Visiting the Neighbors  

1^st  Grade Geography –Studying the environment

Chapter :Investigating the environment- Animals of my land (Greek Educational System)
Go to the lesson

	Materials for the lesson Almost nothing unless the teachers imagination has other plans. Teachers Bell
	Layout of the classroom Desks and chairs in the middle form 5 groups. They indicate the 5 animal families in which the children will be divided .
	Phase 1 The teacher ask the children to say animals they know around them. Dog, cat, cow, parrot, turtle, sheep, goat, horse etc. The teacher chooses what is best for his/her class (it could be more common animals or a specific group like birds, fish, insects, exotic, etc). Each of the five groups goes and sits at their own space (desks-chairs). The teacher tells the children to discuss and write down what they know or just remember (to say if they cannot write yet) what are the characteristics of their animal group.
	Phase 2 The children collect-write all these characteristics. The teacher goes from group to group and monitors development. Cows; are heavy and big animals, they have ears and horns, 4 legs, eat grass, make milk, sound like “mouou” etc                                                                  Cats: they are small animals, have 2 ears, 4 legs, climb the trees, eat fish, sound like “niaou” etc Dogs: can be large or small, keep us safe, have 4 legs, eat meat, “ wouf” Is their sound etc Parrots have lots of colors, come from Tropical places but live in a cage at our home, have 2 legs, wings, a hooked beak (nose), eat seeds and worms, have a strange voice or can imitate sounds etc.

and so on so forth for every animal chosen by the children.

Phase 3

Visiting the neighbors.
The children from every group visit another group.  They say hello and socialize.
Possible dialogues:
Þ  Good-morning and good-day, how are you and how business etc.
We are the cats.
ÞWelcome we are the cows.
ÞHow many legs do you have?
ÞFour. You?
Þ We too! Do you make milk?
Þ No, but can climb up the trees etc.
The children in every group make notes (or just remember the characteristics of the other group).  The teacher goes around helping and correcting according to what the lesson indicates.

 

 

 

 

Phase 4

Presentation.
All the class sits in a circle.

One after the other each team stands and enters the center of the circle to present the characteristics of the other group.

The cats (as in our example) present the characteristics of the cows. The dogs of the horses etc. The teacher encourages, corrects, and adds according to his/her lesson and book, which offers a lot of material for discussion and questions. (Link:http://ebooks.edu.gr/modules/ebook/show.php/DSDIM-A105/220/1614,5067/)

He/she keeps for the end to be Grand & Happy Finale, the characteristics of the voices of the animals.

Examples of questions between groups mixed-up:
Þ Which are the characteristics of the parrots, horses, dogs etc.

Mistakes are part of the procedure and give opportunities for laughter and jokes with the imitation of the animals but with the wrong characteristics ( i.e. A cow that flies or a dog that climbs up etc)

 Phase 5

The teacher in the end repeats the the characteristics of the animals or anything else that is necessary that was not said or not given special attention.
The lesson ends with a concert  with the voices of the yard/farm with all the animals.
The teacher in the middle of the circle, points out randomly each team that has to imitate the voice and sound of the animal.  The cats=niar, the dogs=wouf etc

To make it more fun, the teacher can ask the children to make the sound of an animal from the other group randomly. So, the children will make comical mistakes : Cows=miaou, the parrots= wouf  etc.