Learning the World By Heart

A few weeks ago, the Elm Street community was lucky enough to be visited by author David Smith. Mr. Smith traveled from his home in Vancouver and talked to his audience about his books and the importance of geography and understanding the world we live in. Some of the information he shared was amazing! For instance, not all places in the world recognize 7 continents and 5 oceans as we do in the United States. (Be honest....did YOU know there were 5 oceans? When I was in school there were only four!) His picture books are "If the World Were a Village", "If America Was a Village", and "This Child, Every Child". They are very factual and content rich, but I have found second graders to be very engaged when presented with the information in smaller parts. Mr. Smith is also the author of a program called Mapping the World by Heart. The program itself is more appropriate for middle schoolers, but some of the activities are adaptable for the younger grades.
Most of my students are able to name the continents and oceans. They see the map and globe all the time, though many are still discerning between continents, countries, and cities. As an experiment, I gave my students a template with only North America drawn in. Together we listed the names of seven continents and five oceans. (Students were able to choose to call Australia, Oceania or Australia.) I told students not to get hung up on the shapes of the land, but rather see if they could place "blobs" of land in the right area on the world. The results are so interesting and fun to look at! (See the photos of a select few in the slideshow below.)
I will hold onto the maps and we will complete this same exercise at the end of the year to see how their perceptions change after a year of social studies instruction and our Travel Log Project which will be coming home soon! Enjoy and maybe give this a shot yourself! Maybe even try to locate countries.....talk about a brain buster!