About this time every year I get a back to basics itch. Spelling word study gets renewed attention, some handwriting issues get addressed ("Top down! Make all letters top down!"), it's time to have all of those multiplication facts mastered.
With the Olympics flashing flags across the screen, it's a great opportunity to bone up on some geography. For mastery today, I sent home a map of Asia with a few key countries for students to find, color and identify. Please don't think that I believe these are the only important countries in Asia but they are countries that are quite often in the news right now for a variety of reasons and I thought it was a good place to start. In the weeks ahead, we'll look at the other continents in the same way. On Friday, I'll ask students to recall what they've been studying by finding the countries on a blank map and we'll continue our discussion of how these countries are connected to our lives.
To the right of this blog, you'll find a few great geography links. There are also great printable maps at www.eduplace.com. Other fun geography activities include keeping a world map posted and marking cuisines your family has eaten or where the clothing you wear was made. Play games in the car. You call out a country name and the kids provide the continent or vice versa. I love a game where you name a country and the next person names a country that begins with the last letter of the country you named. A lot of geographers recommend having students draw maps from memory (try it, it's really challenging!)
We live in a connected and changing world. I hope the Herons will learn to navigate it well.
The Rookery 
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