{Download FREEBIE pack here.} Economics is my absolute FAVORITE social studies unit to teach. There are so many hands-on activities to do with students and they are so eager to earn and spend money! One of my favorite activities is to end with our "Madden's Marketplace." This is a chance for students to put into action all of the things they have learned about being producers and consumers. To begin with, I send home a letter asking students to create paper goods. Why paper? It's something all of my students have at home (or I can easily give them). I want my marketplace to be fair for all students. I'm sure I could let them have the freedom to create any product, using any materials and I would get some amazing masterpieces. I would also get some elaborate (and expensive) items. That's not what I want. I encourage parents to spend NO money on this and for it to be STUDENT CREATED. I really want them to take the initiative. Here are some samples of paper products my students created to sell this year - everything from rockets to bookmarks to lanterns to hats. I incorporate the making of goods into my students' homework schedule, encouraging them to create two products per night. Before the due date, we work on creating "shops" in class. We create our "shop" by gluing two file folders together. The picture below is using legal-sized file folders, but that just happens to be what we had available. Shop Parts: Signs: Initially, we create the signs for our shops, color the awnings to make them eye-catching. Open/Closed: Next, we create open/closed signs that sit atop our shop so we can easily flip the sign to show the status of our shops. Slogan: We then come up with a catchy slogan. We talk about slogan's we know from commercials. Why did those stick in our heads? We learn to use a play on words, alliteration, onomatopoeia, etc. to make our slogans catchy so consumers will remember them. Product Description: Students each write a product description detailing WHAT their product is and HOW it works or can be used. We talk about the importance of letting consumers know exactly what they are getting. Commercial Script: Finally, students write commercials to "sell" their products to their classmates. We use hooks to get their attention, repetitions of our catchy slogans, and persuasion. Other Components: We also glue on the Consumer Comments, Price, and Interest Inventories, but we leave all of those blank initially. On the day of the marketplace, students set up their shops and lay their products out on display. Then, they have a chance to walk around the classroom and "window shop." They are encouraged to take a good look at all of their options, reading the product descriptions and examining the merchandise. After students have had a good look at all of their choices, I give them stickers (I would recommend 3-4). They walk around and place their stickers on the "Interest Inventory" of the products that interest them the most. The results of the interest inventory are used by the shop owners to determine if they have a high demand or low demand for their products. Knowing the demand helps them determine a price for their product. High demand = higher price. Low demand = lower price. The only rule is that all prices have to be in whole dollars. Once prices are set, then students are ready to go shopping! There are many different ways to let students shop. Some years, if I've done economy-based management system, my students will use "money" they've earned to shop. This year, I just gave them all $12 to shop with. I'm always torn about letting my students split into groups to run their shops (half shop while half work) - it always seems that students don't get to shop at all of the stores in that scenario. To solve that problem, I let all of my students shop at the same time. To do this students create "tokens" to leave at their shop. They create the same number as products they have to sell. For example, if Katie has 10 kites to sell, she creates and leaves 10 tokens with her name or shop name on them. Once each shop has tokens, students are ready to shop. Since there are no workers at the shops to collect money, I give my students "consumer spending logs" with pictures of dollars on them. Since I gave my students 12 dollars to spend, their consumer spending logs had 12 one dollar pictures. As students go around to the shops, they color in the dollars they've spent and pick up tokens (NOT products) that they will trade in for their purchases once the shops close. Once all of the tokens are gone, that shop is "closed." Once a student has colored in all of the dollars on his/her spending log, they are done shopping. It really works out quite well. Once students have traded all of their tokens in for their goods, they are given paper for providing feedback to the shops. They slip these into the "consumer comments" pockets on the storefronts. They love reading the feedback from their customers! <3 After wrapping up our shops, students are often left with some extra products. Instead of having them take their own products back home, I let them put another economics concept into practice - BARTERING! They have a blast working out "fair swaps" for their products and really working to get the other things they may have wanted but didn't have the money to purchase...and of course, they do all of this while proudly wearing some of their favorite purchases. :) All in all, it is a fun day of learning. Students take their roles as both producers and consumers seriously and come away with a real sense of accomplishment! If you would like to download this packet of FREE resources to hold your own Economics shop, you can do so HERE. Enjoy!
I don't know about you, but the new school year is in full swing, and things are crazy around here (stacks of papers to grade, keeping my son on track with
Integrating language arts skills into social studies can be tricky. There is already a lot of subject matter to cover without having to teach reading and writing skills as well! If a social studies teacher did not receive much language arts training within his or her certification program, integrating these skills can be even more […]
Kids will have fun while learning where do I Live with this printable activity perfect for preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten students.
