Thursday, January 7, 2010

Exploring North America!

This week, Mrs. Yollis' class has been learning about geography 
using National Geographic's

Giant Traveling Map of North America.




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The class has been learning about water features like the  
Great Lakes.





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They made the Mississippi River out of blue chain.




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Several students made the Rocky Mountains!




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They made the Appalachian Mountains, too!




The students have been exploring and learning every day!



The more you explore, the more you learn!



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Two explorers met at the International Date Line! 
I wonder what day it was for each?





Soon, we will publish our movie like the one we made last year about the 

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What have you learned about North America this week?


What do you still need to find out?

27 comments:

  1. Dear Mrs. Yollis,

    First, being on the North America map is so fun when you explore all the countries. My favorite part about the map is the Great Lakes. I thought that was awesome. What is your favorite part about the North America map?

    From,
    Nick

    ReplyDelete
  2. @ Nick,

    Thank you so much for a great comment here and another 2-pointer comment on our Happy New Year post! :-)

    You asked what was my favorite part about the North America map.
    First of all, I have to say, I LOVE geography! Exploring maps and thinking about different locations is a hobby of mine. I enjoy looking for land features like the highest mountain on a continent or water features like the longest river. Using Google Earth is a great tool because it lets me explore the world and look at photos that others have shared from a location.

    My favorite part about the North America map is walking the lines of latitude and longitude. It is hard to image these lines on a small map, but walking them and seeing where they meet makes the concept very clear for me.

    Thanks for a great comment!

    :-)
    Mrs. Yollis

    P.S. I wonder if anyone can find the coordinates for Los Angeles!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dear Mrs. Yollis,

    You were right about us learning every day, at my house I printed a map of North America so I can learn even more. Did you learn any thing new? I did what I learned is about longitude and latitude. Now I know that latitude is like a belt on the earth, and longitude are like overalls.

    Did you have fun on the map?


    Your student,
    Sydney

    ReplyDelete
  4. Dear Mrs. Yollis,
    I have been enjoying the map this week!
    Just like you, I liked walking the latitude and longitude lines on the map. It was fun to explore and count the capitals. I found 24 of them.
    Have you been on vacation to anywhere on the map?
    Your student,
    Trent :-)

    ReplyDelete
  5. @ Trent,

    Thanks for a great comment about the map! I saw you counting the country capitals today. Did you make any observations about the countries in North America? Are most of them small or large? Where are many of them located?

    You asked me if I have traveled to any of the places on the map. I have visited the countries of Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica, and Belize. In our country, the United States, I have visited: Hawaii, Alaska, California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Texas, Minnesota, New York, and Connecticut. I have also traveled to Montana. In fact, I was born there! I had to look at a map to think about all the states I've been to! How many did I list?

    What about you? Have you visited any countries? Any states besides California?

    Thanks for a great comment!

    :-)
    Mrs. Yollis

    ReplyDelete
  6. Dear Mrs. Yollis,

    I had a lot of fun visiting the North America map. I absolutely have to make a big thank you card to Mrs. Hanzer. Just to make sure I don't forget here it is right now.

    Dear Mrs. Hanzer,

    Thank you so much for letting my class and the whole school visit such a big map. This is definitely a once in a lifetime experience. I remember the Asia map experience, but this one was much more fun because it was like you only need to take one step to go to New York from West Virginia.

    I hope you will be able to bring another map to Chaparral. My request would be South America because it is also very big.

    Thank you,
    Ben

    So there was my little thank you note please send it to Mrs Hanzer.

    Sincerely,
    Ben

    ReplyDelete
  7. @ Ben,

    I think the comment you left about North America was your best one yet. If we gave out 3-pointers for a comment, it would be one!

    I like how you included a lovely thank you to Mrs. Hanzer, our sponsor for the map. Most people would just say thank you and leave it at that, but you took the time to included a specific example about something new you learned on the map. In addition, you capitalized all the proper nouns and had the correct spelling of all of your words!

    Excellent work, Ben! I'll pass your thoughtful thank you on to Mrs. Hanzer.


    Sincerely,
    Mrs. Yollis

    ReplyDelete
  8. Dear Mrs. Yollis,
    I noticed that most of the countries were really small and located in Central America.
    The places I've been on the map are, the Bahamas, New York, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. Outside of the map I've been to China, The United Kingdom, Portugal and Spain. I hope to do more traveling this summer!
    Your student,
    Trent

    ReplyDelete
  9. @ Trent,

    Thanks for a great response! You are quite a traveler!

    I was also impressed that you spelled and capitalized all the proper nouns correctly. That makes you a model for the others! :-)

    I asked you what you noticed about the countries you were counting in North America and you saw that many of them were small. That's what I noticed, too. Except for Canada, the United States, and Mexico, the rest of the countries were little. Did you notice how many were island nations?

    Thanks for a wonderful comment!

    :-)
    Mrs. Yollis

    ReplyDelete
  10. Dear Students of Mrs. Yollis,
    Wow, I'm so impressed with the great ways you have been learning on our North America map. I especially like the way you made the Rocky Mountains! My favorite feature on the map is Great Bear Lake, the deepest lake in all of North America. Can you find it? Here's a hint: It is in Canada, and it is west of Ontario. Good luck, and keep on exploring!
    Dan Beaupre

    ReplyDelete
  11. Dear Mrs. Yollis,

    Walking on the North America map was awesome! My favorite part was stepping on Los Angeles and stepping on my uncle's city in Alaska. I wonder what map will come to Chaparral next year?

