Picture books are one of my all-time favorite ways to introduce content in social studies! They're perfect for bringing in higher order thinking skills.
I am linking up again with the Collaboration Cuties for their Social Studies Mentor Text Linky. This was hard for me to choose just ONE mentor text for social studies. I really LOVE teaching Social Studies through literature. In fact it is how I generally introduce basic concepts such as elections, map skills, national symbols, diversity, cultural awareness, and more. One of my favorite books about map skills and The United States is called The Scrambled States of America by Laurie Keller. This books is fantastic. In this book, the states decide to have a party to get to know one another and at the party they start talking about switching places with one another. This way they can have a chance to live somewhere new and meet new friends. When they switch places, they realize they were actually happier where they were to begin with. It has a theme about being happy the way you are and where you are! This book teaches geography in a fun and cute way. My students love learning all of the slogans that go along with the different states as well as little tidbits of information about the states. Two years ago I had a first grade who knew every state and capital! Can you believe it!? She LOVED this book, as you can only imagine! This book also is a great example text for writing. It has a TON of dialogue. My first graders try so hard to use dialogue but it is a tricky concept to grasp for them. Grab a copy, open it up and find out for yourself what a great book this is!! -Michelle
Add depth and complexity to your instruction with this Critical Thinking Task Cards Bundle! You are getting all 3 (Science, History and/or Social Studies, and Literature) of my Critical Thinking Task Cards. That's 264 unique task cards! These sets are $21.00 if purchased separately; Save $4!These t...
Learn about life in Ancient Rome with FREE printable history readers about the powerful Roman Civilization that ruled Europe for 1,000 years.
Hey there! We are here today for our weekly Must Reads!! I'm kind of stretching it this week because the text I'm going to talk about is really for the American Revolution, which is Social Studies, but it's what I've been using in Language Arts. I wanted this to be an authentic post, so please excuse me for it being so curriculum based. I know it won't relate to as many people, but you can see how you can do any of these skills with basically any text! :O) I used Katie's Trunk this past week. Here is a synopsis from Amazon: "An acclaimed author gives young readers a new perspective on the American Revolution in this thoughtful picture book. Katie, a child of Loyalists, is frightened by all the talk of independence that is igniting passions in her New England town. Then one day, when Patriot neighbors ransack her home, Katie finds that her very survival rests in the hands of the "enemies"." My good friend Jessica has a unit that goes with this book that I've been using that works great for Language Arts! I will say that this is a semi-difficult text. When I read it to myself, I knew it would take some discussion with the class. Have you ever done that? You read a book to yourself and think of all of the possibilities you can use it for and then you start to read it out loud to your class and you realize it is a little more deep than you realized? Am I the only one that's ever done that? Well I knew on the first page it was going to take some close reads to really dig into it. But, that was ok, because I knew I was using it all week! :O) So, when we first read the book, we made inferences as we went through it (Oops! I didn't get a picture of that!). I like this book because it is from the Loyalists' point of view, which you don't find very often. I think it's important for students to be able to see BOTH sides! The second day, we reread the book. I was focusing on verbs in grammar, so while I read it, we were picking out action verbs and writing them in our grammar notebook. As we did this, I continued to talk about the meaning behind the story. Even though this is not a winter book, I still used the Flipbooks from our Winter Interactive Notebook Activities to find verbs in the text! And, it worked out beautifully because it started to snow while we were doing it! The first time it had snowed in 3 years!! Perfect timing! ;O) After we found verbs together, I sent kids off to work on this sheet from Jessica's unit while I pulled my guided reading groups! They had to use evidence from the text. (Does it bother anyone else that this is pasted crooked? I'm so OCD!) And, apparently she did not finish her sentence at the top. Oops. Well, it doesn't get any more authentic than that, does it? ;O) This book is a little hard to read because of the way the author has the sentences laid out. (Or maybe that's just me? Here are a few pages you can look at to see if you agree!) So, since it's a little difficult to read, I talked with my students about style, and why the author wrote it this way. I made a copy of two pages from the book (which is totally legal!) and we annotated on the pages to point out what the author was trying to say and how it affected the way we read the book. We did this because I wanted them to understand that when they write, they have a style. It can help the reader or it can leave the reader confused. This author used incomplete sentences a few times in the text, but we understood what she was saying. We discussed that there were times when the author used a conversational tone, and even if it was broken up or incomplete sentences, we still knew what she was saying because we often talk that way. It may be awkward to read the first time through, but we could understand and use the punctuation or the line breaks to help us with reading it out loud. Then, they worked with a partner on deciphering the similes in the text while I pulled guided reading groups. So, we read this book because I wanted them to see a different perspective of the American Revolution and to see how it must have felt for the colonists to have to choose sides, and how that affected them once they did. But, we did quite a bit of Language Arts skills within this one text by using close reads, which is what using a mentor text is all about, right? :O) It really is a great book! I think it's good to talk with students about this in case they choose a text that's interesting to them, but may be a little difficult to read. I want them to know they can read it more than once, to ensure understanding, and they'll find something they didn't notice each time they read! I can't wait to see what you link up!! Next week's linky- Math
