4th graders create videos on the Virginia Regions

In fourth grade the students need to learn the location of Virginia's five geographic regions and each region's major features. Our 4th grade class used iMovies as a way to teach each other about Virginia's regions.  The students were broken up into groups and assigned one region to research.  They took notes on this region and became "tour guide experts."  Their task was to make a movie about their region so that the other students could fill out their note sheets on that region when they watched the movie.  So, we spent several days planning out the movies on paper, filming them, and then rotating through stations watching them and taking notes.  The students incorporated sounds and background music, videos, drawing pad images, and photos into the movies.  They were very engaged the entire time and really had to think about how to present the information clearly so that their peers could take good notes.


Example of movie created by a 4th grade pair:

libby and eva from Camilla Gagliolo on Vimeo.


thomas and ryan from Jamestown Elementary School on Vimeo.

This is the apps workflow for creating a movie in social studies: