This week I did a fun activity with my class.
In honor of Columbus Day and because we are studying the map of the world, I thought it would be a great idea to really delve into the story of Christopher Columbus with my students. First, I told them the whole story and used the map in my classroom to show them all the different parts of the story like how back then in 1492, the Europeans didn't know that the continents North and South America even existed! They thought the world was much smaller!!
Anyway, after I proceeded to tell them the whole story and read to them two different books on the topic and figured that they knew the story pretty well. O divided the class into groups of 4. The way I divided the groups was by giving them each an index card that had a different color sticker and a number from 1-4. All the same colors had to get together and all the numbers had separate jobs. 1 was the writer, 2 was the director, 3 and 4 were actors. The groups activity was to put on a small skit about Christopher Columbus.
Well, you should have seen how motivated and engaged all these kids were with this activity. They simply loved it.
I combined writing, reading and social studies and had them work on it everyday and told them that on Thursday they would perform it and the highest grade they can get is a grade of 4. In order to get that grade they had to be cooperating well with their group. Had to have the story of Christopher Columbus told in the skit, be organized and performed the story well.
I am looking forward to seeing the plays tomorrow. I will let you know how it went!!!
