Additional Resources

Activity/Project Title: Presidential Homes (and traveling to the capital)
Subject Area: Social Studies and Math Grade Level: 5th
Lesson Length/Number of Sessions: 3 one-hour lessons
Content (Concept/Understanding or Skill/Ability): Life in the colonial period;
Measurement
Prerequisites: How to search the Internet, Google Earth basics
Google Earth Tutorials http://earth.google.com/intl/en/userguide/v4/tutorials/index.html
Standards addressed: HistorySocialScience 5.4 Students understand the political,
religious, social, and economic institutions that evolved in the colonial era.
Math: Number Sense 5.2.2; Statistics, Data Analysis, Probability 5.1.2; Mathematical
Reasoning 5.1.1
NETS*S (National Educational Technology Standards*Students: 1b, 2d, 3b, 3d, 4a
Goals and Objectives:
•Create placemarks.
•Determine the distance from home to the capital city.
•Estimate distance to nearest 10 miles.
•Create a table, graph, chart, etc. to display your findings.
Description of Activity (Introduction – Direct Instruction – Guided Practice (Check for Understanding) – Independent Practice – Closure):
•Show video and talk about traveling on horseback or in a carriage.
•Identify various presidents and talk about their homes.
•Demonstrate how to use Google Docs Presentation. Do one slide of a president's home.
•Review how to create a placemark and how to use the ruler.
•Create a placemark for one location as a demo.
•Provide activity/project directions. Create placemarks at the homes of at least four of our early presidents and four of our more recent presidents. Measure the distances from their homes to the capital city of the United States (New York City, Washington, D.C.). Calculate how long it would take them to travel from their home to the capital. Choose one of the presidents and create a slide about their home.
•Post and discuss any graphs or charts the students create.
•Present information slide to the class.
Materials/Equipment Needed:
•Computer with Google Earth downloaded.
•Laptop connected to a projector and a computer lab.
Video Links:
Horseback
http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=5997606
Horse and Carriage
http://video.google.com/videosearch?hl=en&q=horse+and+carriage+ride#
http://video.google.com/videosearch?hl=en&q=horse+and+carriage+ride#hl=en&q=
horse%20and%20carriage%20ride&start=10
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2354451704787708124&q=horse+and+carriage+ride&ei=eDNpSIS-H5aoqgOi5fy4Bw&hl=en
http://video.google.com/videosearch?hl=en&q=horse+and+carriage+ride#hl=en&q=
horse%20and%20carriage%20ride&start=20
Assessment/Evaluation:
•Correctness of information gathered
•Method/Clarity of charting/graphing information gathered
•Presentation to class using Google Docs (Presentation tool)
Follow-up Activities/Next Steps/Future Lessons:
•Use Google Maps to find street addresses.
•Identify latitude and longitude of the presidential homes.
Contributor:
Donna Axelson
Cupertino, CA

Additional Resources

Homes of presidents are placemarked as are 2 of our nation's capitals

Consider the distance each president had to travel to get to work.

Students will collect information and display it in various ways. This is one possibility,
a table.

This is another possibility - a spreadsheet graph.

This one combines a spreadsheet and a graph.

Example of one slide from a Google Docs Presentation.

Creating a Presentation in Google Docs.

A Google Docs Presentation is made up of slides. Each slide is a separate screen or page.
A finished presentation with numerous slides is called a deck.
Each slide should have:
• A title
• An illustration
• Text (phrases not sentences)
Your slides will have bullets to help with your spoken presentation, so the text is short and to the point.
Remember the Rule of Sixes.
* No more than 6 bullets per page
* No more than 6 words per bullet
* 6 slides with the same theme
You can find pictures for your slides using Google Images.
• Click the images link on the top left of the Google search box.
• Type in what you want a picture of and press Google Search.
• Click the picture you want several times until you get the full-size image.
• Control-click the image. When a dialog box comes up choose Save image as . . .
• Save into your activity folder and insert it into your document later.
Add a theme or a little color (not too much) so the pages have eye appeal.
Check your spelling, grammar, and punctuation.
After you save your presentation, ask a classmate to check that your presentation makes sense.
Share your presentation with your teacher.

What to Include in Your Google Docs Presentation

A Google Docs Presentation is made up of slides. Each slide is a separate screen or page.
A finished presentation with numerous slides is called a deck.
Your presentation must have at least 6 slides.
-Title Slide (Habitat name and image, your names)
-Map showing the location/s of your habitat (Use Google Earth)
-What is unusual/special about your habitat?
-What is the weather like here at various times of the year?
-Plants and or animals found here
-Anything else you’d like us to know
Do the slides have eye appeal?
Check your spelling, grammar, and punctuation.
After you save your presentation, ask a classmate to check that your presentation makes sense.
Share your presentation with your teacher.