Rejuvenation: Passing on the Passion

Americans are definitely not known for their geography skills; we're probably more known for the lack thereof. On one of the first days of the year, we did a background knowledge jeopardy as a fun pre-assessment. One of the questions was, "Name 3 countries in North America." The answers I got? "North Carolina," "Seattle," and "South America." My kids don't even know the difference between cities, states, countries, and continents!

So I decided to make a weekly geography competition that doubles as a quiz. For Bellwork, Monday-Thursday, students add 3-5 countries (depending on how many countries there are) on a blank map of that week's continent (we started with North America, then South America, and now Europe).

They have to memorize a certain number to get an A, like for Europe they had to know 7 for an A, 6 = B, 5 = C... and so on. The competition part of it is for the students who label the most countries in the class. First place gets a soda or a candy bar of their choosing. Second and third place get a small piece of candy from my stash.
I had students today who labeled 35-40 countries!
When it's all finished, I have the winners do a smartboard geography game to see if they can beat the timer. It's a lot of fun!
The last week we will do the entire world, and I'm thinking I might have a big gift-card-type prize for the top student of the entire team.
You'd be surprised how much they get into it, and how much it affects students you wouldn't suspect.

Woo-Hoo moment of the day: One student, who has proven to not be proficient in many areas, asked where Easter Island was. I told him that Chile owns it, so you know it's near there. He then instantly pointed just west of Chile on the map next to him and said "So somewhere around here?" My heart swelled with joy!!