Go Social Studies Go is a nice site developed by Kenneth Udhe, a social studies teacher in Michigan, for his students and the world. Go Social Studies Go is essentially a series of multimedia books ab
Happy Sunday. I'm linking up with Collaboration Cuties to share a favorite text to use with social studies. One of my favorite social studies books is Mapping Penny's World by Loreen Leedy. This book is very similar to Me On the Map by Joan Sweeney (another favorite). In this book Lisa learns about different types of maps. She uses her dog Penny to complete a mapping project. I love this book because of the illustrations, the in depth explanation of maps, and because it is part of a series of three books that feature Penny (Measuring Penny and It's Probably Penny). My first graders love all of these books. Below you will find a freebie to use with Mapping Penny's World. Students can draw a maps of their bedrooms and create a key to go with their maps. Click on the picture below if you would like a copy. The clip art is from Scrappin Doodles. I highly recommend Mapping Penny's World and all of the other Penny books for your classroom library. The stories are cute, the information is abundant, and your kids will really enjoy them. For more tried and true recommendation head on over to Collaboration Cuties and check out the other Must Read Mentor Texts for social studies. Thanks for reading and have a great week.
What a FUN way to get students involved in processing contributions of key historical figures in history class! It works great in interactive notebooks or any other class format! The history memes are also completely Google ready to share in your Google Classrooms if preferred. In this history investigation students research and write a brief historical biography about 5 historical figures. Then, students complete a meme from a template. This fun history activity can be done completely on paper or via a google link, that students can use to create their own meme in a template Google Slides outline. Students fill in fillable text boxes and copy pictures from the internet. There's also a poster meme option for student-created page size memes for teachers to post in their classrooms! This is fun, often hilarious, and looks great! Here's what you get: 1. A complete teacher lesson description and lesson guide. 2. A two-page paper-driven meme template. That student can use to detail historical figure accomplishments, draw pictures and create memes. 3. A Google Slides link to a fillable five-person mini-research template for students to create memes on computers. 4. A page size post-able meme template via free Google Slides. 5.Three example memes with example historical figure descriptions. This template works great to make Civil War memes, Enlightenment Thinker memes, Greek Thinker memes, Scientific Revolution memes, Age of Exploration-Explorer memes, Westward Expansion memes, Reformation figure memes and any other time period that includes key historical figures! ____________________________________________________________________________________ ☀ ☀ ☀This lesson pairs excellent with ANY of our Station Readings or even the Historical Snapshots posted in our store!☀ ☀ ☀ ____________________________________________________________________________________ Terms of Use ☺ ©Instructomania, Inc. All rights reserved by Tony and Erika Pavlovich. This product is to be used by the original downloader only. Additional teachers must purchase their own license. If you are a teacher, principal or district interested in purchasing several licenses, TPT now offers multiple license options. About Instructomania with Mr. & Mrs. P: World History includes both Ancient and Medieval history lesson plans and complete unit packets. In the Ancient history and Medieval history curriculum, you will find lesson plans and activities that support inquiry-based learning through evidence-driven literacy and writing that aligns with Common Core. Our student-centered Social Science lessons teach students to analyze social studies content by using the key concepts of geography, economy, achievements, religion, social classes and government. Students use academic vocabulary, in highly engaging, fun history investigations, interactive Google ready content, visually rich graphic organizer resources and thematic assignments. Tony Pavlovich, Ancient Egypt Memes, Aztec, Maya and Inca Memes, Ancient Mesopotamia Memes, Instructomania, Ancient Greece Memes, Ancient India Memes, American Revolution Memes, George Washington Memes, Andrew Jackson Memes, Abraham Lincoln Memes
Everyone likes to make timelines, right? I mean they are super useful for any number of activities and when studying the American Revolution, well, they fit in quite nicely. So, I asked my students to make a timeline with several of the most important events that took place during this time. I didn't want a straight line timeline though, so we did something a bit different. I had them make hidden door timelines! Here is how we did it. The kids created a line space in the middle of a piece of construction paper. Then, I had them measure out the "doors" and then cut three of the four edges on the doors. Honestly....this was hard. So I have made a little preprinted template for you (that you can use for ANY period of time, not just the Revolution) Click here to get it. I would recommend copying it on cardstock or construction paper. The thick paper will just work best for this. Have the kids cut along the dotted line and you should be ok. Then, the students glued the "door" paper onto a second piece of construction paper so that there was a writing space. Visualize the completed one in the picture without the drawings and you can see what I mean. :) Next, I asked the students to think of four lead up events, four during events, and two after events of the war that they personally thought were important to tell the story of the Revolution. They wrote the dates on the doors, and drew pictures of those events. Inside the flap they wrote a brief summary of the event with enough detail so that I was sure they understood it. When I hung them on the board, I did need to add a little staple to the top ones so they didn't fall down. But other than that, I am in love. :) They really look cute and just different enough to catch my eye. What have you done with a timeline to make it a bit "different" than the norm? Here is one other idea I did last year. Tell me what YOU have done!
Teaching Geography is one of the best Social Studies gigs to get! There are so many amazing resources for teaching the course, and fun strategies for teaching Geography are also unlimited. Follow this Quick Tips for Teaching Geography Series to learn those strategies for your classroom! Quick Tips #1: Quick Start Ideas Starting class in […]
Hands-on Elementary History is an excellent way to bring homeschool history to life! Project Passport makes it simple and fun.
Hilarious tweets from the past
There are so many wonderful children's picture books that can be used in the Social Studies classroom, but how do you weed through to find the ones that will best benefit your students? This guide provides an in-depth article that discusses the best ways to choose quality literature that teaches abo...
Shape: Square Stickers Create custom stickers for every occasion! From special mailings and scrapbooking to kids’ activities and DIY projects, you’ll find these stickers are great for so many uses. Add your own designs, patterns, text, and pictures! Dimensions: Available in 2 sizes: Large: 3" L x 3” W, 6 stickers per sheet Small: 1.5" L x 1.5” W, 20 stickers per sheet Printed on white acid-free paper Vibrant full-color, full-bleed printing Scratch-resistant front, easy peel-and-stick back Available in a matte or glossy finish Choose between 7 different shapes
Several of us were talking a few days ago about different ways to design hook activities that would engage kids while also encourage writing skills. My favorite is to use thought bubbles on paintin…
American History, A Look At What I Do! I thought I would take the time and reveal how I make history come alive for my kids. In this post you will see what I use and how I use it. And as a side note, I think I learn more than my kids learn. I am learning the right and true history for the first time! With God's help and lead I kind of made my own History Curriculum this year and I love it. The kids love it too. It involves many ways of teaching and learning. I found 3 wonderful books at a garage sale. They were on my book shelf for sometime, but did not realize it or remember it. Then one day I was looking for a book to read and I grabbed one. I quickly realized this was directed towards kids and was amazed at the facts and truth it held. These books are from Peter Marshall’s Ministries. They say from age 8-12 but I think it should say Infant-Adult. My 3 and 5 year old enjoy it as much as my 8 and 10 year old. After talking to a fellow HS mom, who I found out was also using these books, I rushed to ordered the Activity Books that go along with them. She said they were great and she was right. They say age 5-8 but again, good for all. A few weeks later I remembered a DVD I had received by coming a member of HSLDA for free. I found it and was thrilled because I had it stuffed in a cupboard for 2 years and never opened it. It was Drive Thur History. Fast forward a few weeks and I found a set of CD's that I did not even know I owned. They were For God and Country Adventures in Odyssey. Then I found a map of the world in the weirdest place and can't seem to find who it belongs to. For now I am using it with the books to help with geography. I recently ordered for free via Listia some Civil War replicas. I am so excited to get these so my kids can see what things looked like back then. One more visual addition to our learning. Now that you know what I have I will explain how I use it. Because my kids enjoy History it is usually the first thing we do together for school. The time however, is never the same. All 4 kids (3-10) sit around the coffee table with a tub of crayons in the middle. I take some corresponding pages out of one of the activity books and copy them for each child. They do the pages while I read. Sometimes it is one sheet sometimes it is several and I never use all the sheets. I pick and choose what I think they would like and what goes with that day's story. Now here is the key, show emotion in your reading. Many times I am up on the coffee table like I am looking starboard while I read parts of the book (why not I am in the comfort of my own home). Other times I am slamming my hand on the coffee table as I read the debates between the continental congress. I will even lay my hand on a child's back as I read of a man pleading with God. But most of the time I sit in the rocking chair using different (horrible sounding) accents with fluctuations in my voice. At times I look up and the kids are starring at me instead of doing their worksheets or coloring pages (which is fine with me). I ask them, "What?" They simply respond, "You are funny!" At times we will act out what we read. This does not always work but with the first book about Columbus it worked great, till we got to the killing. We did not act that out! The kids learn even more this way and retain it longer. We also pull out the map in the middle of my reading when they want to see where a country or state or river is. After reading about some people I would put in the Drive Thru History DVD. For instance when we read about Washington, we watched Dave Stotts on his tour and life of Washington. By the way Dave Stotts is drop down on the ground and roll all over laughing funny! The kids love his shows. This would hit home even more what we had just read about. The For God and Country CD's have been invaluable in the van. They get to hear what it was like for the slaves trying to escape and how it must have felt as the soldiers fought for freedom. It is yet another way to learn that is