Meg over at the The Teacher Studio is hosting her Loved that Lesson Linky again! Be sure to click on the image above to find out what some other amazing teacher bloggers have been up to.
One lesson that I LOVED carrying out this week was one done with Google Tour Builder. Second grade had been studying Ancient Egypt so we decided to get the kids to make tours of the important parts of Egypt. We brainstormed a list together as a class and the students decided that they needed to include the following stops: Sahara Desert, Nile River, Pyramids, The Sphinx and something to represent the pharaohs. Google Tour Builder is SO wonderful because it allows you to add information at each stop as well as pictures and YouTube videos. You can add your own pictures or search the web right within Tour Builder. Also, you can add your OWN movies!
Your kids can really take virtual field trips any day and every day with Tour Builder. They are mesmerized by this!
Here is one of the tours that a student created. We only had an hour for this lesson and this SECOND GRADER did a fabulous job with his tour:
1 from Julie on Vimeo.
I can't wait to use Google Tour Builder this upcoming week in 4th grade as we explore the areas from the Revolutionary War and in 5th grade as we travel to the different capitals in the US!
You have to be signed into a Google account in order to create a tour. Do you teach at a GAFE (Google Apps for Education) school? If so, have you ever used Google Tour Builder? What kind of tours have your students created?
Are you a GAFE school but you have never tried Google Tour Builder? Are you interested? Here is an excellent tutorial by Richard Treves:
