Destination Research

October 7, 2013 | Posted in: Class Updates

Leave a Comment

I was tremendously pleased with the kids’ mini-projects last week!  When the kids brought in their magazine advertisements for the Connecticut destinations they chose, I was immediately impressed with the time and detail that clearly went into their projects!  I loved seeing how each and every student took a unique approach to creating their advertisement.  The kids enjoyed having the chance to share their work in a “museum walk” (where one desk group at a time spread out around the classroom, and the rest of the class meandered around to listen to each student speak a bit about their work.)  This was a fun way of giving each student an opportunity to showcase his or her creativity, and it was clear to me that their understanding of their topics exceeded what they included in their advertisements.

This week, students have an assignment to conduct some very cursory research about three other destinations in the northeast.  You should have received a copy of the assignment today, but please let me reiterate the directions: This is not the same task as last week, multiplied by three.  Rather, the kids need to find three locations that seem interesting to them (that they may or may not have personal experience with) and write a very brief response about each one.  This will help to create a “jumping off point” for our next in-class project (which I hope to begin later this week or early next week.)

To help with brainstorming ideas for different destinations in less familiar states, here are a few websites that might help you and your fourth graders:

• Northeast Family Vacations (about.com)
• MommyPoppins (mommypoppins.com) – NY, NJ, CT, MA only
• Travel With Kids (about.com) – Not all northeast states included.
• 5 Fun Northeast Travel Ideas (TLC.com)
• 25 Northeast Getaways (nytimes.com)

As ALWAYS, I strongly encourage parents to supervise their kids when they use the internet.  Websites are never permanent, and it’s always possible that a site could be entirely kid-friendly one day and less-so another day.  (The best example tends to be legitimate news sites – I could link to a kid-friendly article at 5:00pm, and come 7:00pm, a breaking news banner might suddenly appear on the screen and share content that you’d rather not have your kids seeing.)  Plus, we all know easy it is to click on an advertisement that takes kids to another website, or to improperly type in a URL that takes the user to an unintended website.  I am providing these links to you as a possible resource, but since I am not the author of these sites, I cannot vouch for their ongoing accuracy or suitability.  Disclaimer over. 🙂