    From,
    Charlie

    ReplyDelete
  12. Dear Mrs. Yollis,

    I loved it when we had the Mississippi River put out. Hmmm, I wonder how long it took for the map to get here? It could of taken hours.

    From,
    Corey

    ReplyDelete
  13. Dear Mrs. Yollis,

    I really like how we did the Mississippi River out of blue chains. It was very fun to visit the map every day! My favorite lake is Lake Superior because it's the bigest lake in the U.S.



    Sincerly,

    Ethan

    ReplyDelete
  14. Dear Mrs. Yollis,


    I did the same thing as Trent looking for country capitals. My favorite country capital is Canada's capital called Ottawa. It was fun and very exiting looking for capitals because I knew half of them!


    My favorite act that we filmed was the one of the Great lakes! Lake Superior was the biggest Lake! Oh,I get It I know why we needed five people for the Great Lakes. It's because there are five Great Lakes!

    From,
    Jared

    ReplyDelete
  15. Dear Mrs. Yollis,

    I have been to New York and Connecticut. The places I've been to
    out of this country are China and Canada.



    From,
    Paul

    ReplyDelete
  16. Dear Mrs. Yollis


    Wasn`t it funny when you said "If you're standing in a body of water, stand up". And I was standing in
    Lake Michigan! I loved exploring with you.
    From,
    Corey

    ReplyDelete
  17. Dear Mrs. Yollis,

    I learned that Ottawa is the national capital of Canada and that Mt. McKinley is the highest point in North America. What did you learn when you were on the colossal map of North America?

    From,
    Sam

    ReplyDelete
  18. Dear, Mrs. Yollis,

    It was fun exploring the map. I liked when I found a city in Alaska called Attu because I never heard of it before or any city in Alaska. I love geography now because it is fun to discover places like I did in Alaska. I hope I discover more in fourth grade on the new map.

    Your student,
    Caleb

    ReplyDelete
  19. @ Sydney,
    Yes, I had a great time on the map. I love geography and being on this map was a thrill for me. I loved hopping from one island to the next in the Caribbean Sea.

    @ Dan Deaupre (from National Geographic)
    A million thanks for making the Giant Maps available for students! The amount of learning that has gone on this week is immeasurable. The students enjoyed meeting Mrs. Ingrid Hanzer, and she inspired many people to become a lifelong traveler and lover of geography.

    We did not get a chance to discover Great Bear Lake in Canada, the deepest lake in North America. We will search for it tomorrow! Thanks again for all you do for education!

    @ Charlie,
    I hope we can get another map next year, too!

    @ Corey,

    I don’t know how long it took for the map to get to us. It came from Juneau, Alaska.

    @ Sam,

    You asked me what I learned. I knew that Pikes Peak (in the Rocky Mountains) was named for Zebulon Pike (even though he wasn't the first to summit the peak - he was the first to document it), but I thought it was spelled Pike's Peak, with an apostrophe (singular possessives...remember those from our worksheet today?) I learned that 1891, the U.S. Board of Geographic names recommended against using apostrophes in names. Interesting, no?

    @ Every blogger,

    Wow! I am so impressed with your writing skills! The practice is making everyone a better communicator! Keep up the good work!


    Mrs. Yollis

    ReplyDelete
  20. Dear Mrs. Yollis,

    I had a great time with the huge map. My favorite thing about it was learning about the states and countries. How many feet long was that map? How many feet wide?


    Sincerely,
    Jared

    ReplyDelete
  21. Dear Mrs.Yollis

    I love being in your class.I loved exploring the map because I learned about longitude and latitude. Did you know my mom was born and raised in Mexico. My dad was born and raised in California.

    Your student,
    Jollene

    ReplyDelete
  22. Dear Mrs. Yollis,

    Yes, it is interesting that in 1891National Geographic recommended against using apostrophes in names. It was funny when a couple of students and I were doing an activity on the national date line. For example, one person would be on one side and the other kid on the opposite side and then they would say "see you tomorrow". Did you do anything hilarious?

    From,
    Sam

    ReplyDelete
  23. Dear Mrs. Yollis' Class,

    That is a huge map! I love how with every sentence there is a picture! That looked like a fun activity! I wish my school had a giant map!

    From,
    cookiecrazie

    (In Mrs. Lofton's class)

    ReplyDelete
  24. @ cookiecrazie (from Mrs. Lofton's class)

    Thanks for stopping by! You mentioned that you like having pictures with text. Why do you think it helps tell a story?

    Which picture was the best, and why?
    We'd love to hear from you with your reply!
    (Hey, that rhymes!)

    Your friend,
    Mrs. Yollis

    ReplyDelete
  25. Dear Mrs. Yollis,

    Thanks so much for commenting back to me on your blog. Also, thanks for giving me a two pointer. I agree with you that Google Earth is a great tool for exploring the world.

    Once, when I was on Google Earth, I saw a picture of the Nile River and it was so cool.

    Your classmate,
    Nick

    ReplyDelete
  26. Dear Mrs Yollis and Class,

    Your blog is amazing and is so welcoming with many interesting blogs about so many things that even I did not learn in third grade. I can see why that map is a very good way to teach, because eveyone loves it!

    Matan
    From Mrs. Lofton's 2nd period class at Lindero

    ReplyDelete
  27. @ Matan,

    Thanks for visiting us again and for leaving such a nice message. Mrs. Lofton's class has had excellent comments!

    Did you learn anything new about North America that you didn't know before? Maybe stop by again and teach us a new fact about North America. :-)

    Thanks Matan!

    From,
    Mrs. Yollis

    ReplyDelete

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