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Curriculum
INTEGRATING CITY QUEST INTO YOUR CLASSROOM CURRICULUM
Below are some ideas for using City Quest in the classroom and other learning activities to go along with it.
The following activities are great for use in Social Studies, Writing, Reading, and Technology
Community Study - Have your students report on what makes their community special. Consider community groups, community leaders, historical buildings and landmarks, special projects, the arts, environmental programs, and more.
Map Your Community - The students can divide your town or city into sections...they can design and draw them and then place them together to make a community map which can be displayed. This can be done on computer or on drawing paper.
Interview Your Community Helpers - Your students can get to know the community in the best way by interviewing community helpers such as police, mayor, firemen, docotors, nurses, and so on. These interviews can be taped, and transcribed for sharing with others.
Interview Parents and Grandparents - They have many wonderful stories to tell about what it was like growing up in the community in years past. Your students can also tape these interviews and transcribe them to be shared with others. Make a book out of this. Have a book signing or autograph party with the parents and grandparents there to help celebrate.
Make a Community Brochure - using the reports of the special buildings and landmarks of your community the students can design a community brochure highlighting their special features and history. Present this to the city council and perhaps with the help of the community the brochures can be published and placed in public places around the community for tourism.
***Another idea to go along with this would be to make up a walking tour of the town's landmarks and community sites. If your town's sites are too spread out for a walking tour, then design a bus tour that tourists could take to see the many wonderful sites that your community has to offer. Maybe your students could write the narratives for each site. These could be recorded by the students and played during the tour, or have read aloud by a tour guide.
Poems - Your students can write their own poems about what is special about their community. Choosing jobs, leaders, sites, and more, they can compose poems and even turn them into songs.
Visit your local historical museum - Some of the best kept secrets are found at your local museum...
Whatever your research topics or interests are, you will probably find something that links the past to the present at the museum.
Ideas....
**Go on a scavenger
hunt...give the students riddles or questions that they must find the answers to at the museum.
**Go on a guided tour...ahead of time, discuss what you are studying with the museum curators - they can help you organize a perfect tour for your needs.
Do a Community
Share...pair up with a community in another state or country which your students would like to do a community study of...the information your students find out about their own community can be shared via keypal e-mail or pen pal snail mail. Photos,
interviews and more can be shared for a great long distance learning experience.
Do you have any other learning activities that could be implemented with City Quest? Let us know by e-mailing us at:
cq@digitalschool.nl
(c) 2001, 2002 - Rene
de Vries, Joan Goble and Hajime Yanase |
