Let's Take A Walk Around The LES Block: From

The whole context of this post was a trip by 8th graders to the Lower East Side Tenement Museum and then a neighborhood walk/scavenger hunt. The slide show was played prior to the visit to familiarize the students with the area. The scavenger hunt never materialized because of time constraints.
Here are all of my images set to this great Harold Arlen tune with lyrics by two original LES boys, Ira Gershwin and Yip Harburg. (rhyming Bangkok and Vladisvostok!) Song by two of my favorites, Jackie Cain and Roy Kral.
to be fixed
Someday we'll go places
New lands and new faces
The day we quit punching the clock
The future looks pleasant,
But at present
Let's take a walk around the block.
You're just the companion
I want at grand canyon
For throwing old blades down the rock
The money we have`ll go for travel
Meantime, let's walk around the block.
Gangway, we'll begin
When our, ship comes in
I'll sit on your lap
All over the map
To london in may time
To venice in play time
To paris in time for a frock
To boston in bean time
Darling, meantime
Let's take a walk around the block.
In winter at christmas,
We'll visit the isthmus
And see how they lock up a lock
And then in caracas, on a jackass,
We'll take a ride around the block.
We'll keep to our promise,
To visit st. thomas
And then at jamaica we'll dock
The prospect is thrilling,
Still i am willing,
Just now to talk around the block.
Onward, to cathay
Then to mandalay
Boom on to bangkok
P'r'aps vladivostok
We'll send the folks cables
Accumulate labels
Buy souvenirs till we're in hock
But since we are flat in old manhattan
Let's take a walk



Above was one of several scavenger hunt worksheets for my aborted post LES Tenement Museum tour of yesterday. I had a sheet like this for 4 blocks that were contiguous to the museum. After thinking beforehand about what would be a good activity I decided on one that would just require limited explanation and more exploration. The kids could go in groups with one adult assigned to each. I wasn't sure how many students there would be since it was a day I wasn't at the school and would just be meeting them on the LES. I also thought that the odds were high that any lecturing would be "mad" boring to the 8th graders after the museum docents. I also took a lot of pictures prior to the visit and later looked at them to decipher a pattern that they showed. The old and new theme was apparent.