If you are anything like me, you saw "Hidden Figures" and FELL IN LOVE! I was so excited to see the way Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughn and Mary Jackson revolutionized their field and paved the
Learn About the 7 Continents! Exploring the 7 Continents has never been more exciting! It’s a Small World Continent Study is filled with over 35 activities to help your students gain a greater understanding of the seven continents. This 130+ page unit is filled with great resources, posters, printables, activities, and projects that will open […]
Included in this long ago unit are anchor charts, sorts, student worksheets and an interactive social studies flap book. Get a freebie in this blog post!
Read a few ideas for your past and present or then and now unit. There are free lessons and activities as well as other fun hands-on, engaging ideas.
Here is a worksheet on taxes. We live in California so I used the taxes that apply to us. I also used a minimum amount of income tax. The majority of my students will never work. The couple that will, will most likely work part time. http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Life-Skills-Paying-Taxes
This four page printable is designed to encourage children to do some really good research about a country of their choice, and put together a book that they will be proud of! We've asked them to compile all sorts of interesting facts but left room for creativity too.
Plenty of interactive ideas and activities to teach landforms for kids. Find videos, worksheets and even experiments to help.
Lucky number thirteen! I love the number 13 - it's my favorite. Hubby and I were married on Friday the 13th and 13 has always felt like a pretty lucky number to me. Let's celebrate my 13th follower!!!!! For our social studies unit on families we talked about how we and our family change over time. Click here for a cute little timeline worksheet. Click here for a different look of the same worksheet.
BOOM! is an easy and active review game that works well for any subject. This review game for middle or high school students is SO MUCH FUN! I play this in my classroom before test day. It could be used for math, science, social studies or any other subject!
It’s not Duck Season! It’s not Wabbit Season! It’s almost Testing Season! The time of year when schedules get crazy and your pacing goes out the window! One of my least favorite things about testing season is the post-game talk of the students. After the test is over, despite the fact that they swear that they won’t talk about it, they of course DO talk about it. So they come in my class after a three-hour testing block and the kids start talking about the test. And invariably, some kid will talk about something and some other kid will say “holy $#@!! Is that what that part was about? I totally thought it was asking about blahblahblah” Aha. Here lies the problem. It happens on my classroom assessments, in district assessments, on the FSA, SAT, ACT, ASFAB, GED, GRE, and any other alphabet-soup of a test. Kids don’t understand what the question is asking for. For example, the question asks kids to analyze, but they describe. Or it asks them to contrast but the kids compare. I’d like to propose that over the next couple of weeks, as we get closer to testing season, that we explicitly teach what those “power words” are and what they mean and what a kid should do if given that word in a test. It depends on where you take your words from, but the internet (which, I know, I know, is NOT the authority of everything) often uses the “12 Power Words”. Every teacher does NOT have to teach every one of these words. But when they come up in your class over the next few weeks (and they should come up frequently), STOP! And explicitly teach the word. (Honestly, if your class is not tackling at least SOME of those words, then your class is not hitting a lot of higher order thinking.) It shouldn’t take a lot of time. A couple of minutes, at most. Which is worth it if your kids are mastering Tier Two Vocab. What do I mean by teaching it explicitly? Well, when that word comes up in an assignment or assessment or whatever, I will stop the class and see how many students can define the term with their shoulder partner. Then (because kids will so often tell us that they understand things when they don’t) I will either solicit a few student definitions or give them my own. I will have the kids practice their acquisition of the term by having them do a turn and talk where each partner uses the word in a real sentence about anything they want. We will share those out, too. I will have each team practice using the term by making a content-related question. We will talk about the type of answer the question (the one we began with) is asking for. Is the question asking for you to compare? What would a compare answer look like? For example: Based on the document, infer the author’s point of view. Turn to your partner and see if you can explain what “infer” means! Who wants to share with the class? Student A had a great definition! Infer means to get something out of words that isn’t “right there”! Turn to your partner and use the word “infer” about something in your life. Mine is “I can infer from the fact that you’re not answering my texts that you don’t want to talk to me”. Now, use the term “infer” about something regarding the Treaty of Versailles. “I can infer from the fact that Germany has to pay a bijillion dollars, that it’s kind of a punishment” Now, what would an “infer” answer look like? It should include us getting something out of the document/text/cartoon/whatever that isn’t “right there”. How do you teach the “power words”? What steps do you take? How can you really hammer this home in the next few weeks?