at a completely separate time from doing the lesson. This forces the brain and imagination to work. They pull up the stories from their memory and their mind pulls it all together, what they heard me read, what they saw and colored, what they sometimes acted out and now what they are hearing in radio theater. So there you have it. It is soooo easy I can't even begin to explain it. I do all the kids together and the preparation is simply looking at what I am about to read and copying a few pages. That is it. Easy peasy and my kids love it. It seems to be one of their favorite parts of the day and I pray to God they continue to enjoy it. I look forward to God giving me even more ideas, hopefully that involve a camper and heading out to actually step foot where our forefathers stood and where many prayed. Let me mention that this is God's gift to me. I didn't search for this. I prayed and he gave it to me. I can take no credit for what I have done and written here. He literally landed it in my lap and I did it step by step as he showed me. So don't think for a minuet you can not do it. If I can anyone can. Just pray and follow God's steps. He may have something even more wonderful and fitting for your family.
Huge bundle of resources! Video and audio clips included! These items are designed to be used in an AP Language and Composition course after students have a basic introduction to rhetoric. This zip file includes the materials needed to guide students through a close reading and analysis of The Declaration of Independence. It allows them to work in groups to identify key components of rhetoric while using the acronyms SOAPSTone and SOLD to guide them. The lesson culminates with students writing a rhetorical precis to demonstrate their understanding of the text. Included are the following: 1. A PowerPoint which walks students through the entire lesson and includes: audio and video clips to engage students in this historical document, a way to group students, answers to the SOAPSTone chart found on the student handout, and two rhetorical precis examples to show to students 2. The Declaration of Independence text - reformatted so that students can annotate according to the directions in the activity 3. The Declaration of Independence text for the teacher - provides thorough answers and explanations that correlate with what students are identifying and annotating 4. The Declaration of Independence handout for students - provides a step-by-step process for annotation of the text, a place to write answers, uses SOAPSTone and SOLD 5. Groups - place students into small groups of three by using the famous pictures provided (a second sheet of "King of England" pics can be used if you have an odd number of students) 6. Rhetorical Precis explanation handout
Hey there! How are you? How's the weather? Yes, I really want to know! We went from ice and snow last week to 70 degree weather this...
California has a really interesting history! There are so many topics to cover and using mentor texts is a great way to help students better understand concepts, from Explorations, to Missions, the Gold Rush, and more! I’ve compiled a number of books that might be helpful if you teach social studies in the Golden State! […]
As we approach the beginning of the school year, I'm sure many of you are thinking about changes you will make in your classroom and many of you will be entering the classroom for the first time. Congratulations!!!!!!! When I entered the classroom, oh sooooooooo many years ago, I was handed an American history textbook that was 15 years old (the textbook had great hope that Ronald Reagan would be a great president 😜). To accompany that terrible textbook, I was given a teacher version. The only difference between the teacher version and the student version was that it had answers to the three questions at the end of every section. I was okay though. My ed program had prepared me for a world where textbooks were not the end all and be all. Unfortunately, though, for my students I solved this problem by creating overhead transparencies for every topic. My notes were fun, included clipart, and I can tell a story like a sailor so my kids really enjoyed this but..... uh. I lectured the content to them for 180 days. We discussed, annotated, created illustrated notes... but I lectured the content to them for 180 days. I'm sorry kiddos... I tried but I failed. Fast forward many, many years and I still didn't teach with a textbook. We had them in the class, we used them every now and then as a reference, I use textbooks for sub plans, and for many years we used them to build pyramids in Egypt and to hold up our aqueducts in Rome! So how do I teach my content without textbooks without lecturing my content for 180 days? 1. Walk the Room/Gallery Walk Organizing the most important content into concise notes is not a bad things, but now I like to let the kids explore the content and take notes on their on. I will organize each topic onto a slide that is easy to read and colorful (or I print them out onto colored paper) I tape them up around the classroom and students travel with a partner and either complete a note taking activity (I use a ton of foldables) or answer some overarching questions. With my struggling learners I give them a copy of the slides with content missing so they can fill in the pertinent information but keep up with the pace of the other students. Since the students are walking around and absorbing the content at their own pace, I walk around and clarify misconceptions, ask questions, and