Elementary School, Schenectady, New York

Inspired by the New 7 Wonders of the World campaign, Nancy Lussier and her students decided to explore all 21 candidates and vote on which seven should become the New7Wonders. Each teacher in the 21 classrooms received a packet of information on the nominees and ideas as to how to use them with the everyday curriculum. Websites were provided for the teachers and students used the computer lab to research the wonders. Our librarian created a book list for each of the nominees (see attached). Teachers then signed up to create a bulletin board highlighting one of the nominees. In conjunction with each bulletin board, which was visible to the whole school, trivia questions were created and prizes disseminated.

At the end of the 21-week exploration, the bulletin boards were transferred to smaller display boards (see below) along with a 3-D replica to be part of the Wonder-Ful World Expo. The Expo was advertised in our newsletter and parents were invited to attend with their children. Twenty-one 5th grade students created travel brochures for each of the 21 nominees. A brochure was next to each display at the Expo. Students were able to explore Chinese tangrams, make Japanese origami, Mexican Stick games, Egyptian paper cartouches, have a archeological dig, Indian hand painting and listen to an African storyteller. Parents and students voted on their top 7 choices and we announced the winners. After the event, we tallied up the votes and went on the official website and voted for our top seven wonders as a school.

Special Projects included:
a) Angkor Wat Trivia Q&A
b) Wonders of the World book handout (an excellent list of books on each individual site)
c) Neuschwanstein Castle Powerpoint