Where in the World Do We Find the Things We Need? Map Study Lesson #2

Invite students to play “I Spy”! Practice how the game is played by using the picture and prompts on slide 21. Then have students retrieve their Cart Sort cards. Students should sort the cards again into two categories: “natural” and “man-made.” Encourage them to check their work using the class T-Chart. Students should end up with their cards spread out on their desks so they can see all their cards at the same time.

After students have spread their Card Sort cards across the top of their desks, do a test run by calling out a couple of “I Spy” examples: “I spy with my little eye something that is made from trees”; “I spy with my little eye a natural resource where we can go surfing.”

The practice calls enable you to model what you want your students to look for and the proper etiquette for forming their “I Spy” requests. You can do the calls as a “teacher-led” activity or have students take turns doing the “I spy” calls. If you conduct the game as a whole class, decide in advance what the rules will be for answering. Write them on the board so that students understand who can answer and how the answer is to be done. This activity can also be placed in a practice center for Elbow Partners to do throughout the week.

The procedure for the “I Spy” game is as follows:

• Start the game out by calling a couple of the “I spys.”

• Once the students have practiced a bit by distinguishing between natural and man-made resources, expand the questions to include the concepts of global and local resources.

• Shift the questions to include:

  • I spy something made in our state.

  • I spy something made in another part of the world

  • I spy something that could be made in many places

These last few “I spy” statements lead into the next section, Extend II, about local and global resources.

Start by reviewing the list of items on the T-Chart in the “Natural” column to determine how many of the natural objects come from your state or region. Then have students identify local natural objects. Next review the “Man-Made” column to determine where these items come from or are made.

Display slide 22. Open the slide deck linked here and on the slide: Material World: Portraits On-Line. Introduce the book Material World: A Global Family Portrait by Peter Menzel, Charles C. Mann, and Paul Kennedy, or go to Peter Menzel’s website “Material World Portrait Gallery" to explore families around the world. These pictures show human possessions in many different parts of the world.

Use the pictures in the book or the portraits on the websites to discuss what resources you see in a few of the families. Ask students, “Do you think the resources can be found in our local community?” Could we find some of the things we need in their communities?” This is what we mean by our global community. Remind students that the two types of resources—natural and man-made—are available all over the world.

To help your students have a more concrete understanding of global, have students look at tags or markings on objects in the classroom to find where they were made. Mark these locations on your globe or map. For instance, the coffee mug might say China, a T-shirt might say Taiwan, a blanket might be from Germany, and so on. Make sure to have a few items from various countries available in the classroom. See if you have anything in your classroom that was made in your state or the USA. Then have students help you define the word “global.”

Display slides 23-24. Review the concept of local and global resources by having students decide if the items in the pictures are local or global resources. Have them look for clues in the pictures and explain their reasoning and/or give evidence for their opinions.