Using any book where travel is involved is a perfect opportunity to introduce The Five Themes of Geography . Using Make Way for Ducklings lends itself perfectly to this objective when flying around Boston from the duck's eye view.
Students will explore Google Earth and Google maps to familiarize themselves with longitude and latitude, finding locations of the continents, oceans, regions of the United States and more.
Google Tours
Teachers and students will create their own tour for Google Earth. It's an effective tool that gives students a unique way to share what they have read.
Get outside and geocache! It is a great way to instill a curiosity about geography and math. In addition, it provided students with an opportunity to work collaboratively in a group, solve problems and incorporate the characteristics of active, engaged learning!
This is perfect activity for team building. Check out more under, 'Geocaching'.
Using Google Draw, students can create all kinds of fun
activities from Duck Memes to Post Cards. Check out all
of the student samples and ideas under, "Using Google Drawing"
Written in 1941, the book lends itself to some lively discussions, from gender roles to duck migration. Integrating all curricular into this project is a goal shared by classroom teachers and specialists. Get your librarian involved! They can introduce the lesson by reading Make Way for Ducklings to each class.
How could we look at the streets of Boston without mentioning the Boston Marathon? To support our wellness initiative, we are putting in the works a fun competition between students to see who can finish the Boston Marathon. From October through the end of our Spring Break, students will try to run twenty-six miles! See, 'Operation Boston Marathon' for more details.
Duck books are terrific lead-ins to a couple of great learning experiences for students. The first one, "No Water off a Duck's Back",teaches students awareness of what happens with an oil spill and it's affect on wildlife and the environment. Students will create their own oil spill and attempt to 'save their duck' using Dawn detergent.
The second activity, 'Ducks Ashore!', teaches students about ocean currents as they track hundreds of rubber ducks that have fallen from a cargo ship into the ocean.