There are only 2 more weeks of the Student Blogging Challenge after this week.
This weekâs topic is all about where we live and travel. Weâre going to learn more about the world while sharing with others.Â
Week Seven Recap
Many students were on holidays over the last week but we still had some great posts submitted about celebrations.
You can find them all here (or click on the week 7 box on the sidebar).
Letâs take a look at just some of the fantastic work we spotted last week:
- Terril wrote a poem about Fall Leaves.
- Mr. Matt told us about Chinese New Year in Taiwan.
- Sophia wrote a great post about how her family makes Pysanky Eggs.
- Tobias wrote about his Easter Celebrations.
- Brady told us a bit about all the holidays he celebrates.
- You can view more great work on our 2019Â Student Blogging Challenge Flipboard.
A Very Special STUBC Post
No doubt you heard about the terrible Notre Dame Cathedral fire in France recently?
Serge Galliganiâs class in France are on holidays but 3 students (Anna, Kenzo and Axel) returned to school to make a video about the fire.
Click here to see their post and click on the green box that says âcommentsâ if youâd like to leave them a comment. Theyâd be very grateful!
More Tips For Photos And Blog Posts
Images are a really important part of blogging. We discussed images in week 3, but here are some more tips!
Try Photos For Class
Mrs. Morris has noticed that some of our participants arenât adding an image to a blog post.
If you donât have your own image to add, a great website to use is Photos For Class. The photos are free to use, filtered, and students under 13 can use the site.
Mrs. Morris has published a post that includes two new posters. These posters explain how to download an image from Photos For Class and add an image to a blog post.
>>Read the post and get the posters
Try A Photo Blog
If you really like photography, you could set up a blog to share your photos.
Our commenting team leader, Miss W, has a blog called An Image A Day.
Miss W uses the blog to share her travel photography. If you take a look youâll see pictures from her recent trip to South Australia.
Another member of our community with a photography blog is Mrs. Yollis. She has a blog called Yollis 365 Project which she started 9 years ago.
Mrs. Yollisâ students and community love the blog and find it a great way to inspire their writing.
You can even submit a photo to be added to the blog if you like! Find out more here.
Choosing a good theme for a photo blog
Miss W uses a theme on Edublogs called Magazino. If youâre setting up a photo blog on Edublogs/CampusPress, you might consider looking for a magazine or portfolio theme.
Go to Appearance > Themes in your dashboard and have a browse.
Does your blog theme include a featured image?
If youâre using Edublogs, some themes have the ability to add a featured image.
For example, on my own blog and on The Edublogger you can see a featured image show up with the post on the homepage.
If your theme supports a featured image, you can find out how to add one here.Â
Where In The World?
We have a diverse group taking part in the Student Blogging Challenge.
We had students and classes register from 6 continents and 26 countries (not all are still taking part or are only occasionally submitting responses).
There are lots of ways we can learn about the world:
- Travel
- Talking to others from different countries
- Exploring online resources like maps and videos
Learn more about the world
You might have learned a lot or a little about the world at school. Letâs go over some important facts.
Continents
Our world is broken into 7 landmasses called continents.
The continents are:
- Africa
- Europe
- Asia
- North America
- South America
- Australia (or Oceania)
- Antarctica
Last year, Mrs. Morris was teaching a subject called Global Studies. Her students enjoyed this catchy song to help them learn about the continents.
Oceans
An ocean is a large area of water between continents.
There are 5 oceans:
- Atlantic Ocean
- Arctic Ocean
- Indian Ocean
- Pacific Ocean
- Southern Ocean
This fun song helps them learn about the 5 oceans.
Hemispheres
The Equator is an imaginary line around the middle of the Earth. The Equator divides the Earth into the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemispheres.
Which hemisphere do you live in?
I live in Australia so Iâm in the Southern Hemisphere although around 90% of the worldâs population lives in the Northern Hemisphere. Wow!
One of the big differences between the Hemispheres is the seasons. They are opposite; itâs currently Autumn in the Southern Hemisphere and Spring in the Northern Hemisphere.
By User:Cburnett â Image:World-map-2004-cia-factbook-large-2m.jpg, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link
Countries
There are 195 countries in the world today. You can find out more about the countries here.
The top 5 countries by population are:
- China
- India
- U.S.
- Indonesia
- Brazil
Each country has their own unique flag.
Week Eight Tasks
This week there are 3 tasks to choose from to share or learn more about the world.
Our graphic summarizes the tasks, and Mrs. Morris will explain each task in more detail below.
Task 1: Tells Us About Your Country
Weâd love to learn more about where you live!
This task involves researching and sharing some interesting information about your country.
You might include information like:
- Size
- Population
- Location
- Landmarks
- Capital city/Major cities
- Flag
- President/Prime Minister
- History
- Language
- Religion
- Climate
- Plants and Animals
Ideas for presenting the information in your post:
- A Google Slides presentation (please make sure itâs public)
- A quiz
- Text and images
- A video
- A comic (try a tool like Make Beliefs Comix, ToonDoo, or Canva)
You might also be able to use some of the fabulous Google tools for this topic like Google Earth and Google Maps.
- Eleni Kyritsis shows us how to create a virtual tour with Google Tour Creator.
- Matt Miller explains how to make a Google Map walking tour with Screencastify.
Task 2: Learn About Another Country
This task is the same as task 1 except instead of telling us about your own country you will research and share information about another country.
Be sure to tell us why you chose the country. Why does it interest you?
Task 3: Travel
Have you been lucky enough to travel to another country or city? Or perhaps you have dreams to travel somewhere?
Our commenting team leader Miss W recently traveled to South Australia and took some great photos which sheâd like to share with you. Click here to visit Miss Wâs website.
This task involves writing a post about travel.
Ideas for your travel post:
- Write about a holiday you went on that you really enjoyed.
- Make a list of the top 10 travel destinations youâd like to go to.
- Create a slideshow of your ideal holiday destinations.
- Create an imaginary itinerary if you could travel anywhere and had an unlimited budget.
You might have your own ideas!
đĄ Safety Tip
Itâs fun to talk about travel, but itâs a good idea to avoid mentioning your specific travel plans online.
For example, instead of saying, âIâm going to visit Sydney next Mondayâ try âIâm planning a holiday to Sydneyâ or âIâm looking forward to visiting Sydney later in the yearâ.
Also, remember not to post pictures of yourself or others on the blog without permission.
Visit Others
Donât forget to try to visit a couple of other bloggers once youâve published your own post. You might learn a lot about where they live this week!
Submit Your Post URLÂ