Virginia Trekkers

Attention 4th grade teachers in Virginia - this website is FANTASTIC!

http://virginiatrekkers.com/VirginiaTrekkers/VirginiaTrekkers.html

The Virginia Trekkers consist of four men who travel around Virginia and make podcasts in the 5 regions of Virginia.  The Trekkers are sure to incorporate the Virginia Studies SOLs, as well as various other SOLs throughout their podcasts.  I used this website as an introduction quite a few times when teaching the regions of Virginia to my 4th graders during Student Teaching.  Some of my students had never left their hometown, so seeing a podcast of Virginia Beach was equivalent to going on vacation for them!  I got to show students the inside of a coal mine and the Fall Line without ever leaving the classroom.  The students came to love my "friends" the Trekkers and really got excited about the podcasts.  Several students said that they went home and watched more podcasts with their parents!

Since the students latched onto this idea, I used this podcast theme for a review of the 5 regions.  I had the students form groups and each group was assigned a region of Virginia.  The students had to come up with their own "podcast" for that region.  The students were trying to convince their parents to take them on vacation to that region with their "podcast."  The students loved it! 

On the Virginia Trekkers website there are also games and activities that students can do to enrich their learning of the regions of Virginia.  The games are basic review games, but with the Trekkers everything is more fun! 

I highly recommend this website to anyone who is teaching 4th grade in Virginia!  Check it out, it will be worth it!