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North, East, South, West

Page history last edited by PBworks 17 years, 11 months ago

North, South, East and West

 

Rachel Strandquist

 

GRADE LEVEL: Elementary 5th and 6th year
SKILLS: Listening, speaking
TIME: 45 minutes
MATERIALS: Maps
OBJECTIVES: To learn compass directions in English
To learn a little bit of geography in English
To interact in English

PROCEDURE:

 

1. After doing your normal greeting and any review of previous classes, start by introducing the vocabulary: north, south, east, west, north-east, south-east, north-west, south-west. To do this, I put a map of the world up on the board, and then draw a blank compass next to it. I point to the top of the compass and north on the map and ask “What direction is this?”. Someone will usually say the direction in Japanese, and then I will tell them “This is north.” Repeat this procedure with all of the directions, until they are comfortable with the words.

 

2. Asking questions: Starting with the world map, ask the students questions about directions and countries. For example “What countries are in the north/south?”, “What countries are north/south/east/west of Japan?”, “Where is Canada?”, “What country is south of Canada?”. With the Japan map, ask about areas and prefectures, for example “What prefectures are in the west?”, “Where is Miyagi prefecture?”, “Where is Shikoku?”.

 

3. The Map Game: Students have to guide a team member to the correct prefecture on the map of Japan. Put the map of Japan on the board and split the students into groups (preferably 6 students or fewer per group). Have each team choose someone to be “it”. The chosen students from each group should come up to the front of the class and cover their ears. Now, each team should think of a prefecture for their team-mate to find. Once each team has decided on a prefecture (and written it on a piece of paper), have the “its” do rock, paper, scissors to see who goes first. The first student should guess a prefecture. If they are wrong, their team must try to guide them to the correct prefecture by saying a direction, for example “north-east!”. The student guesses another prefecture, his/her team-mates give another hint, and this continues until he/she figures it out. After each team has played, the team with the fewest guesses is the winner.

 

NOTES:

 

1. Any maps will do. I use three different ones for the lesson: the World, Canada and Japan. Try to use a world map where the Pacific Ocean is not in the centre. It throws them off at first, and they have to think a little harder.

 

2. The game works best with a small class. Otherwise, there are too many teams and whichever team is not playing at the moment will get bored. To make it work for a large class, try using several maps and have all of the groups playing at the same time.

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