Learn about your county

By Clarice Poovey

This activity will allow fourth grade students in North Carolina to learn more about the counties that surround their home county. Using online images, students will create a multimedia presentation to share with others.

Learning outcomes

The students will collect information about their county and surrounding counties and enter that information in a graphic organizer.

The students will become familiar with their county and the surrounding counties.

The team of students will create a HyperStudio/PowerPoint report about a historic site found in a surrounding county.

Students will share their project with other fourth grade students in the school.

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

10–14 days

Materials/resources

  • North Carolina map with counties labeled or blank
  • North Carolina resources from the media center

Technology resources

  • Computers with Kidspiration, internet access, and HyperStudio and/or PowerPoint
  • Computer with LCD projector or other projection device

Pre-activities

  1. Using a North Carolina map with counties shown, students will color and label their county. (Attached North Carolina maps: labeled or blank) Students will use a different color to show the counties that touch their county. These counties will also be labeled.
  2. Using the NC ECHO website and other websites, students will have the opportunity to examine photos of their county landmarks.
  3. Students will have prior knowledge and understanding of using the internet.
  4. In preparation for slideshow presentation, students will create a six card stack in HyperStudio (or a six slide PowerPoint presentation) with textboxes and buttons for placement of information they gather.

Activities

Day 1

A large North Carolina map will be displayed with our county noted. Students will use their small individual map (attached: labeled or blank) to help label counties that touch our county. Each of these counties will be listed along with our home county. Students will have the opportunity to sign-up for a county they wish to explore in order to complete this assignment. As a teacher, I would ask if students have a grandparent, cousin, or friend who live in a neighboring county. They may want to explore that county in order to share their knowledge with other family members.

Day 2

Using the LCD projector, the teacher will open the Kidspiration template and as a class, the graphic organizer will be completed on the home county. The North Carolina map will link to http://www.ncecho.org/county/navpages/NavPage_0_0.asp .

We will use the information found here to begin our study of our home county. A link will also be created to our county webpage in order for students to gain information on county name, county seat, population, schools, and mayor. The NC Echo website will be used for information about our county.

Day 3

Students will need their own computer to open the graphic organizer created in Kidspiration. Using skills learned from Day 2 joint efforts, students will work on their individual adjoining county. (Links to the surrounding counties have been created and attached to Kidspiration worksheet.) An example of a completed graphic organizer for Lincoln County is attached.

Day 4

Students will use HyperStudio or PowerPoint to create eight to ten cards or slides to hold information about their county. Each card will have a text box created and labeled with county name, county seat, population, schools, mayor, and interesting sites in the county.

Day 5

The Kidspiration page will be copied and pasted onto the second card of HyperStudio stack. Each heading will become a button for moving to card about county name, county seat, population, schools, mayor, and sites.

Days 6–9

Students will begin writing paragraphs, one each about county name, county seat, population, schools, mayor, and sites.

Days 10–12

Pictures from county homepages and NC ECHO will be placed in student’s HyperStudio stack or PowerPoint presentation.

Day 13

Surrounding county stacks will be printed and linked with the home county stack.

Day 14

Time to share our stacks with other fourth grade students within our school. Sample stacks can also be placed on the school webpage.

Assessment

Students will print and turn in graphic organizer from Kidspiration.

Students will print HyperStudio stack or PowerPoint presentation to make a mini-book about the selected county.

Students will share with other fourth grade students the completed HyperStudio stacks or PowerPoint presentations.

Supplemental information

If you do not have access to Kidspiration, you can view the attached images of the counties graphic organizer and the completed Lincoln County example.

The lesson template includes a place for students to write the name of the mayor, however, not every county seat in our state uses a mayoral structure.

Comments

I plan to use this activity with my Title I reading students. I see these students for 45 minutes therefore we do not get a great deal accomplished during one class setting. Throughout the year my students enjoy showing off their technology skills to other students in their classroom. There are additional pictures of landmarks in our county that I feel my students would like to include in our stack. Using the digital camera, additional pictures, not included on NC Echo site, will be placed within our stacks.

North Carolina Curriculum Alignment

Social Studies (2003)

Grade 4

  • Goal 4: The learner will analyze social and political institutions in North Carolina such as government, education, religion, and family and how they structure society, influence behavior, and response to human needs.
    • Objective 4.01: Assess and evaluate the importance of regional diversity on the development of economic, social, and political institutions in North Carolina.

Computer Technology Skills (2005)

Grade 4

  • Goal 1: The learner will understand important issues of a technology-based society and will exhibit ethical behavior in the use of computer and other technologies.
    • Objective 1.11: Identify and discuss the use of multimedia tools to report content areainformation. Strand - Multimedia/Presentation
  • Goal 3: The learner will use a variety of technologies to access, analyze, interpret, synthesize, apply, and communicate information.
    • Objective 3.07: Locate, select, organize, and present content area information from the Internet for a specific purpose and audience, citing sources. Strand - Telecommunications/Internet

English Language Arts (2004)

Grade 4

  • Goal 4: The learner will apply strategies and skills to create oral, written, and visual texts.
    • Objective 4.05: Use planning strategies to generate topics and organize ideas (e.g., brainstorming, mapping, webbing, reading, discussion).
    • Objective 4.10: Use technology as a tool to gather, organize, and present information.