The fourth graders at Kaechele Elementary were studying the regions of Virginia. Mrs. Robson wanted to spice it up a little this year, so we planned a fun lesson together! The students have to learn the names, land formations, products, and details about the five regions of Virginia.
To start the lesson we started at an awesome web resource called Scribble Maps. I read about it on David Clough’s blog, and saw one use of it last year working with Julie Smith. This is a really cool resource and can be used in a number of grade levels. The kids don’t need an account, so they can start scribbling on some maps right away! With the free account we aren’t able to save the maps so I made sure to let the kids know that they had to finish drawing in one sitting.
It was a little tricky for the kids at first, but once they got rolling they did fantastic! One thing that we figured out was that they had to outline each region individually to fill them with different colors. If they traced the outline of Virginia 
first Scribble Maps would think that that was the only shape. Once they had their regions colored they labeled and wrote a short description of each region using the ABC tool. If they had time the students headed over to One Search to find some pictures to go with each region. They copied the web address and then easily added the pictures to their map using the image tool. Once they finished their masterpieces the students took a screenshot using the Snipping Tool and uploaded the picture to their Google Drive.
Constructing the maps took our whole session, so I came back the next week to finish up the project. Since the students’ maps were saved in their Google Drives this made it easy to complete the next step. The students went to MoveNote to explain the maps that they created. MoveNote is a really powerful tool that can be used to show 
the thought processes behind student work. For this lesson we brought the maps into MoveNote and the students explained each region of Virginia. One of my favorite things about this tool is that while recording the students can highlight certain areas. Once the students finished their MoveNotes they posted their links to a shared Google Doc. Check out one of the awesome videos below, click the picture to watch the video!
