We read the book Letters from Felix, a book about a rabbit that travels to several spots around the world and sends letters back to Sophie, the little girl who lost him at the airport. There are pages with envelopes that really open and letters that you pull out to read. There is also information about the cities Felix visits as Sophie learns about where he is. When I read it, I juggled a globe on my lap to show the students where we are and where Felix was. Google Earth and street view would be great to show the students where these places are and what Felix was seeing and easier for them to visualize it. There are some photographs, but photos from street view would seem more real for my students. Unfortunately, street views are not available for large areas of the world, but I'm sure that will continue to grow.
I was aware of Google Earth and its potential, but had not looked into it seriously. Now I have and will surely use it in the future. I just consider myself so lucky that I have an projector to show these sites to my students.
-Elizabeth
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3 comments:
Hi Elizabeth, What a fun idea. Relating books and real world places to the simulated Earth locations would help kids to tie all of these together. Being able to see these places would really help them start to understand distances, continents, geographic features.. the list is huge. I think you would get great buy-in relating it to a story they know and love. Fun lesson! Alison
Elizabeth - you mention that you are lucky to have a projector to show your sites to your students. Is technology hard to come by at your school? I hope not. I've taught in both ends of the technological spectrum and it's a struggle to be short on tech tools. Good lesson by the way. I look forward to more street views of the world as Google earth continues to grow. Such a great tool for the classroom!!
Elizabeth,
The street view piece is such an ehancement to the original Google Earth. What a great way to correlate disciplines!
As for your question on my post, yes I have used some of these tools, especially the mapping software in my classroom. However after this class, I have found so many more uses. The only thing that stll concerns me is the access to technology for all students to effectively participate and not be just a spectator. Just thinking....
Thanks,
Shannon
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