Jami Bernstein

Lesson Plan 4

TITLE: The Continent
Game

GRADE LEVEL: 5 – 6

DATE: 1 day/1 hr.

PERFORMANCE EXPECTATIONS: The purpose
of this activity is to provide students with the skills to compare
the earth’s continents in a variety of ways. The students will
be able to correctly order the continents in terms of area, population,
and other geographic terms.

MATERIALS NEEDED:

– index cards

– envelopes

– encyclopedia and other
references

DIRECTIONS FOR THE
ACTIVITY:

1. Introduction

Review with the students the continents.
As they name them, write them on the board in alphabetical order.
Ask the students to identify the rule that you used to order the
continents. Ask the students if there are other possible ways
to order the continents and write suggestions on the board.

Development:

Tell the students that they will
be using area to list the continents in order, from the least
land area to the greatest land area, on a sheet of paper. Then
ask for seven volunteers to come to the front of the class and
hand them each an envelop containing the name of a continent and
an ordering rule (land area). Tell them not to open the envelopes
yet. The envelopes contain the actual information about each continent.
Ask the students to arrange themselves in order from the continent
with the least land area to the greatest. Write the predicted
order on the board. Next, ask the students to open their envelopes
and rearrange themselves in the actual order. Provide time for
the students to discuss the outcome. Continue the activity with
envelopes for population, population density, annual growth, etc.

Closure:

Ask the students to compare the lists
for each envelope and to draw conclusions from their lists. Ask
the students to predict how various rankings will change in 100
years.

ASSESSMENT:

– Discuss the student’s predictions
and why their conclusions
were
different from the actual results.

– Orally quiz the students on
the continents with the greatest
area, least population, etc..

ADAPTATION:

– This lesson could be used in
conjunction with a study of
natural

resources and conservation or population/urbanization
studies.

– For younger grades, this same
idea could be successful using different terms such as climate,
major crops, etc.

REFERENCE:

Condry, Chuck. "The Continent
Game." gopher://ericir.syr.edu…

Social Studies. (20 Sept. 1996).