Grade 4 software reflection: Cross Country Canada

With the Grade 4s I do a lot of Social Studies based lessons. Typically I begin the year by teaching the game Cross Country Canada. Pardon me, early in my career I was told I cannot use the word game because that would suggest there is no learning involved. (wink, wink) However anyone who knows the "program" Cross Country Canada would know that it touches on the following Grade 4 expectations:
- describe a variety of exchanges that occur among the communities and regions of Ontario
- identify Canada's provinces and territories
-identify the natural resources necessary to create Canadian products, and the provinces and territories from which they originate
-use cardinal and intermediate directions

While this game seems very straight forward there is logic involved in determining which city a commodity should be picked up in and planning out a route. The program also shows the climate in the various regions, e.g. it always snows when you go to Thomson, Manitoba. Students who need a challenge can gather more commodities or read details about the city or province they are entering. This could be used for note taking as well.

This program has always been a favourite, but as in all learning it works best if the teacher models then guides the students through the lesson first. I do this using LanSchool in the lab or with a pre lesson in the classroom on the SMARTboard.

By the time the students have caught on to this program the board has sent out the IDs for the students and the research component of the unit begins. Cross Country Canada is then used as a reward for finishers or as a back up when our machines crash trying to get on the Internet to do our research lessons.