The Lost Atlas: Unit Lesson Plan

Grades: 3 and 4 GATE (works for grade 5)   Subjects: World Geography, Culture, Reading, Writing   Length: 6 to 10 class periods of 45 to 60 minutes   Site page: fun-gate.com, The Lost Atlas

Universal Concept: Exploration (we understand a place by going looking, asking questions, and connecting what we find)

Unit Overview

Teams form caravans and race three rival caravans around a world map to find the seven hidden pieces of a lost atlas, one on each continent. Travel costs "travel dots," and the main way to earn them is research: at each of 32 real places, the team reads a short passage about its geography and culture and answers questions with the passage put away. Each piece is found by matching written clues, such as hemispheres, a band of latitude, a rumor, and coordinates, to the right place. Trail Cards add surprises and group decisions. Everything happens on screen.

Essential Questions

• How does where a place is shape how people live there?
• How can a few clues about location lead you to one exact place on Earth?
• What does it mean to be a good guest in someone else's home?

Standards Alignment

Social Studies (Nevada Academic Content Standards)

• Grade 3 content theme, Movement Around Our World: geography standards on using maps and on how people, goods, and ideas move between places. Match the exact codes to your district documents.
• SS.3.6 and SS.4.6 Build responses with reasoning, examples, and details.

English Language Arts

• RI.3.1 and RI.4.1 Ask and answer questions about an informational text, referring to details in the text.
• RI.3.7 and RI.4.7 Use information gained from maps and other visuals together with the words in a text.
• W.3.3 and W.4.3 Write narratives using descriptive details and a clear sequence of events (journal entries).
• SL.3.1 and SL.4.1 Engage in collaborative discussions.

Standard descriptions are shortened. Check all codes against your current district curriculum documents before submitting.

Learning Intentions

We are learning to:

• name and find the seven continents and five oceans.
• use hemispheres, latitude, and longitude to find places in the world.
• read about a place and remember what makes it different from other places.
• make decisions as a team when we cannot have everything.

Success Criteria

I can:

• point to each continent and ocean on a world map with the names hidden.
• tell which two hemispheres a place is in.
• find a place on the map from its latitude and longitude.
• answer questions about a passage after reading it carefully once.
• use clues to work out where a piece of the Atlas is hidden, and explain my thinking.
• write a journal entry that names the place, uses facts I learned, and describes what it was like.
• (Stretch) plan a route that visits several continents without wasting travel dots.

Learning Objectives

By the end of the unit, students will:

1. Locate all seven continents and five oceans on an unlabeled world map.
2. Identify the hemispheres of a place and locate places from coordinates to within one grid square.
3. Recall key geographic and cultural facts about at least ten world places from informational text.
4. Use multiple clues to identify a location, and justify the choice with evidence.
5. Work in a team to weigh costs and benefits and reach a decision.
6. Write narrative journal entries that combine facts with descriptive detail.

Key Vocabulary

continent, ocean, hemisphere, Equator, Prime Meridian, latitude, longitude, coordinates, desert, rainforest, monsoon, strait, harbor, caravan, trade route, Silk Road, culture, custom, guest

Materials and Resources

• One Chromebook per team of 2 to 4, open to The Lost Atlas on fun-gate.com
• Projector or TV for the two videos in the Movie Theater tab, and for the Caravan Board
• Headphones if teams will use the Listen button
• Optional: a globe or wall map

No paper copies are needed. Clues, place cards, the passport, journal entries, and the certificate are all kept on the page.

Prior Knowledge and Warm-up (15 minutes)

Prior knowledge: Students have seen a world map. No knowledge of specific countries is assumed.

Warm-up, "Three Clues": Think of a place every student knows, such as the school cafeteria. Give three clues, from general to specific: "It is inside the school. It is on the ground floor. You can smell it from the hallway at 11 o'clock." Students guess after each clue. Ask: which clue helped most? Why give the big clue first? Then play one round with a world place: "It is in the Northern and Western Hemispheres. It is in a desert. Its name means the meadows." Watch the trailer and the Caravan Briefing.

