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Transforming
Traditional Activities
To survive on the prairie,
pioneers had to modify their old ways and learn new
skills.
We need to do the same thing on the
cyberfrontier. For example, rather than relying on
'store-bought' supplies, pioneers made their own
soap, candles, and quilts. Can you think of new,
interesting ways to use the tools of the
cyberfrontier?
Create your own activities and web pages:
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- Activity 1: Explore Web-based Resources and
Activities
- Use the 42eExplore
site. Each page contains an easy and hard definition,
activities, and selected websites. Can the resources and
information at the websites be integrated into classroom
activities?
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- Activity 3: Locate Resources
- Explore a book and brainstorm topics. Use the
following starting points and resources for ideas.
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- Starting Points
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- Current Events Resources
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- Reference Resource Links
Pages
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- Dictionaries, Encyclopedias, and
Almanacs
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- Reference Resources
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- Activity 4: Create Writing Activities
- Brainstorm lists of things you find on the prairie,
what you would bring in your wagon, places in Illinois,
animals of the prairie, or plants of the prairie. Ask
students to elaborate on one element of the list,
categorize items, or add description.
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- Create "chain-writing" projects. For example, each
person adds to a story, journal, or letter. Write about
science experiments.
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- Start a short poem. Go to the Research-It
site. Find a rhyming word to use in your poem.
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Activity 5: Use Data Management and
Calculation
- Brainstorm databases that could be developed such as
a wildflower, chore, animal, or prairie town
database.
- Brainstorm spreadsheets that could be created such as
a weather forecasting, plant inventory, or soil testing
spreadsheet.
- Activity 6. Integrate Varied Channels of
Communication: audio, video, graphics
- Go to the wildlife
site and copy a picture and/or a sound. Put this
resource into a word processing document, HyperStudio
stack, Kidpix file, or Powerpoint presentation.
- Or, select a piece of electronic clip art and paste
it into a word processor, graphics, or multimedia
software package. Modify the picture to create a new
prairie animal or plant. Write a poem or story about your
picture. Or, invent a math problem.
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- Activity 7: Focus on Natural and Historical
Museums
- Explore student-produced museums such as the
Illinois
Museum Project. Brainstorm ways to create your own.
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- Activity 8: Explore Books
- Match books and Internet resources. Explore a book.
Brainstorm pioneer & prairie topics. Identify
outcomes. Locate 1-5 sites. Create an activity.
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- Use the Literature
Ladders website to find links to Newbery, Caldecott,
and other popular books.
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- Literature
of Your Own
- Sarah,
Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan
- Quilt-Block History of Pioneer Days by Mary
Cobb
- Prairie Born by Dave Bouchard
- Pioneer Workshop by Judy Cole & Mary
Minturn
- Prairie Songs by Pam Conrad
- Black-Eyed Susan by Jennifer Armstrong
- The Ballad of Lucy Whipple by Karen Cushman
- Buffalo Thunder by Patricia Wittmann
- Fun with Nature
- Gardening Wizardry for Kids by L.Patricia
Kite
- 365 Nature Crafts & Activities
- First Field Guide Wildflower by National Audubon
Society
- Canoe Days by Gary Paulsen
- Tops & Bottoms by Janet Stevens
- Weslandia by Paul Fleischman
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Developed by Annette
Lamb,
10/99.
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