With Canada Day approaching, I wanted to share a little activity I have been doing with my learners. I drew a map of Canada on the whiteboard, cut out strips of paper and wrote the names of the provinces and territories on each. Then I attached scotch tape to the back of each strip and asked them to stick it on the map. This was a group exercise, and it really increased student engagement. Even some students who would rather work on their own got up, walked to the front of the class and started placing all the provinces and territories on the map. It was really nice to see.
The students are Literacy/CLB 1 level so even though they can’t communicate with one other too well, they were working together on a focused task. They enjoyed the tactile process of it. After they attached each province and territory to the board, and the map of Canada was done, I had them read out each province and territory. I then proceeded to take down all their hard work and had them fill out the map again from memory. This is where they stared at the board and really thought about it.
I could see the wheels turning. This increased engagement amongst the learners as they started to correct each other’s work. For example, someone had placed Saskatchewan on Hudson’s Bay and a student said, “no, no!” They took it off the map and placed it where it should go. There was a lot of back and forth with the students as they were trying to figure out this puzzle. The next day, I added North, South, West, and East into the mix and I also added the Great Lakes and U.S.A. This was a great activity. It got the students up and moving and cooperating. 
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