Contributed by Cindy Wang Kohlhepp, MA
O&M skill: Landmarks
Appropriate for ages: Elementary School
Materials needed: PowerPoint to make your own interactive slideshow
How to teach lesson: After teaching my students the three characteristics of a good O&M landmark, it was time for them to identify on their own what can or can’t be a landmark. I don’t have an iPad, but I have a touch screen laptop and I’ve been waiting for the perfect lesson to use this feature.
For this lesson, I first made a PowerPoint slideshow—the focus is to go over some examples before we went outdoors to look for some real life landmarks.
The first half of the slideshow is just pictures or random things you see outside. The student just has to identify whether or not the thing in the picture can be landmark. For some pictures, the item can be a landmark in some situations and not in others. So, that was a good way to open up that discussion.
The second half of the slideshow is interactive. The student gets to use the laptop pen and circle all the things they see in the picture that can be a good landmark. All my students really like this part of the lesson because what student doesn’t love touch screen technology!?
This lesson was a good way to make sure my students understood what landmarks are before going out into the community to look for real life landmarks.