Cross-Curricular+Activities

Science



Math

Distance Wolfram/Alpha Computational Knowledge Engine website [] Purpose: Students will understand how many miles the explorers had to travel to reach new land as the explored the world.

Materials: Map National Geographic computer

Procedures: Students will locate and mark the places where thier explorer departed from and arrived at on a map they created at National Geographic.

Students will go to Wolfram/Alpha and type in the locations thier explorer traveled during his explorations. Students will then write the miles traveled by thier explorer on the route lines draw on the maps.

Extension: Students can calculate the distance that they travel from school to home, trips to visit relatives, to the store, etc.

Language Arts

Vocabulary : Vocabulary Self-Collection Strategy (VSS) (Haggard, 1986) []

Purpose: With Vocabulary Self-Collection Strategy, the students rather than the teacher, generate vocabulary words to be explored and learned. This can be used for content area textbooks, as well as for general vocabulary acquisition by having the ELL students collect words they encounter in their daily lives and present them to the class.

Materials: Collections of words from text or life

Procedures: • Students read assigned material. • After reading, the teacher assigns groups to locate words or terms that they think the class should know from the assignment. • Write the words on the board. Words are defined through context or through use of dictionary. • Eliminate duplicate words or terms that the class decides that are already known. • Re-define chosen words and students record definitions in their vocabulary journals. • The words that are not selected for journals can be recorded by individuals who wish to learn them.

Extension: Organize word treasure hunts for words that students encounter in their daily lives. -- //The Explorer's Gazette:// A Reading/Writing Literacy Center Students can read these editions of //The Explorer's Gazette// in one of this week's literacy stations. The following week, have students create their own edition of //The Explorer's Gazette// with the information they learned during the Prezi Webquest unit.