Wednesday, January 14, 2009

really fascinating exercise

Today I needed a "filler" assignment to give the kids in my class. We were finishing up a couple of tests and projects; everyone was at various stages of completion, and the room had to be quiet without a lot of kids up and moving around. I also didn't want to assign something that I would have to grade and enter into the computer (especially since I knew that some of the students wouldn't even get to this assignment, because they had too much other stuff to finish, and since several kids were absent.)

A couple of weeks ago, my brilliant friend from across the hall had given me a worksheet to use for just such a purpose. Basically, it is a blank piece of paper, landscape format, with space for name and date and the following instruction: In the space below, draw the most accurate world map that you can (include labels).

The results were really interesting -- so much so that I brought the papers home to show my mom, and then we had the boyz draw their own world maps. A few minutes ago, she and my dad knocked on the door: he wanted to turn his map in, too.

Try it and see how you do. Don't cheat -- just take a blank piece of paper and draw from memory. What comes easily? What do you forget?

1 comment:

Masasa said...

Sounds fun...will have to try sometime. This game is fun too:
http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/Games/GeographyGames/Geospy, and you can decide what level of detail at which to challeng yourself.