Planning a Trip in Florida

How It Works: Planning a Trip is an interactive unit that integrates skills from knowledge of geography to creating a budget. The purpose is to develop strategies for researching through activities in which social studies, technology, mathematics, and creativity are integrated. Hands-on activities are used to create a relief map, go to web sites to explore, develop writing skills on the computer, budget for a seven day trip, discover facts on our state of Florida, and create an original tourist pamphlet.

Standards:   

Develop writing skills
Increase knowledge of technology
Increase math computation skills
Learn the geography of the state of Florida

Estimated Class Periods To Complete: 10 or more

Software Materials Used:  Software needed to complete these activities include PrintShop Deluxe, Word Processing and Spreadsheet in The Student Writing Center or any other writing software. Students should have access to the Internet for research.

Keywords: Florida, geography, maps, sunshine state, travel, Everglades, Lake Okeechobee, Key West, gold coast

Students:  Students for this project should be in the fourth grade. Average, gifted, and exceptional education students will benefit from this project. The students will learn as they go through the lessons and students will excel  in the different parts of the projects. 

Overall:   These activities are very innovative and creative, they let the child grow creatively and cognitively. Students that have never been on a trip will gather so much information that they will feel as if they had gone on a trip around Florida.

Tips:    Give the students ample time to complete the culminating activities. Each class is different from the other. Let the students be as creative as possible and make sure the students have plenty of time to research. The students enjoy acting as though they are the grown ups on the trip. 

About the Teacher: 

Jacqueline Clayton is currently a fifth grade Citibank FamilyTech teacher at Charles R. Hadley Elementary School. This is her sixth year teaching in the Miami-Dade County Public School system. Her class is part of the Citibank FamilyTech program that teachers computers skills to parents, students, and teachers and loans computers on a long-term basis to classrooms and homes.

Subjects:  Social Studies and English

Grade Levels:  4

Email Jacqueline