Google+Earth+Lessons+and+Links

toc

General Ideas
ELD= Pre-K to 1st Grade ULD= 2nd to 6th Grade
 * **ELD**: Consider using Google Earth as a demonstration tool. If they're learning basic geography, show them the topographic geography around the school so they can see what these things look like from space.
 * **ELD**: Use Google Earth to help students see where they live as you zoom from the world view to continent, country, state, and city views.
 * **ELD/ULD**: Go beyond the typical use of Geography with Google Earth and read a story about traveling while virtually following the trip in Google Earth. Add in Placemarks and Overlays with portions of the story. I have not read all of the stories below, so please preview them before you buy the books (all of the books listed below are geared towards ELD students, but there are many examples of applicable ULD books). Send me an email, and I will add your book to the list.
 * [|How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World] by Marjorie Priceman
 * [|How to Make a Cherry Pie and See the U.S.A] by Marjorie Priceman
 * [|Tulip Sees America] by Cynthia Rylant & Lisa Desimini
 * [|Liberty’s Journey] by Kelly DiPucchio & Richard Egielski
 * [|All in Just One Cookie] by Susan E. Goodman
 * [|The Journey of Oliver K. Woodman] by Darcy Pattison
 * [|Are We There Yet, Daddy?] by Virginia Walters
 * [|Stringbean’s Trip to the Shining Sea] by Vera B. Williams & Jennifer Williams
 * [|Make Way for Ducklings] by Robert McCloskey
 * **ELD/ULD**: If the students make family trees in their classes, fly them over some of the places their ancestors came from.
 * **ELD/ULD**: Show Flat Stanley’s trips from your classroom. Add Placemarks for all of the locations that Stanley traveled.
 * **ULD**: If your students study latitude and longitude, consider this idea: Introduce Google Earth, showing the students briefly how to use it, and how to turn on and off the latitude/longitude grid (View -> Grid). Pose a question like, "What country contains the coordinates 2 degrees south and 30 degrees east?" Ask the students to spin and zoom the globe to get there.
 * **ULD**: Create a Scavenger hunt for your students to investigate various places that you are studying.
 * **ULD**: Find structures or objects in Google Earth, create placemarks for the locations, and pose mathematic problems that require the students to find the area or perimeter in a placemark. Show the students how to use the Measure tool to calculate the distance of a straight line.
 * **ULD**: Create placemarks for various explorers' expeditions. Calculate the distances various Explorers traveled and compare them to see which Explorer traveled the furthest.
 * **ULD**: Find online articles that deal with the concept of "geography affecting culture." Think natural disasters. Ask students to find the geographic location of the article in Google Earth and create a placemark. Have a discussion about how the geography/location might lead to potential problems for people living in that area. I wrote about my experiences using this type of project on [|my blog].

Model Projects

 * Poetry of Place
 * [|Google Lit Trips] Check out the [|Make Way for Ducklings] file for an elementary example.
 * Clean Water Sheds

Additional Lesson Links

 * Google Earth Lessons: http://tinyurl.com/gelesson1
 * Classroom Ideas- Primary: http://tinyurl.com/gelesson2
 * Loudoun County Public Schools: http://tinyurl.com/gelesson8
 * Digital Geography: http://tinyurl.com/gelesson7
 * General Ideas from Google Earth: http://tinyurl.com/gelesson4
 * Google Ancient Rome: http://tinyurl.com/gelesson5
 * Google Earth & United Streaming: http://tinyurl.com/gelesson6