Instructional Software

Lesson Idea Name: Earth’s surfaces

Content Area: Continents and Oceans

Grade Level(s): First Grade

Content Standard Addressed: SS1G3: Locate major topographical features of the Earth’s surface.

a. Locate all the continents: North America, South America, Africa, Europe, Asia, Antarctica, in Australia.
b. Locate the major oceans: Arctic, Atlantic, Pacific, and the Indian Ocean.
c. Identify and describe landforms parentheses mountains, deserts, valleys, and coasts).

Selected Technology Tool: plan to use BrainPOP to allow students to gain extra practice and understanding
of the content. I hope that they will be able to complete each quiz with a comfortable knowledge on the
topic.

URL(s) to support the lesson (if applicable and goes directly to the lesson):
https://jr.brainpop.com/socialstudies/geography/continentsandoceans/

Type of Instructional Software:

☐ Drill and Practice x Tutorial ☐ Simulation ☐ Instructional Game ☐ e-books/e-references

Features of this software (check all that apply):

X Assessment Monitoring/Reporting

☐ Allows teacher to create customized lessons for students

☐ Multi-user or collaborative functions with others in the class

☐ Multi-user or collaborative with others outside the class

X Accessible to students beyond the school day

X Accessible via mobile devices

X Multiple languages

X Safety, security and/or privacy features

Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy Level(s):

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X Remembering X Understanding ☐ Applying ☐ Analyzing ☐ Evaluating ☐ Creating

Levels of Technology Integration:

☐ Infusion Level: Students may work at a higher Bloom’s Level, but they do not have any “Voice or Choice”
during the activity and most of the decisions are made by the teacher.

X Integration Level: We would like to see ALL lessons/activities reach this level. The project is student-
driven. Students have “Voice and Choice” in the activities, selecting the topic of study and determining the
technology tool to demonstrate mastery of the standard. The teacher becomes more of a facilitator.

☐ Expansion Level: The projects created are shared outside of the classroom, publishing student work and
promoting authorship. This could be reached by showcasing the project on the school’s morning
newscast, posting the project to the classroom blog, or publishing via an outside source.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL): The students will be learning a specific content area from the standards,
but there is freedom to choose how they will learn throughout this lesson. They can choose their groups,
encouraging them to decide intentionally with responsibility as they consider their learning styles and needs. I
will give them the ability to choose a continent, allowing them to work together as a class in decide who gets
what continent. This will encourage discussion and compromise between their peers. The goal is to allow
students to use BrainPOP as a later resource when they are at home or in class, providing a tool that they can
watch again, pause, and take the quizzes anytime they need. This will allow further study in learning material
that they enjoy or are confused about. They will be able to consider the pace they work best at while taking
the quizzes and watching the video again.

Lesson idea implementation: We will begin by watching the Continents and Oceans video as a class on
BrainPOP. I will provide an outline for notes that the class will complete as they watch the video. It will
provide blank spaces for them to fill out as they watch, including the name of the continents, oceans, and
several characteristics of each continent. It will be organized for them so they can focus on the information in
the video more than the notetaking. After the video, they will split into seven even groups. In their groups,
they should discuss and remember what the seven continents of the world are in what continent we live in.
They will each sign up for a continent, each group getting a different continent. We will be making a large map
as a class on a blank sheet up paper. Each group will cut out the shape of their continent to the best of their
ability, write the name, and include the characteristics that they remember from the video through a list or
drawing. An example of North America can include the planes and Rocky Mountains. South America can
include the equator, tropical rainforest, and the Andes Mountains. The chosen leader of each group will add
their continent with the characteristics to the proper location on the map one group at a time, using a
reference map on the board for help if needed. Once the continents are placed, we will discuss as a class and
add any characteristics that were missed. We will add the oceans as a class as well. The quizzes will be
reviewed for extra practice during a Learning Center. They will take independent time on their computers to
complete the quiz, reviewing the information we learned and discussed as a class. This will help them practice
accessing the video and quizzes on their own, enabling them to refer to the resource later to study or review.
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They will show me the quiz grade on their easy and hard quiz to show me their completion for the Learning
Center.

Reflective Practice: Students can present their map to the students in another grade. They can be given the
opportunity to share what they learned to a second-grade class. The older students can provide feedback,
sharing any other information they might have learned about these topographical features. This will broaden
the knowledge on this content for the first-grade students.

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