NGS Daily jigsaw puzzles

Friday, October 31, 2008

"Statetris" geography game

Sharing a fun link to a geography "tetris-type" game that recently caught my attention! This would be something your kids could do in your computer labs to "engrain in their brains" locations of states/countries, etc:
http://www.mapmsg.com/games/statetris/

GREAT GAME & LEARNING TOOL!!!!
(The directions to run the game....to use the cursor keys.... is scrolling
Slowly on the page where you choose the level of difficulty...kind of deceiving when you are trying to find the instructions.)

Thursday, October 30, 2008

GREAT Pumpkin!!!!

REPOSTING..perfect way to use those pumpkins...carve them into world GLOBES!!!



It's that time of the year when pumpkins of all shapes and SIZES are plentiful. Instead of carving your pumpkins into ghouls and scary creatures for Halloween...think GLOBALLY...and turn your pumpkins into World globes! Challenge your students--have a contest--to see who can make the most accurate "pumpkin globe"!
Pumpkins arounnd the world:

To see a "Pumpkin Globe" lesson plans:

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

RARE SPACE SHUTTLE PHOTO


A good friend of mine, while taking a tour bus to Cape Canaveral took this amazing photo. In her words:
"While we were in Florida, we planned on visiting the Kennedy Space Center and Sea World. We were going to visit Sea World on Thursday and the Space Center on Saturday, but the weather got blustery and rainy so we switched plans. We figured we needed better weather for Sea World. So Thursday, October 23, we drove to Cape Canaveral. We took the bus tour that takes people out to the observation gantry from where you can see the two main launch pads. RIGHT THERE, STOPPED, WAS THE CRAWLER WITH THE SPACE SHUTTLE ENDEAVOUR! The tour guides were all abuzz; they had never been that close either. One guide said they usually closed the gantry when they took the shuttle to a launch pad. I don't know why they didn't or why it was stopped along the way, but it was SO COOL! "
She was right!!! This was cool and I'm glad she shared the photo...!!
Thanks, Captain!!

National Anthems of the Americas





I was looking for sites with music from the Americas that would help support teachers/schools sponsoring Geography Awareness Week: Mapping the Americas.
I discovered a couple of sites with National Anthems of the Americas:
This site shows each country's national anthem, population, map, compares country area in sq miles, flag, and other interesting information.

This site shows most of the world's country national anthems as music files, lyrics (English and Spanish) and sheet music for each anthem.
Maybe the above siteS could help kids with reports or presentations as you and your students "Map the Americas!"


Enjoy!!

Friday, October 24, 2008

"Newspaper In Education" geography resource

Howdy All UTAH geography friends...

The Newspaper In Education (NIE) dept. of the Deseret News, will be producing 3 section/editions related to geography. You can order classroom sets of the the Connect 1-2-3 edition (Mapping the Americas) and two C'3 sections from Deseret News....they are FREE!!
****Order FREE sets for your school The Connect 1-2-3 edition (that will include the Mapping the Americas materials), by Oct 30.
****Order the two (Tuesday delivery) Free sets of the C3's geography related editions (for November 11 & 18) by November 4.
To order free NIE materials online go to:
1) http://www.deseretnews.com/home > education> NIE site > order online .
2) scroll toward the bottom of the page and find: Order Connect 1-2-3, newspapers for Tuesday delivery > c;ick add to shopping cart > type in amount of newspapers needed.
3) return to Order online page. Scroll back down to and find: Order educational sections, papers for Tuesday delivery > click add to shopping cart > type in amount of newspapers needed.
4) supply school/delivery information and submit.

ALL the geography editions will be delivered to your school free! This is a great free resource for UTAH teachers ...hopefully you can use in your classrooms! Enjoy...just sharing the info...

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

I just learned about a great geography site to help Geography/U.S. History teachers! It is a site from the National Park Service National Register of Historic Places. In addition to the many, many historic places to explore listed (with great maps, photographs, etc.), the newest online travel itinerary is "American Presidents" with a great interactive map of the U.S. Since this is election time, it is a great time to explore past presidents' homes and historically related sites.
Website: http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/travel/

I'm sharing this information from GAW/Dolores of Oklahoma...Thanks!!

Geography lesson in a Drift Bottle


"The Voyage of Daisy's Bottle" is a great story by Paul Harvey from DESTINY...And a great geography lesson!!

Discover the voyage of a drift bottle from England to U.S.A. as you follow geography clues from the story and marking the journey on an World Ocean Currents map. (double click on images to enlarge)

Monday, October 6, 2008

Pizza Hut's Book IT! GeoReader list

I have been going through files and have found some really great resources from bygone years. Years ago, Pizza Hut's "Book It!" reading incentive program, produced a list of recommended geography literature. The program was called The GeoReader & GeoReader II, and it was author by James Goodman, Dept of Geography@ University of Oklahoma. List of books are suggested from each continent and have suggested activities for each title of book! I scanned the pages of suggested books for Canada, U.S.A. & Latin America for use with the GAW theme of Mapping the Americas.The book titles and activities are based on The Five Themes of Geography. The scanned pages are attached. (Double click on pages below to enlarge.)











"The World on a String: an activity"



I dusted off an old, but classic geography lesson that has been oh so useful for me in the classroom and for geography workshops lessons over the years. It is called "The World on a String: An Activity" and it is a very hands-on activity demonstrating the interconnectedness of countries.(Click on lesson to enlarge)
Sharing also two similar activities at the following links:
www.iupui.edu/~geni (click on "lesson plans" and scroll to the bottom)
(Thank you, Hilary Steinhardt, GENI Director, Indianna!)

http://www.eduref.org/Virtual/Lessons/Social_Studies/Geography/GGR0041.html

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Telescopes

Sharing a couple of interesting "lists" from Discovery Magazine:
20 Things You Didn't Know About... Telescopes


Posted using ShareThis

Map sites for Geography Awareness Week: "Mapping the Americas:

I'm collecting a list of useful map websites that would help support Geography Awareness Week: "Mapping the Americas"activities:

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/
One of the best sites for maps & lesson plans for national geography standards!!
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/map/atlas
On-line atlas from NGS!!!
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/americas.html
America's map collection @ University of Texas...
http://www.worldatlas.com/
User friendly maps...
http://www.sandiegozoo.org/animalbytes/g-south_america.html
Animals of the Americas...
http://library.thinkquest.org/11353/e-animals.htm
Endangered continental animals...

MORE POSTS TO BE ADDED.....

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Galileo

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Galileo

Posted using ShareThis