Name: Sarah Brown

Grade: 1st grade

Subject: Social Studies

Epal idea: Homes in Greece vs. to Homes in Seattle

Activity: People all over the world live in different kinds of homes. In this activity the Kindergarteners will be comparing and contrasting different homes in Greece and Seattle. For this activity to work I will be in contact with another kindergarten teacher in Greece, through the website of epals.com. I will hook my students in by previewing different homes in various books that we will be able to find as a class in the library.

We would then reconvene to discuss the similarities and differences of the homes we previewed in the books. This way the students can be introduced to the contrasting concepts on various homes in their own environment and those found in Greece. Individually the students would list characteristics of their own homes in Seattle, such as: composition of home, shapes of various parts of their homes, how many occupants, location of home, and maybe if they have two homes. Next, I would have the students break up in groups of three or four and brainstorm questions they would like to ask students living in Greece about their houses based off of the difference and similarities they see within their group. Some examples of questions could be: What is the color of their houses? What is their houses made out of? How many bedrooms does their houses have? We would then review the final questions together and create an email to send to our classmates in Greece. As we are doing this the class in Greece will be doing the same and will send an email in return about their homes.

The final step would be taking all the data collected about both locations and creating a large Venn diagram for the whole class to share. This would be a great visual representation of what we have learned and another way for students to deepen their knowledge about human habitats.

Standards:

EALRS 1.2: Collaborate: Use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others.

I connected to this standard by having them work in groups to come up with questions and then using ePals to connect with another classroom in Europe.

ISTE NETS (2,6): Engage in learning activities with learners from multiple cultures through email and other electronic means

I connected to this standard by using ePals to connect with another classroom in Europe to have them do the learning activity in class.