Social emotional learning is the foundation of a successful classroom by creating an environment of inclusion and respect.
KINDERGARTEN MATH - UNIT 3 I am so excited to have my new Measurement and Data kindergarten math unit posted and ready to share with you. So far this year, my sweet kinders have learned so much in math. We have mastered 1:1 correspondence, reading and writing numerals to 20, counting to 10
Use this worksheet to introduce the concept of family traditions to your primary class. Discuss the meaning of the word "tradition" and provide examples from as many cultures as you can. Direct your students to fill at least three of the four boxes. Enjoy! CONNECT WITH ME: PinterestFacebook InstagramRELATED FREEBIES: ► Beginning, Middle and End Graphic Organizer ► Rights and Responsibilities Sort ► Adjective Monster ► Mini-Books: Vowel Teams PRODUCTS FOR GRADE ONE SOCIAL STUDIES: ► Past and Present: Social Studies Unit for Grade One ► I Belong in Groups ✪ First Grade Social Studies ► I Belong in Groups ✪ American ► J'appartiens à des Groupes ✪ First Grade Social Studies Thank you for your interest! If you enjoyed this free resource, I'd love to read your feedback! ❤️
Jenga game cards are easily my favorite way to teach and reinforce basic math fact, phonics, or grammar practice.
5th Grade Social Studies is where it's at, my friends! In this blog post, I will share how I sequence, plan, and make social studies fun for my students. I'm fortunate to have found my niche
Formative assessments in Social Studies
Kids will have fun while learning where do I Live with this printable activity perfect for preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten students.
These 8 creative social studies vocabulary activities will be a great addition to your teaching and can be used with Google Drive!
Hello everyone! Summer is totally winding down for me and I think I’m actually OK with it… EEK! :) Don’t tell anyone! My teammate and I have met up a few times this summer to plan for the first 3 weeks of school. We also made all of our copies for the first couple ofRead more
Struggling to teach social studies in your primary classroom? Read more to learn about these 10 free social studies websites for teachers.
To make sure your upper elementary students receive high quality social studies, use this social studies interactive notebook!
As you begin to learn about inquiry-based Social Studies education, you might find the quality pre-written inquiries are hard to come by. In the post, I've collected the best that the internet currently has to offer.
Looking for ways to teach critical thinking skills in social studies? These low-prep activities help get students thinking critically about history.
Are your students loving their social studies classroom or are they feeling that it is an extension of their ELA class? Are you wondering how to increase student engagement in the classroom so that your student cannot wait to come into your classroom and learn? Keep reading for ideas to incorporate all learning styles into ... Read more
Do your students have to create timelines to meet academic standards? I'm sharing 10 engaging types of timelines that make this activity FUN for students!
If you are anything like me, you saw "Hidden Figures" and FELL IN LOVE! I was so excited to see the way Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughn and Mary Jackson revolutionized their field and paved the
I used to have my middle school students spend their time taking notes in Social Studies. I've now changed my methods.
As a classroom teacher, you often get hit with that question – usually within the first week of school by a student who “Does Not Want To Be Here”… and truthfully, how do you answer
Interactive Notebooks are a great way to engage students in class, use multiple learning styles and for students to take ownership in the learning process.
Have you ever found yourself asking, “How can I make my Social Studies lessons more meaningful?” If you’re like most people, you might feel that math and ELA are the most life-applicable or important subjects in school. One poll found that most Americans believe this to be true. Most see math and E
Learn About the 7 Continents! Exploring the 7 Continents has never been more exciting! It’s a Small World Continent Study is filled with over 35 activities to help your students gain a greater understanding of the seven continents. This 130+ page unit is filled with great resources, posters, printables, activities, and projects that will open […]
Over the past few years, I have been incorporating inquiry circles into my classroom through Social Studies and Science. Inquiry circles are a lot like most research projects. I would say the main difference is how they start. NOW AVAILABLE… One Stop Teacher Memberships Our grade-level memberships provide the BIGGEST savings on ALL One […]
Kids will have fun while learning where do I Live with this printable activity perfect for preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten students.
Integrating language arts skills into social studies can be tricky. There is already a lot of subject matter to cover without having to teach reading and writing skills as well! If a social studies teacher did not receive much language arts training within his or her certification program, integrating these skills can be even more […]
