TOUR BOOK BONANZA

SHORT TERM GOALS:

  1. Students will create their own tour books for a fantasy island or coastal city.
  2. Students will account for a week's worth of activities within their travel book. They will need to include background information on their coastal city or island, restaurants, hotels, famous attractions, and prices.
  3. Students will create checks and allot the vacationing classmate an amount of money to spend on their coastal city or island. They will have to use actual prices and give a weather forecast, which will need some research.

TIME ALLOTMENT: 4 1/2 hours

CONTENT AREAS ADDRESSED:

  1. Language Arts
  2. Geography
  3. Art
  4. Math
  5. Science

CONCEPTS ADDRESSED:

  1. Research Methods
  2. Exploration
  3. Critical Thinking
  4. Creative Writing

MATERIALS:

  1. Access to make telephone calls (Inquiring about prices)
  2. Access to the Weather Channel or some sort of weather service
  3. Travel books or brochures of vacation resorts and places around the world
  4. Construction paper (all colors)
  5. Markers, crayons, colored pencils
  6. Access to the resource center and Internet
  7. Books on oceans and aquatic life

PROCEDURE:

  1. Introduce the students to the idea of a coastal city or island. Relate these thoughts to the book The Voyage of Odysseus by James Reeves and the Bermuda Triangle. (Example: Atlantis & Calypso Island).
  2. Inform the students that for the next week they will be creating a travel brochure or book for their very own mythical coastal city or island. Make sure the students understand that the coastal city or island will be fictitious, along with everything on the island. However, the students must give accurate prices for hotels, restaurants, and attractions. They must also pick a region of the world where their coastal city or island will be located. This is essential because they will give an accurate weather forecast for that particular location and time of year. Divide students into groups of four.
  3. Show the students some regular travel books and brochures from a travel agency. Explain to the students what tour books contain and how students should be reading through these books. Students should look through the travel books and brochures to get ideas for making their own travel book. Make sure students include the following:

    *Name of the coastal city or island

    *Famous attractions on the coastal city or island (Why would someone want to come and visit the island?)

    *Hotels, Restaurants, Rentals (car, bike, moped)

    *Made-up checks and a set amount of spending money

    *Prices for food, lodging, and rental.

    *Weather forecasts (What is the weather like?)

    *Travel Agency (Example- Sunshine Travel)

    *Airplanes

    *Tickets

  4. Let the students' imagination and creative writing run free. Give the students the opportunity to come up with ideas by researching their coastal city or island. Make sure to emphasize the importance of descriptive writing before you let the students begin. Encourage students to provide a vivid description of the island for the reader. Ask students to hand in the name and idea of what their coastal city or island will entail. Let the students create the tour book using markers, paper, and Internet pictures.
  5. After the students have created their coastal city or island tour book, they will be able to let a fellow classmate travel to the mythical location. The student using another tour book must plan out a week's vacation by stopping at several of the attractions, restaurants, and hotels. The students will be required to monitor spending, learn responsibility, understand geographical locations, and have fun!
  6. The students taking the trip will be grading the tour books of the students on how it is constructed using a "Tour Book Requirements" sheet contained at the end of this lesson. Teachers can use this as well to grade the overall tour books of the students.

ASSESSMENT:

  1. Group Participation Rubric
  2. Tour Book Requirements
  3. Observation Checklist

EXTENSIONS:

  1. A possible extension for this lesson would be to let the student work with the software program "Power Point" on the computer. They could create their own presentation of their coastal city or island and present it to the class.
  2. Another extension would be for the students to write a one-page paper on their favorite place on any island and why they would visit that location.

REFERENCE LIST:

Berger, G., Epstein, A., & Paull, J. (Eds.). (1996). Fedor's 97: Florida. New York: Fodor's Travel Publications, Inc. [ISBN: 0-679-03220-7]

Caribbean travel book. (1994). Buffalo, New York: Quebecor Printing Buffalo, Inc. [ISBN: unavailable]

Porter, D. (1993). Frommer's comprehensive travel guide: Bermuda. New York: Prentice Hall Travel. [ISBN: 0-671-79768-9]

American Automobile Association (AAA)- 1-800-236-8100

 

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Quicksand and Earthquakes lesson

Cultural Research on the Points of the Bermuda Triangle lesson

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