Lesson Plan: Making cultural connections through writing tasks

After students have been exposed to informational writing, this cultural connections” activity provides an authentic way for students to use their interview skills to compose relevant questions and complete an interview with a guest that has travelled to another country.

Students will interview the guest, write an informational piece that discusses their findings, and then write an appropriate thank you letter to the person they interviewed.  This activity is real-world and is cross-curricular, since it embodies social studies/history and writing content

Click here to download the free lesson plan

Classic Printable Battleship Game for Students

Battleship is a classic game of strategy and logic kids of all ages love to play.  Best of all, it is a great to play in your maths class as it teaches students how to use a cartesian plane and understand how to use co-ordinates on a grid.

I have made up two PDF versions of the classic battleship game you can download and print

The first one is the traditional battleship game and the second one is the slightly more advanced 4 quadrant version of Battleship which is more suited to secondary students.

"You just sunk my Battleship!"

Enjoy

Explore the Wonders of the World with Google

Google has already been taking us to exotic locations through Street View, but now it's hoping to enshrine the most famous places on Earth through the World Wonders Project, one car (or trike) at a time. A total of 132 sites, ranging from natural landmarks like Yosemite to much more synthetic constructions like the Leaning Tower of Pisa, have both an on-the-ground view and 3D renderings, videos and loads of history from UNESCO and the World Monuments Fund, among others. The educational bent is so conspicuous that Google offers up some of the content in downloadable bundles for schools and the usual web-based look. It promises a much more fascinating, hands-on approach than a dry textbook, and it's a unique way of bringing encyclopedic knowledge to an era of Chromebooks and the cloud.

Galactic Theme Park: Awesome Week Long Maths Project

Galactic Theme Park

View more presentations from Kevin Cummins.

The Galactic theme park is a brilliant maths project for students from years 3 - 9.  It offers a large range of mathematical challenges and students will love the creativity associated with it. 

Everything is included here.  Teachers and Students will need to work through the downloadable booklet and Grid paper required to complete the task and I have also included a PowerPoint above as an overview of how the project works for you to introduce it to students on your IWB.

This is a great authentic assessment task for students and will keep them busy and engaged for at least 4 - 5 lessons.  Enjoy.

Feed the World while your students learn with Free Rice

Free Rice is a simple test site for teachers and students that has an ethical bonus built into it.  For every question students answer correctly Freerice will donate 10 grains of rice to third world nations.  There are a range of useful tests for all ages and subject areas and would be a great thing for your students and those in need around the world.  Access FreeRice here.

Test your students geography knowledge with this online quiz tool

The world quiz is a very simple graphical quiz that students of nearly any age will understand with ease.  It doesn't give back a great deal of information to inform you where you went right or wrong, but if you simply want your students to know where countries are in the world then this will do the trick.

You can select specific regions and different aspects of geography to suit your needs.  Access the world quiz here.

Create your Own Map with Google Maps

The following video provides basic instruction on how to use Google Maps to create your own map.  A fun activity to complete with your students. You can view it below or download it here.

Google Earth and Google Sketchup

The following video provides basic instructions on how to use Google Earth and Google Sketchup.  You can view the video below or download it here.