also researched where our cultural country was located using maps, globes, and atlases. It was very interesting listening to the kids as they discover the SIZE comparison of other countries to our own. Many of them were shocked by how small their country was and at how BIG others were. Geography can be very eye opening for one's world view in many ways. 

Do you do anything to celebrate holidays around the world or family heritage? 

Happy Holidays!