Instructional Procedures

Period	On the page	What students do	Teacher moves
1	Home, Movie Theater, Outfitting lessons 1 and 2	Warm-up. Watch both videos. Form caravans. Take the World check (13 questions, no feedback yet). Learn the continents and oceans, then find all twelve with the names hidden.	Form teams of 2 to 4. Use a globe to show why the Pacific appears on both edges of a flat map.
2	Outfitting lessons 3 and 4	Learn hemispheres and coordinates and find six real places from their numbers. Read the rules of the trail and pass the trail check.	Stress "latitude first." Model one coordinate click on the projector.
3 to 8	Expedition and Atlas	Each day the caravan chooses one action: research, travel, search, or work. Teams read their clues and the place cards in the Atlas tab to decide where each piece is hidden. They write a journal entry each time they find one.	Circulate with questions: What does this clue rule out? Which place card matches the rumor? Is that route worth the dots? Update the Caravan Board on the projector at the end of each period.
Last	Journal	Finish the Atlas in Antarctica. Take the final check with feedback. Compare before and after scores. Print the certificate.	Lead the closing discussion.

Pacing: a full expedition takes most teams 45 to 70 game days. A period of steady play covers about 10 to 15 days. The page suggests a stopping point each time a team finds a piece. End each period with clean up.

Where the thinking is: a team that searches without reading wastes days. The first clue gives the hemispheres and a band of latitude. The rumor describes the place in words taken from its place card. A team that reads the cards for that continent can usually name the place from those two clues alone. The coordinates are a paid backup.

Culminating Task

Each student chooses the place from the journey they would most like to visit in real life and writes a "Traveler's Guide" page: where it is (continent, hemispheres, nearby water or landforms), three facts about how people live there, and two respectful questions they would ask someone who lives there.

Assessment Methods

Formative: Outfitting pass marks; research scores (shown after each place); number of wasted searches; journal stars; observation of team decisions.

Summative: the World check and final check (the same 13 questions, with both scores shown in the Journal), plus the journal entries or culminating task scored with this rubric.

Criteria	4 Exceeds	3 Meets	2 Approaching	1 Beginning
Location skills	Uses hemispheres, latitude, and coordinates accurately and explains how each clue narrowed the search.	Uses hemispheres and coordinates accurately to find places.	Finds continents but mixes up hemispheres or coordinates.	Chooses places by guessing.
Knowledge of places	Recalls many facts and connects a place's location to how people live there.	Recalls accurate facts about the places visited.	Recalls a few facts, with some errors.	Recalls little about the places visited.
Journal writing	Names the place, weaves in several facts, and uses vivid sensory detail in a clear order.	Names the place and includes facts and some descriptive detail.	Tells what happened with few facts or details.	A sentence or two, or off topic.
Teamwork	Shares the lead, listens, and helps the team weigh costs before deciding.	Takes turns and listens to teammates.	Takes part, but decides alone or lets others decide.	Does not take part, or takes over.

Differentiation Strategies

Support:

• Every screen has a Listen button, including the research passages.
• Let the team reread a passage in the Atlas tab before starting the questions.
• Give a clue organizer with three boxes: "What the clue says," "What it rules out," "Places it could be."
• Journal sentence frames: "Today we arrived in ___." "This place is known for ___." "We saw ___ and tasted ___." "We felt ___ when we found the piece."
• Allow a spoken journal entry that a teammate types.

Extend (depth and complexity):

• Patterns: Sort the 32 places by latitude. What changes as you move away from the Equator? Which places break the pattern, and why?
• Big idea: Many of these cities sit beside a river, a harbor, or a trade route. Why do cities grow where they do?
• Multiple perspectives: Rewrite a journal entry from the point of view of someone who lives in that place, watching your caravan arrive.
• Ethics: Uluru is closed to climbers out of respect for the Anangu. When should visitors change what they do because of what a place means to the people who live there?
• Research: Choose one place and check three facts from its card in a second source. Report anything you would add or correct.
• Create: Write a new place card, with two questions and a one-line rumor, for a place that is not in the game.

Discussion Questions

• Which clue was the most helpful? Which one fooled you?
• When did your caravan disagree, and how did you decide?
• Was it ever worth losing a day? When?
• Which place surprised you most? What did you believe about it before?
• What is the difference between a traveler and a tourist?

Closure

Show the before and after scores from the Journal. Each student names one place they could now find on a map with their eyes closed and one fact about it. End with clean up.