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Fall
Each week, Education World's Great Sites for Teaching About ... page highlights Web sites to help educators work timely themes into their lessons. This week's sites, in no particular order, are among the best on the Web for teaching about autumn.
- Autumn Leaf Scrapbook
http://mbgnet.mobot.org/sets/temp/leaves/
index.htm
Would you like to make your leaf study more substantive this year? This site examines deciduous trees, their colors, and how to identify them as they fall to the ground in autumn. Your students will learn about the parts of leaves, the types of leaves, and the positions of leaves on the stems of plants. They might also build leaf collections and catalog them by species and color.
- Brain Pop: Autumn Leaves
http://www.brainpop.com/science/
ecology/autumnleaves/
Brain Pop addresses high-interest topics for students, with streaming animated video and fun follow-up activities. Here, students can explore the phenomenon of leaves' changing color in the fall and then take an interactive quiz with feedback. The science facts are well stated and clearly explained, and the child-centered format makes the site engaging for elementary-age students.
- Fall Foliage
http://www.weather.com/fall/
The Weather Channel offers this timely page on the changing of leaves throughout the country, with a special emphasis on peak times and the science behind the process. The site provides foliage information for more than 40 states and frequently updated foliage maps by region. Teachers might use the site as the basis for an interesting study of the impact of a wet or dry summer. Consider the possibilities for incorporating this page into a study of political and physical geography.
- How to Grow Atlantic Giant Pumpkins
http://www.backyardgardener.com/secert.html
Linus was on the right track after all -- gardeners can have the Great Pumpkin in their patches for Halloween -- next Halloween! This page is written for students in the upper-elementary grades and older and offers them (and others) all the information they need to grow and harvest gigantic pumpkins for a celebration of autumn.
- All About Apples
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Vista/
9202/welcome.html
In autumn, many people begin to hunger for that crisp, juicy, healthful, beautiful fall fruit -- the apple. This site delivers what its title promises. The writing is clear, and fun facts abound. There are lots of links to apple sites, many specifically recommended for kids; a photo gallery of Apple Lovers; and information about the history of apples and the science of growing them. Measurements are expressed in metrics and many spellings are British, so teachers have an opportunity for some cross-curricular fun. The only downside is the Yahoo! GeoCities Ad Square that appears in the upper right-hand corner of the pages. It's not as annoying as a pop-up window, however, and it's small, so Education World managed to ignore it when we explored the site.
- Tet-Trung-Thu: Vietnamese Mid-Autumn Festival
http://www.familyculture.com/tet_trung_thu.htm
Mid-autumn festivals, which are held on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, are popular family holidays in many Asian countries. In many Vietnamese American communities, the festival is also called the Children's Festival. This site gives some history and background of the festival and offers lots of links and book recommendations. For example, links to mooncake sites include recipes, interviews, folk tales, and more. A traditional mooncake is a flaky pastry filled with a sweet bean paste. Making mooncakes is notoriously time-consuming, but a couple of cookielike adaptations found here are simple enough to make for or with students.
- Sean's Fall Color Gallery
http://www.pscs.org/~syaap/fall.html
This simple collection of photographs glowing with the brilliant colors of fall is a good resource for simply surveying the spectrum of color and intensity in autumn leaves. Ideal for primary-age students, the pages are a little slow to load because of the picture size. The colors are truly brilliant, however, and the possibilities for classroom extensions in the hands of a master teacher are numerous!
- Seasons Unit
http://www.weather.com/education/wx_class/
class1/guide3.html
The Weather Channel has developed this unit for teachers on the science of the seasons; it includes simulations, hands-on demonstrations, a glossary of terms, and ideas for integration across the curriculum. Whether you choose to focus on the seasons this fall or opt to hold onto this resource for later in the year, this is a must-see site.
- Halloween
http://www.benjerry.com/halloween/
Happy Halloween from Dead & Buried's -- oops, make that Ben & Jerry's. This site is just plain fun. It's got history, games, images to color and cut out, a screensaver to download, and lots and lots of links, including bat links, ghost stories, and more. Of course, it wouldn't be Ben & Jerry's without ice cream tucked away somewhere. Your students may want to visit the Flavor Graveyard, which lists all the flavors Ben & Jerry's doesn't make anymore. Hope the kids don't find any of their favorites a-molderin' there!
- Teaching About Thanksgiving
http://www.night.net/thanksgiving/lesson-plan.html
This comprehensive collection of lesson plans can help teachers whose elementary-level students are studying Thanksgiving. It includes Study/Discussion Questions, Ideas for Enrichment, How to Avoid Stereotypes, Recipes, and the Story of the Corn Husk Doll. Presented by The Center For World Indigenous Studies, the information here is unbiased and very detailed.
Walter McKenzie
Education World®
Copyright © 2000 Education World
Please check out our featured theme this week:
09/25/2000
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