epals

Grade: Fifth

NCSS Standards: People, Places and Environment
                             Science, Technology and Society

Time: 4-6 week unit (allow time before project starts to begin emailing buddies)

Materials: Computers
                Internet access
                Email addresses (both for your class and those located in other locations)
                Necessary support materials and resources

Useful Websites:
www.50states.com
www.yahooligans.com
www.nws.noaa.gov (national weather service)
www.epals.com
www.gaggle.net

Overview of Project:

Begin by setting up email addresses for each member of your class. I was successful in using www.gaggle.net and www.epals.com

Have students email buddies from various states or countries, which ever you are studying. We split the class up into different regions of the United States You can find interested classes on www.epals.com. Students gather inportant information from their buddies that they can then use in their reports. For information that they could not get from their buddies, they had to locate it in other resources. Some of the websites that we found useful are listed above.

Give the students a guide to what information you want them to learn about their state and also what they should ask their buddies. I would email them a weekly question.

Give choices on how the students can present their information to the class. Try presentational software such as Powerpoint, Hyper Studio, or Kid Pix Deluxe. Students can also be given the option of creating a video, a booklet, a tour guide, or poster display.

Include such items in the project as weather graphs, email buddy biographies, state reports, and maps/directions.

Allow students to present their projects to the class and also evaluate each other's projects.

***Another version of this project could include a Flat Stanley Project. I found this useful for giving my special needs students a way to participate in this project. Students email pictures and letters in Stanley's voice to another part of the country and receive information and pictures fro the other class involved. To find out more on this type of project visit www.geocities.com/EnchantedForest/7914/flatstanley.html or many other Flat Stanley sites. Some sites will have information on mailing letters, however, we modified it to be doen through the Internet.