Primary Lesson

Title: Video Boxes

Arizona State Standards

  • Reading: Strand 1-Concept 6 (apply reading strategies) Strand 2-Concpet 1 (identify facts and main ideas, author’s purpose) Strand 3-Concept 1 (analyze non-fiction) Strand 2-Concept 2 (recognize historical and cultural perspectives)
  • Writing: Writing Process: Strand 1- Concepts 1-5, Strand 2-Concept 6 (Grades1-2) Strand 1-Concepts 1 & 3-5, Strand 2 Concepts 1 & 6. Gather & Report Information: Strand 2-Concpet 1-2 , Strand 3-Concept 2-3 (Grade 1) Strand 1-Concept 2, Strand 2-Concepts 1-2, Strand 3 Concepts 2-3 (Grade 2) Strand 2-Concepts 1-2 (Grade 3). Locate Sources: Strand 1- Concepts 1-2, Strand 3-Concepts 3 & 6 (Grades 1 & 2) Strand 2-Concepts 1-2, Strand 3-Concept 6 (Grade 3)
  • Listening and Speaking: LS-F1 and LS-F3 (shares, presents, participates in activities)
  • History: 1SS-F2 (knowledge of past & present) 1SS-E1(research tools)
  • Civics and Government: 2SS-F1 (multiculturalism)
  • Geography: 3SS-R1 (concept of location) 3SS-F1 (map skills)
  • Arts: 1AV-R1/F2 (use of art materials) 1AV-R2/E1/3AV-R2 (communicate through art)

Goals & Objectives:

  1. Students become familiar with Central America.
  2. Students research in books and the internet about a certain Central American country.
  3. Students share new learnings and draw similarities and differences of the region from information shared.

Length of lesson: 6 one-hour periods

Materials & Preparation:

  1. a globe (or a world map)
  2. old boxes
  3. map of Central America
  4. empty paper towel rolls
  5. research materials (library, internet)
  6. art materials
  7. poster board

Lesson

First Period

  1. Using a globe or a world map, show students where North and South America are. Ask questions, leading students to locate the United States, Mexico and Canada in North America and find the countries of Brazil and Argentina in South America. (If you have any students from Mexico and/or South American countries, locate their countries on the map.) Draw attention to the names of North America and South America, discussing the meanings of the words north and south.
  2. Ask students where they think Central America would be, if they just located North and South America. Using paper, string or some sort of an identifier, mark this region so it will be easy for students to find later.
  3. Read the names of the 5 countries that make up Central America. (Again, if you have any students from Central America, bring attention to their country of origin.)
  4. Show a bigger map of Central America, explaining that this is a bigger picture of the part of the globe they have labeled. Make sure to review the names of the countries again, showing where Nicaragua is on the globe and where it is on the map.
    (If students are still confused, show a map of the United States, and draw their attention to the shape of the US, compared to the shape of the US on the globe, then outline the region of Central America on the globe and compare the shape to the map of Central America.)
  5. Explain that they will be working in groups to create a “video box” about a Central American country. Instead of assigning each student to a group, ask them to choose which country they would like to research and why. Much discussion will be generated by students’ own reasons for choosing a country, such as, “My grandmother is from El Salvador,” or “I saw a show about butterflies from Costa Rica on the Discovery Channel,” etc. As each student shares which country they would like to research and why, have them write their name on a prepared chart identifying which group they will be working with. Negotiation may have to take place as students get organized, however, again, discussing why each would like to be a part of which group may lead to sharing of experiences and facts, as well as cooperative skill development.

Second Period

  1. Explain that each group will be making a video box that will show information for a country in Central America.
  2. Show an example video box and explain how you made it.
  3. Using an old box, cut out the bottom so it has an open space for a screen. Cut out two large holes on each side, big enough for an old paper towel roll to fit through. Insert two paper towel rolls, one at the top of the screen, one at the bottom. Decorate the box so it looks like a television.
  4. Make different “frames” for your video from a group of papers taped together, end to end, in the order you want the “frames” to appear.
  5. Attach the first frame with tape to the top paper towel roll and roll the pages around the roll until you can attach the last page to the bottom paper towel roll.
  6. Rewind the paper so that the pages are all wrapped around the bottom roll, and the first page is showing through the “screen” and the “video” is ready to be played, by turning the two rolls at the same time, wrapping the pages around the top roll.
  7. Brainstorm different information each group could be looking for about their country. Generate a list of geographical and cultural categories that will assist students as they investigate. Such categories could be: animals, plants, mountains, rivers, lakes, cities, weather, foods, celebrations, clothing, population, ethnicities, languages, etc. Make the categories general or complicated according to the level of your students. You may want to assign a category to each student in the group (having one student work on animals, another on cities, another on foods, etc.) Or, have the group organize a way to collect information for each category.
  8. Depending on the ability level of your students, determine how they will know when they have found a fact. For some levels, a fact will simply be a picture or a photograph, for others maybe the facts will need to be in found in text. You may even require more advanced students to collect source information for the facts they find, by creating a bibliography to include in the “credits” portion of their “video” that displays the resources, authors and page numbers that they referred to.

Third-Fourth-Fifth Periods

  1. Students work on gathering geographical/cultural facts and creating their video boxes.

Sixth Period

  1. Before each group presents their video boxes, explain to the students that, after listening to each group, the class will be displaying their boxes (in the library, or other public display area) and will have to make a poster introducing the video boxes and explaining the region of Central America, showing what all of these countries have in common. While they watch the video box presentations, they can be thinking about how the countries are the same, and what information they might include on an introductory poster.
  2. Have each group present their video box to the class.
  3. After all have presented, begin a list of geographical and cultural similarities of Central America. Examples: Spanish language, tropical forests, volcanoes, maiz, etc.
  4. Choose a small group of students to create the introductory poster for the region of Central America, including the similar characteristics of the region the class discussed.

Closure

  1. Display video boxes. Ask students what they have learned about the Americas, guiding them to review where Central America is and important facts they have learned.


Evaluation

  1. Assign different students to give introductions to the video box display to different audiences. Or have students write a paragraph about Central America (or, depending on their ability level, write 3-5 sentences.)

Extensions

  1. Organize a world regions fair, with different classes presenting on different regions o the globe. Incorporate food, music, maps, crafts, etc. with the video box displays.
  2. Invite a guest speaker from each country in Central America (especially if related to members of your class!) to participate in the video box presentations, and have them comment and talk about their country. Encourage guests to bring artifacts, music, clothing, etc from their homeland.
  3. After presenting the video boxes, show real videos about different countries in Central America, to reinforce that what they had learned from their research was accurate, and also to build new information upon what they have just learned. Travel videos work well at this level.