Third Lesson: Virginia Regions Part II (Blue Ridge Mountains & Rivers)

We’ve definitely began to get the swing of things...Today we introduced the Blue Ridge Mountains and Rivers. We were able to find great images (for example, the Blue Ridge Mountains) to enhance our PowerPoint and awesome quotes and interesting facts for students (i.e. The Natural Bridge that has George Washington’s initials carved in it is in the Blue Ridge Mountain Region). At the end of our lesson we had students record what they had learned and one thing that had them stumped or something that they want to learn more about. This was just another point at which we could gauge student performance. When we introduced the rivers we informed the students of a cute acronym to help them remember (Principals Race Yellow Jaguars) the rivers: Potomac, Rappahannock, York, and James. Our classroom teacher had a great display that allowed us to give the class a great visual. After our PowerPoint we took the students over to the rug area and conducted a map activity. They traced and mapped the boundaries of each region and rivers along with Mr. Tim and I. They then color coordinated every area with the specific region. I think that this helped a lot; they were able to see a spatial difference between each region and the rivers. Even though there was a lot of material covered I think that it was enough time for them to process the information. As I have looked through the Virginia Studies Journal’s I’ve noticed where some of the class has gone back and added and summarized on their own for “personal” review.