Note: Prior to Lesson One, the teacher should have already set up E-pals with another class, preferably out of their "neighborhood".

Title: Where in the World Do You Live?

Standards Addressed:

Materials and Technology Needed:

• Globes, maps
• Internet sites- .maps101.com, mapquest
• Chart paper and markers

Activities:

• Discuss what clues the class could send to their epals so that they could determine their class location
  • longitude and latitude coordinates
  • directional words
  • climate
  • etc.
• Review what the main topic sentence is for their paragraph that they will send ,as a whole class ,to their epals.
• Write the sentence on chart paper
• Review what supporting sentences are and write at least three on the chart paper to complete their paragraph
• Reread the paragraph together many times to determine if enough supporting sentences exist for the receiving class to successfully determine their class location. Adjust as needed.
• Teacher or students type up the paragraph to send to the receiving class. This can be done as an attachment or as text in an e-mail message.( I would suggest the attachment strategy, especially as their writing improves and the length of their messages increases).
• Each class receives the message with the clues. As a whole class, use the clues to make guesses as to the location of their epal class. Post it on a bulletin board for future lessons!

Assessment:

• Teacher observation (were they able to successfully send a paragraph with enough clues for the receiving class to determine the location??? Could they use the written clues to predict where their epals live?)