Geography and Poetry

Each student brought a picture from their neighborhood to spark a great discussion

We each...

Made our mobiles...

A little different from one another!

What better way to begin a study of geography that to begin with your students?

Each of us brought a photo of our neighborhood and placed it on the wall. Then our instructor asked us some guiding questions. We talked about perspective, commonalities, and differences. 

We incorporated discussion of geographical terminology (latitude, longitude, rural, urban, suburban) and other attributes of our community represented through our photos. We discussed what pictures tell us about the region and even the country. 

After our discussion we spent some time writing to prompts in our interactive notebooks - responses about our neighborhoods which we then shared with the class.

Then came my very favorite part! Poetry!!!! Our instructor presented the structure for a Cinquain poem. (I just finished doing these types of poems in my field experience classroom!) After working with a Cinquain help sheet, we each wrote poems about our neighborhoods (or neighbors). 

We integrated the poetry writing exercise with a little art extension - by which we "published" and displayed our poems from the classroom ceiling as mobiles! 

So super cool...making all these connections across so many content areas - Language Arts (Writing, Speaking), Social Studies, and Art. One of my favorite classes! Ready to do this with my own classroom of students!

Bre is up on the tables - hanging our Cinquain Mobiles!