Teacher(s) Monet Nielsen Beginning Date______________

Subject Social Studies/Fine Arts Grade Level(s) 2nd Day(s)/Time(s) _____

Lesson/Unit Plan Title or Theme: Moving through the Continents
Adapted from: http://lessons.artworksforkids.org/lessons/55

Essential Question: The key idea, the bigger conceptual picture

What is a continent?
Where are the seven continents on a map?
What do the continents look like?
Where are the four oceans on a map?

Objective(s): What students will actually be able to do and have completed (write an original opera
using a story from Reading Street using the following skills from the music and language arts core)
Students will understand the shape of the seven continents and where they are on a map. Students will be
able to work together to create shapes similar to the seven continents. Students will create a dance using
all seven continents and the four oceans.

Academic Core Subjects/Standards:

Fine Arts Core: 2nd grade Fine Arts dance
Dance Create: Students will conceptualize, generate, develop and organize artistic ideas and work. They
will complete and refine dance works
Standard D CR 1: Demonstrate willingness to work with partners when creating dance.
Standard D CR 4: Reflect on movement choices and change movement through guided improvisational
experiences or short remembered sequences.
Possible:
Standard 2.M.P.4:
Sing folk, traditional, and call-and-response songs in tune, using a natural, unstrained voice.

Academic Core: 2nd grade Social Studies

Standard 3 (Geography): Students will use geographic tools and skills to locate and describe places on
earth.
Objective 2: Demonstrate geographic skills on a map and a globe
Locate and label the following on a map or a globe: the seven continents, the five oceans, the poles, and
the equator.

Vocabulary that is explicit in both areas of instruction (clear connections)

Fine Arts Vocabulary:
Shape
Pose
Movement
Sequences

Academic Core Vocabulary:

Map
Continent
Ocean

Art Core Integration/Connections:

Standard 1: Students will develop a sense of self.
Objective 2: Develop and apply skills in fine and gross motor movement.
a. Create and perform unique dance movements and sequences that expand physical skills while
demonstrating personal and spatial awareness.

Students will learn about the continents as well as movement. The movement they do together will help
them to remember basic global geography and work their dancing skills.

Procedures: Describe what students will do individually or in groups; what are the steps involved?

Introduction:
Students help to create an open space in the room for dance. Students can decide how to make the open
space and if they should move away all desks or create an open big circle/oval shape in the middle of the
desks. Students sit down in a circle in the open space and we discuss expectations for the exercise. I
would want them to come up with what they should be doing, how to treat others when working together
to create a shape, and noise levels expected. Depending on how comfortable the class is with singing and
movement I might invite those comfortable to sing Earth Song. After reviewing expectations, I will ask
some questions to assess prior knowledge of the seven continents and four oceans. For example, who
can name the seven continents or a continent? Students will review a globe and a set of maps available
to them to learn about where the seven continents and four oceans are. As I review the continents with
the students they try to make the shape of the continent with their bodies and as small groups.

Lesson:
After we have made all seven continents as individuals and small groups, I will assess if they know
which directions are north, south, east, and west in the classroom. I will not post a map of the world
during this time. I will shout out a continent and students will try to find the spot in the open space it
would be in. While they decide where the continent is I will remind them to work tougher. Once the
class finds a consensus about where the continent is we will create the shape again. I will continue to
have them try to find where the continent would be and make the shape till we finish all seven
continents. I would assign students to particular continent based on which students I think will work well
together and they will make the continent shape so we have made the whole world! I will have students
wave to the continent I specify to make sure they remember the position each continent is at in the room.

We briefly discuss expectations again and start playing the Earth Song in the background. Students
can sing along if they feel comfortable moving and singing at the same time. I have them travel around
the world individually. First I will simply say the name of some continents then I will have them travel
around our classroom world based on a fun fact about the continent that they must decipher. I will also
be telling the students how to get there which should inspire their movement. For example, shiver as
you travel to the coldest place on earth (gets to negative 90 degrees) which also has penguins. Then walk
with short legs and steps like a penguin. (Antarctica) Art Works for Kids. Students can also have an
added challenge of the oceans once they get good at the continents.

Lastly, student will be broken into smaller groups to make up a dance with the different ways to get to
the continents and oceans. Students will perform their dances in front of their classmates. Their
classmates will have to identify where the performers are in the world as a type of formative assessment.
I will also observe those dancing to see how well they understand where they are going and their dance
moves. After each dance, I will take two compliments about the dance from the audience.

Sing Earth Song

(adapt to the tune of My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean)
Earth is the name of our planet.
Its shaped like a ball or a sphere.
Its covered with land and water.
A globe makes this picture quite clear.
(Chorus)
Seven continents, four oceans, on our planet Earth . . .
Seven continents, four oceans, on our planet Earth!
On Earth there are seven continents.
A continents a large mass of land.
Four large bodies of water are oceans.
In fact, theres more water than land!
(Repeat Chorus)
Kaye WilliamsGr. 3 Chilhowee Intermediate School

Closing:
After this activity, students will sit in a circle and raise their hands with likes and suggestions. Their
responses must start with either I like or I wonder I will then go over blank map with the
students and we will fill in as a group the oceans and continents.

Medium/Resources/Materials/Technology/Prep:
Projector or big pictures of the continents and world. Open space for the students to move. Music to
dance to maybe the Earth Song.

Closure/ Assessment/Reflection/ Critique:

I will assess the students through observation of them dancing in their small group and trying to say
where others are in the world during their dances.

Special Considerations/Differentiation/Extension: include how this lesson could be adapted,

improved, extended, layered, include student assessment of learning, engagement, retention of concepts
and skills in both academic areas of instruction etc.

Students can work as partners if need be. Students might be given the map ahead of time to study or an
exercise to introduce the topic more in-depth beforehand. Student could be tested based on a map. This
lesson can extend into several sessions of learning the map.