IdeaShare
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Have a great idea for a lesson? Share your tips, links, photos, or experiences to inspire other parents!
3D City - posted from Meriden, CT
For those that had a hard time making the blocks for the 3D city, another free resource is education.com, under the arts and crafts for 2nd grade they have buildings you would find in a community. Maybe print on heavier paper to help keep it together.
More on architecture - posted from Fredericksburg, VA
The Foster and Partners site is also an interesting place to start exploring the other 3D shapes that buildings can be. For example, they designed the Apple HQ (torus).
Architecture from Home - posted from Fredericksburg, VA
A London firm created a series of architecture-related projects and ebooks for students earlier this year. We used some of their templates for the map. There's also a cool ebook on how tall buildings are kept from falling over. It's an extension off the "community" theme, but enriches the 3D map project and adds some physics.
Go on a tour of your downtown area - posted from Monument, CO
We went on a tour of our little downtown area. I used a free Photo Scavenger Hunt app to make a scavenger hunt for different types of businesses and map items (like railroad tracks). We went into several businesses and asked them what they did and then talked about if they offered goods or services.
Street Map - posted from ,
You can utilize google maps to map your house and then zoom out the satellite view so your child can have the birds eye view of the neighborhood prior to drawing the map of their street.
Types of Communities - posted from ,
LOVE this video!
Urban, Suburban and Rural (1st-2nd) - posted from ,
Great for younger kiddos.
Revised page for Activity 6 - posted from Durham, NC
The first activity page for Activity 6 was revised due to some typos. The updated page is attached.
- file: Activity 6 Page 1.pdf
urban, rural & Suburban, communities - posted from Allentown, PA
Urban, rural and suburban communities explained. - advanced level
BrainPOP JR: Rural, Suburban, and Urban - posted from Groton, MA
Good if you have a BrainPOP Jr. subscription.
Great book on children making a difference in their communities....Use for Lesson 1 or 2 - posted from Conyers, GA
This book has been a great resource for inspiration and community awareness for my 6 year old daughter. The stories are short, yet informative and the book includes fun facts about the cities. I like the fact that it is based on children and their views of what their community should be. I also used it to incorporate my weekly character building lesson. You can search for stories by geographical location in the table of contents. The book is available in Kindle format also. I'm posting this in Lesson 1 as supposed to Lesson 2 because it inspired my daughter to want to learn more about her own community and how she could help. It made Lesson 2 much easier to explore because of her excitement level. She even included herself as a "Community Worker."
BrainPOP Jr. Free movie on Nouns - posted from Jamestown, NC
BrainPOP Jr usually requires a subscription, but does have some free content. I am not sure if this content changes from time to time, but at the moment this movie is free.
Website with activities for kids - posted from Cary, NC
This link has some fun activities for kids that I think are a good fit with the Exploring a Community lesson. There are also some good book suggestions for expanding on this topic.