Students use a folder and worksheet
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These are suggestions for classes new to the Landmark Project.
There are many ways to manage this activity, and I want to share how my grade 4 class participated.
Class Team:
For each class, there is usually just one team known to the project, for example my class would be called Team Smith.
But internally, in my classroom, I create several groups of kids with a good lead person in each group as the Captain. In my class I have groups 1, 2, 3, and 4, and among these groups I divide up all of the landmarks among these teams to make the searching more manageable.
For example when there are 60 landmarks, I would do as follows. Each group is responsible for working on 15 landmarks.
Group1: Landmarks 1-15
Group2: Landmarks 16-30
Group3: Landmarks 31-45
Group4: Landmarks 46-60
…. and so forth depending on the actual number of Landmarks
Group Organization:
I have each of the groups keep a folder of the school landmarks they are searching for as well as the questions they send out each week and the answers they receive. See EXAMPLE WORKSHEET below. Group 1, for example will have work sheets listing only their schools 1-15. As the project proceeds, the groups track their answers and write down what they are finding in research to help locate the unknown landmark. The key is keeping a good folder of information - I usually have the group Captain keep the folder. We do Landmark officially about 3 times each week in class (at least 1 hour), and then in any other spare moments when kids finish their work. Some classes do this during computer lab time.
All clues from Landmark players 1-15 would be kept in the Group 1 folder.
All clues from Landmark players 16-30 would be kept in the Group 2 folder.
*** Over the 3-week period, some groups might begin helping other groups as needed.
At the end of week 3, the folder should contain all of the Final Guesses to be sent in to the project. Remember, we do not send guesses during the game, we only send email questions that can be answered with a YES or a NO. And we always identify ourselves (from Team Smith).
EXAMPLE CLUE Set - (This is the complete clue set sent in at the beginning of the project.)
Clues from one our top teams in the Primary Group - Mrs. Lowe's year 4 in Australia:
1. This landmark was an internment camp during World War I.
2. Several naturally occurring salt lakes can be found at this landmark.
3. This landmark has more than 13 shipwrecks in the surrounding area.
4. More than 500,000 people visit this landmark each year.
5. This landmark is located 18 kilometres off the coast.
6. This landmark is 11 kilometres long.
7. This landmark was named in 1696.
8. You can find this landmark between 100 and 125 degrees east longitude.
9. This landmark is in the southern hemisphere.
Answer: Rottnest Island
EXAMPLE WORK SHEET
This is an example sheet that the following group of four students used to track the questions they sent out and the answers that return. The Captain keeps the information sheet in a folder. The folder also contains the Clues from each team. Students work together on the clues sent in by these schools. After serious thought, they agree on a question to write. The question is emailed, and when the answer returns, students mark if it was answered YES or NO. The following sheet only shows three of the Landmark schools assigned to this group.
Group 1: Captain Kayla, Tomeisha, Jessica and Andy (1-15)
(1) Abaskaya School - team Tarasevich - Aban, Russia - lar@yandex.ru
Week 1 question:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------(Yes/No)
Week 2 question:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------(Yes/No)
Week 3 question:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------(Yes/No)
Our Guess:
(2) Alconbury School- Team Winters - Huntingdon, England - lwr@ue.dodea.edu
Week 1 question:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------Yes/No)
Week 2 question:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------(Yes/No)
Week 3 question:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------(Yes/No)
Our Guess:
(3) Eugene Field Elementary - Team Huseman - Hannibal, MO - mh@hannibal.k12.mo.us
Week 1 question:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------(Yes/No)
Week 2 question:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------Yes/No)
Week 3 question:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------(Yes/No)
Our Guess:
Note: Copy this format and use with your student folders.