Geography Time!

We are so excited to be moving into our geography unit for the next several weeks! Because we are not using the textbook for the majority of these units, we will be creating posts to help students study at home.

We all learned in school that there are 7 continents (North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Antarctica, Africa, and Australia), but did you know that there are 5 official oceans now, not the 4 we learned about in school? In 2000, the International Hydrographic Organization named the Southern Ocean as the newest ocean.

We will also be studying different types of maps to see what new information we can learn from them. Some of the maps we will use this week are listed below:

1. Physical Map: A landform map that shows the physical features of a place.

2. Elevation Map: A landform map that shows the height of the land's surface.

3. Population Map: A map that shows how many people live in a certain area.

We will be reviewing cardinal and intermediate directions throughout the week as well. Check out any of the resources below:

Map/Atlas Library

Maps 4 Kids

Just for Fun:

The Land of Inch

We have been working hard learning about inches, feet, and yards this past week. Yesterday, we got a message from the King of the Land of Inch. He told us that the evil King Metric stole the map to his kingdom. He left us very specific directions of how to recreate the map to his kingdom. Today, we had an inspection from the Queen of Inch. She said that our maps met the standard! Thank goodness...we thought it might be off with our heads for sure! Check out the clips below from our classroom inspections:

Queen Inch Morning Class from Melissa Ross on Vimeo.

Queen Inch Afternoon Class from Melissa Ross on Vimeo.

We're Ready for Thanksgiving!

We worked hard to get ready for our first fieldtrip, The First Thanksgiving, in class. We learned about primary and secondary sources while we researched the first Thanksgiving. We worked hard on social studies and technology (yes, technology) standards to share some of what we learned. Check out our responses below in the form of a song, rap, or news report. (Students who referred to themselves by name in their skits have chosen an alias for Internet safety.)

First Thanksgiving Responses from 2nd grade from Melissa Ross on Vimeo.

Want to do a little more research at home? Check out the links below that we used in class.

You are the first historian!

Voyage on the Mayflower

Daily Life

The Thanksgiving Feast

Leave us a comment and let us know what you think. :)