Dream Vacation Lesson Plan: Presentation with Internet Research for Small Group or Team

Dream Vacation Lesson

Students will take an imaginary $6,000 budget and plan a dream vacation for an imaginary contest. They will need to research on the Internet, keep track of their budget, write a presentation on note cards, and make a visual aid for the presentation. The team who makes the best use of its money and makes the best presentation could win a prize, such as candy.

Assessing Presentation: All of the teams’ presentations should be graded with a rubric. Possible criteria for the rubric are teamwork, organization, speaking, visual aid, use of budget and content. Give the students the rubric before they begin.

Materials Needed: Poster board, paper, color printer or colored pencils and markers, and a computer lab.

Lesson Steps

Preparation

Step 1 – Place students in pairs.

Step 2 -- Discuss project. Each pair needs to agree upon a vacation destination, travel arrangements, hotel accommodations, dining, and activities. These items all need to be included in the budget. If traveling by car, students can figure that an average car can get around 20 miles to the gallon. Use current gas prices. Each team needs to turn in a budget of how it “spent” the money.

Computer Lab Research

Step 3 -- Take students to the computer lab. This could take 1-3 days depending on the age level and ability of the students. If students are using a poster for their presentation, then they will need to print pictures. If students are using a Power Point presentation, then they may need more time in the computer lab to create a Power Point slide show.

Create a Presentation

Step 4 – Take information and organize it into a presentation. The presentation should have an introduction, a persuasive yet descriptive middle, and a conclusion. The descriptive middle should tell all of the great things about the trip: vacation destination, travel arrangements, hotel accommodations, dining, and activities. Once it is organized, the presentation should be written on note cards. Each person must have a speaking role.

Make Visual Aid

Step 5 -- Make a visual aid. This could be a poster, a decorated table with vacation items, or a Power Point.

Step 6 -- Teams will present their dream vacations to the class. They will be graded with the rubric. Give the winning team a prize.

This is a fun, yet educational lesson where students learn how to work in a team, use a budget, write a presentation and give a presentation. Students will enjoy this lesson!