A Different Perspective

Today I had the pleasure of working with some of our youngest learners in the district.  The 4 and 5-year-olds in Westbrook's Tiger program are studying neighborhoods so what better way to learn about neighborhoods than to take a birds-eye view using Google Earth?!

The kids flapped their wings as we flew to Westbrook Elementary where students quickly identified parking lots and ball fields.  We flew a little East and found another elementary school in our district.  We outlined rectangles and talked about the concept of a block and noted that some blocks had straight lines and other had curves.

 Kids were catching on quickly as we flew a little further East and spotted Creighton Prep's football field and track.  Flying a little South on 72nd took us to Lewis and Clark where they spotted another track.

Students identified other things in the neighborhood like churches and grocery stores.  We even flew to my office which happens to be a set of really cool shapes!

 

One final flight took us to Imperial, Nebraska.  Kids quickly picked up on the neighborhood being quite a bit smaller and when zooming out, they guessed that the big circles were trees.  Teachable moment...quick lesson on crops and center pivots. ;)

Comments after the Lesson

• Teacher from the Tiger Program:  "I would have never thought to use Google Earth to show the kids our neighborhood!  I can think of other ways we could use Google Earth in our curriculum."  Score!
• A Very Bright 5-Year Old Tiger (Trea Spady):  "Hey...there's Hawaii...can you zoom in on that?  See everyone...Hawaii is out here by itself surrounded by water.  It's an island!"  Score!  BTW...I have never been to Hawaii, nor have my boys, but because of a really cool app on the iPad (Stack the States), my boys know more about states and capitals than I do!
• Another Bright Tiger:  "I'm going to ask my mom to download Google Earth on my iPad so we can do this at home!"  Score!

My Reflection

I'm a little embarrassed to admit that during most of my childhood, I believed Kearney, Nebraska was on the opposite end of the state.  I grew up in Omaha and whenever we went to visit my grandparents in Kearney, it seemed like we drove forever!  It wasn't until I went to college in Kearney and met my husband (from Imperial) that I realized there's a lot more out there past Kearney! ;) 

With free tools like Google Earth, there's really no reason for kids these days not to visualize and experience their neighborhood, city/town, state, continent, and world in new ways.  Even though they many never travel outside of Nebraska, students can take virtual field trips all over the world!  As you read literature, current events, or study regions of the world, use Google Earth to make the learning that much more real. 

One final thought...our kids are capable of more than we think!  You probably already knew that ;) but coming from a background of teaching middle school math, I realize now that I often limited my students' thinking by staying at the knowledge level of questioning.  These 4 and 5-year old's taught me a lesson today.  They were answering compare and contrast questions as easily as reciting their ABC's. 

Our students are ready for us to use the technology tools and ask the questions...we just need to take a different perspective on the way things have always been taught.