This information is provided so that readers can understand the objectives and how the project is organized in the hopes that they may want to organize something similar someday.
Unfortunately, I will not be available to maintain a travel mascot project for the 2001 - 2002 school year due to the fact I am currently an assistant principal. If you would like to start a traveling mascot project, I suggest you visit The Teachers Net Project Page to line up participants. The current travel mascot page will remain on line to function as a guide for others who may want to organize a travel mascot project for themselves. It has been fun! I wish you luck.
Objective: Each of 7 participating classrooms will learn about other areas of the country through the exchange of a class mascot, email, and digital photos. A website will be maintained so that all classes can keep track of the mascots. Each mascot will have his/her own page for an online journal, photo album and links related to his/her area of the country. I am taking responsibility for keeping the pages updated for each mascot throughout the project and will use the information/photos shared via email.
Required technology: All participating classrooms must have access to internet and email at least in a lab setting, preferably in a classroom setting. Classrooms will need access to a digital camera or scanner. Classroom teachers should set up a mail ring or distribution list so that all members of the exchange can be sent each email. To cut down on expense, photos should be digital and sent to the group via email.
Other requirements: All participating classrooms must commit to the mailing dates and procedures, so that all participating classrooms reap the benefits of this exchange. Please consider the commitment of time, energy and money (postage) and be sure that you are willing to carry this out for the entire year, before you agree to participate in this exchange.
Procedures: At the beginning of school, each class will select a mascot that is representative of the state or area. The mascot will start the year in the classroom. Digital pictures will be taken of the mascot's classroom activities and emailed to the group along with a description of the school and community. Links related to the classroom, city, state, or topics the classroom is studying should be shared with the group and will be posted on each mascot's page. Digital pictures submitted for publication on the website should not contain recognizable pictures of the students, although other photos may contain pictures of the kids. It is suggested that teachers print out photos and emails and help students create a scrapbook for their mascot.
On Sept. 15th the mascot will be mailed to the next classroom on the list. Each classroom will take more digital photos to share with the other classrooms and write emails describing class activities to the group. Activities will be recorded on each mascot's online journal page. Subsequent mailing dates are: October 15th, November 15th, January 15th, February 15th, March 15th. The mascots will be returned to their original classrooms on April 15th. There is no December mailing date, due to the Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks.
1. Keep a scrapbook of pictures of your class mascot as he/she visits other places. I will begin with prints of the mascot's activities in class. I plan to print out all the pictures that are shared of our bear and the descriptions of what he is doing and let the kids arrange it in some sort of a book. Eventually, I hope to have this be a "center" type project that the kids can work on in their free time. That will hopefully help the kids stay interested in our bear's whereabouts throughout the year. (by Addie Gaines)
2. Keep a second scrapbook with pages organized by the month to journal what we do with all our visiting mascots.(by Addie Gaines)
3. Have a "bon voyage" party the day we send our bear off. I am hoping that I can get the send off to coinside with the end of our bear unit. We always have a teddy bear parade as a grade level, so I am hoping that he can be honored in the parade and we can have a "teddy bear picnic" with lemonade and Teddy Grahams to say good bye!(by Addie Gaines)
4. I am planning to post a U.S. map in the hallway. I am going to print the close-ups of the mascots and laminate them. I will hang them on the map and we will move the mascots to their new destinations each month! I think I will use velcro dots on the map and mascots to make moving them easy.(by Addie Gaines)
5.I bought a map of the US at the local teacher's store. It is just an outline map-and we will use it to track all the mascots-the map is already laminated and we will color in the states where the mascots are located. (by Cheryl Jones)
6. I will run off a simple US map for the children and have them color the states also. (by Cheryl Jones)
7.Have children predict the length or height of the visiting mascot and then measure, record on a chart next to the mascot's picture-at the end of the project compare. You could also do this with the weight. (by Cheryl Jones)
8.Count and graph the number of letters in each mascot's name and /or the state they came from-compare. (by Cheryl Jones)
9.Enlarge states , cut out, lamimate and compare sizes-order from smallest to largest. (by Cheryl Jones)
10.Enlarge states-have children see how many unifix cubes or 1ink blocks it takes to cover each state-you could have them predict first-graph results and compare.(by Cheryl Jones)
11. Use unifix cubes to measure the distance between different states. (by Cheryl Jones)
12. Discuss which states are close and which are far away from your home state.(by Cheryl Jones)
13.Find the top, bottom, left, right, middle of the USA map and discuss which states are near the top, bottom etc.(by Cheryl Jones)
14.Look at the shape of each state-does the shape remind us of anything?(by Cheryl Jones)
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