3 Exploring planet Earth

Digital

Introduce children to the concepts of geography, perspective, and spatial awareness and orientation skills through interactive exploration and creative tasks using Google Earth. Children get to know different environments on the planet – forests, deserts, oceans.

Making it Inclusive

Make sure every child participates independently of their ability to move or speak, ensuring that cognitive variability or language challenges do not prevent children from participating.

Task 1: Getting to know the world from above

1. The kindergarten teacher shows Google Earth and with the help of this site explores with children the world from above. Together they find Europe, their country, their city and their kindergarten. Together explore oceans, seas, deserts, rainforests, etc...

   Digital-free option: explore a globe or a world atlas.

2. How do humans take care to change their environment? On Google Earth, look at a mega-city like Tokyo and compare it to a village, then look at different other scenarios on earth: forests, deserts, ice landscapes in Antarctica, and different populated areas of the globe.
3. Facilitate a collaborative class discussion (with P4C or other reflective thinking pedagogical methodology) aiming to increase awareness about the subject matter and help children look for ways to think deeper about the issues. The questions of the discussion plans are meant to help the facilitator and do not have to be used in the sequence they appear, nor need all to be asked: use the questions that help you move the dialogue and deepen the discussion.
4. Avoid telling children what they should think. Instead, create opportunities for them to ask their own questions, help one another explore possible answers, and further develop the ideas that arise through discussion. Make sure the dialogue is not too long and that it can be recalled while doing other activities in the classroom, to show how reflective collaborative thinking makes a difference in practice.
5. To ensure everyone can say something, come up with things they notice and things that amaze them about Google Earth (or about the globe and maps). Make sure to give everyone a moment to think about it while you are exploring the world. Do not move to the discussion unless you have confirmed everyone has something to share about what they have seen. If one or more children have difficulty you can ask them about what they most liked on Google Earth or globe to unblock their inability to refer to something.

Task 2: Drawing my kindergarten from above

Drawing the kindergarten from the perspective of a bird flying by. (Children younger than 4 might have extra difficulty in imagining from above, but they nevertheless find it fun to imitate the perspective when seen from Google Earth and compare different perspectives of the same space.)

Further Ideas

• Explore Atlas Show the classroom various atlases and design one within the classroom about a specific topic concerning climate change, environment and sustainability.
• Illustrating Atlas Tell the mythology of the ancient Greek god Atlas and ask them to make up their own god-like Atlas.