Walk Around Keego Harbor

One way to help the students become more familiar with the community that they live in is to take a walk around that community. We looked for important buildings and businesses as we walked along the side streets of Keego Harbor, and along Orchard Lake Road. The students also pointed out different shapes that help to make up the buildings and signs within the community.

We started out by talking about what shapes were and what they looked like. We read a book that involved using Twizzler sticks to help make shapes. The students predicted what shapes they might see around the community, and how many shapes they might see.

To help the students become aware of the variety of shapes that can be found throughout the community, they kept a tally sheet to record the number of shapes they spotted on the walk. Some of the shapes the students looked for were circles, hearts, octagons and arrows.

As we walked through the community, the children recorded a tally mark for each shape they saw. The adults held the digital cameras, and took pictures of interesting shapes and buildings that the students pointed out.

Upon returning to the classroom, the students totalled up their tally marks to find a total number for each shape. The students then cut a shape out of construction paper to create an illustration of shapes in our community. The colored shape would stand out when glued on the black and white picture they drew.

I then compiled and inserted many of the shapes from our walk into a PowerPoint presentation. The students were able to revisit the walk as they used the Smart Board pens on the Smart Board to outline the shapes found within the pictures.

We also printed out copies of the photographs and added them to the writing center to be used during our language arts center time. The students again created booklets out of construction paper and glued the photos that they chose into their digital picture books. They then were expected to write captions for each of the photos they used.