THE UNITED STATES & CANADA - SEPT 12TH

TODAY IN CLASS:
 We learned about the USA and Canada. You’ll want to review this information throughout the school year because we will have two Jeopardy-style Geography Bowls (one in November and one in May). The winners will get bragging rights and an awesome prize. Its really important to review what we    
have learned at home because anything we talk about in class could turn out to be one of the
questions in the Geography Bowl!


TO PREPARE FOR NEXT CLASS (SEPT 19TH): 

• START MEMORIZING THE COUNTRIES OF LATIN AMERICA (MEXICO, CENTRAL AMERICA, & SOUTH AMERICA)
•  OPTIONAL - COLOR YOUR "CANADA" COLORING PAGE  (AND BRING IT TO NEXT GEOGRAPHY CLASS FOR A PRIZE!)
• OPTIONAL - CHECK OUT THE LATIN-AMERICA RELATED MEMORIZATION GAMES HERE: http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/Geography.htm

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HERE ARE SOME PHOTOS FROM OUR PAPER-AIRPLANE GEOGRAPHY GAME TODAY!

THANKS FOR A GREAT FIRST CLASS! See you next week!

Class dates and preparing for fall

We've got our class dates for 2012-2013! We will have a total of 11 classes (9 regular classes and 2 geography bowl/parties) that are spread out throughout the year.

WEDNESDAY SEPT 12^TH - US & CANADA

WEDNESDAY, SEPT 19^{TH -} LATIN AMERICA

WEDNESDAY, NOV 7^TH - EUROPE

WEDNESDAY, NOV 14^TH - RUSSIA

WEDNESDAY, NOV 21^ST - GEOGRAPHY BOWL (COVERING FIRST 4 CLASSES)  & MID-TERM PARTY

WEDNESDAY, JAN 9^TH - NORTH AFRICA

WEDNESDAY, JAN 16^TH - SOUTHERN AFRICA

WEDNESDAY, JAN 30^ST - SOUTH ASIA

FRIDAY, MAY 3^RD  - EAST ASIA

WEDNESDAY, MAY 15^TH - SOUTHEAST ASIA

WEDNESDAY, MAY 22^{ND -} GEOGRAPHY BOWL (COVERING ALL 9 CLASSES)  & FINAL PARTY 

In our regular classes, we will work a little bit on memorizing names/locations of countries (and/or states, territories, etc) for a specific region (see schedule above), but we will also be learning a little bit about the culture (art, traditional clothing, language, etc), major religions, and brief history of these regions.

We won't be spending the entire class time on memorization - even if we did, it would be difficult for most students to memorize a large number of states/countries (such as all 50 US states & the provinces of Canada) in a 1 1/2 hour class time frame. Any supplemental memorization work that is done at home (before or after the class) would be helpful for increasing your student's knowledge of the subject.

To help encourage retention, we will have two geography bowls (group jeopardy style trivia competitions, covering the material we've studied in class). Students will be asked to take notes in classes and encouraged to study them on their own at home. Any additional personal study (memorization, additional reading, etc) done by the students will greatly improve their knowledge on the subject.

I will update this blog before and after every class so that you will know what we have studied and give suggestions for supplemental study at home.

For those who would like a head-start on preparing for fall, the first class will cover the US & Canada, so anything that you can start memorizing ahead of time (the names/locations of the United States and the provinces of Canada) will be helpful. Even if you have already covered this information as part of your schooling in a previous year, a refresher might be beneficial.  

Here are some free online resources:

Online games for learning US states & capitals, major lakes, rivers etc:

 http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/web_games.htm

Online games for learning Canadian provinces & territories, etc:

 http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/Canadian_Geography.htm