3-+Belgium

= BELGIUM = The third grade studied the country of Belgium. While Belgium is a small country, about the size of Maryland, it is divided into four regions made up of many different provinces. For the sake of efficiency, the class divided into two main groups which represented Belgiums two main regions- Wallonia and Flanders. Each group formed a committee. A committee head deligated tasks to each student in order to build a representation of each region within the classroom. While the process was long and at times chaotic, the class learned a great deal about Belgium's culture, geography, government and history. The following is a slide show of the transformation of our classroom from the beginning of the unit to just before the World's Fair.

media type="custom" key="8497356" align="center" = The Castle Project = While a large portion of the unit work was done in class, each student was assigned the task of building their own castle and designing or bringing in a copy of their own family crest. Castles are very popular in Belgium with over 400 castles open for public viewing. The third grade castles themselves were spectacular. Each castle was different and unique as the student who created it. They were instructed to build their castle with whatever materials they would like. Results yielded castles made from legos complete with moat and guard alligators, drawbridges made from paperclips and a very original rainbow castle. = = media type="custom" key="8497336" align="center" = The SKYPE Project: Our Belgium Connection = Through the valuable connection of Mrs. Mimi Jones, the third grade had the brilliant opportunity to learn about Belgium on a real and interactive level. Mrs. Jones paired the third grade up with a class of second graders at a Catholic School in Belgium and initiated a SKYPE date between the two classes. Every member of the class had a job for this project. Each class prepared a list of questions ahead of time to ask the other class about their country. Talk about making real world connections to the classroom content! Some students were in charge of asking questions, some were in charge of answering, others were in charge of taking pictures of the event, one student was in charge of presenting our class rabbit to the Belgium students, we even had a student who was in charge of crowd control. It was a group effort requiring lots of patience and hard work but it was well worth it! Below are clips of the Skype project as filmed by a third grade student. media type="youtube" key="pcNx99t7uDU" height="390" width="640" align="center"

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