challenge my students to make connections. Usually when we reassemble to a whole group, I might ask one or two questions that get to the essential question of the lesson. The kids love this because they are up, moving, and socializing with friends. They also like that they get to access me more readily! My students taking notes on the 5 Themes of Geography. Some of my favorite Walk the Room activities is one I do on the Bill of Rights and another one for the Persian War. Click on each to see more:) 2. Primary Sources I loooooooove to teach with primary sources but was always so intimidated by them because the reading level was often way to high for my students and to really teach them you need to unpack the vocabulary, find its place in context, etc. One of the things I learned early was that my students didn't need to read an entire document. I started to get them to analyze just a couple of sentences or a paragraph and that allowed me to teach how we analyze primary sources. Also, I learned not to shy away from using photos, paintings, and political cartoons in our studies. These can be even more powerful than the written word. Some great resources have come along to really help teachers get students to engage with primary sources on the appropriate age level. My favorite is Read Like A Historian from Stanford University. Read Like a Historian has primary sources for American and World History. The primary sources are well organized and come with questions that guide students through reading, understanding and analyzing the text. Two other great resources is DocsTeach from the National Archives.... and the Famous Speech section on Newsela. These are great because you can change the reading level of the famous speech! 3. Cartoons and Graphic Novels I loooved teaching with cartoons and graphic novels and my students adored it! One of my favorite artists is Bentley Boyd. He creates cartoons based on a ton of history topics, but mostly American History. You can buy books of his work, by topic on Amazon and he offers previews and lesson ideas on his website. I also love the books through the company called Graphic Library. Here are some on Amazon. Epic! Books also has some available. Here is a collection I organized for you! 4. The Internet with Accommodation Tools These days we can find all the information we need online but sometimes it is hard for students. Here is a list of tools that will help you and your students access online content. My two favorites are Print Friendly and SMMRY. In the table, choose "Reading" under "Area of Concern". 5. Outside Readers There are many great informational text readers that can be added to curriculum. I love using Newsela. They have a U.S. History and World History content area that is to die for! Readworks is also a great place to go for history content based upon reading level. My absolute favorite, which will not come as a surprise, is Epic! Books. Their informational text section is phenomenal and can easily be used to drive content in your classroom! I hope that this has been helpful! If you have any questions, feel free to reach out in the comments below and if you would like to add to the conversation please tell us how you are getting rid of textbooks in you classroom. Also, you may want to go to my TPT store and check out some activities that come with the reading or notes so you're entire lesson is all together in one resource! Click her to check some of those out!
After Labor Day, most kids in the United States will be back to hitting the books, and they’re probably not thrilled about it.
Middle school world history doesn't need to be dry and boring. Get your homeschoolers excited about history with engaging text, vivid pictures, historical documents, hands-on projects, and more!
Adapted from another excellent worksheet on this site. Students ask Wh- questions about famous landmarks, with more conversational questions included. Can be done as pair work or groups/teams. CLIL focused with learning about the world through English. Is conversational with support included by question hints. Is fully adaptable (answers are included), you may change the blanks to focus on one type of question. Students need to spell (some) words and give dates. - ESL worksheets
This past few weeks we have been working on summarizing non-fiction text. Looking at the various traits of non-fiction and figuring out how they all work together to get the point of the text across has been very tricky for the kids. So to help them figure out what the most important information in a non-fiction text is, I employed the help of a bit of creative expression and technology. Our current project in Computer Lab (which I am very much aware of how amazingly lucky we are to have a lab at all) is using the program called Comic Life. This is a program where the kids create a comic strip all on the computer. It is a cute program that I thought would tie in perfectly with our summarizing non-fiction text study. Comics, in and of themselves, are short visual ways to get across a huge message. That is basically what a summary does. It takes a lot of information and condenses it down to only the things that are absolutely necessary to get the point across. Perfect match! So here is how the project goes: We started by reading two texts about the Boston Tea Party (see that cross curricular integration there?? ;) hee hee). One was a non-fiction article from a teacher book about the Boston Tea Party. Then we read a graphic novel on the same subject called The Boston Tea Party (Graphic History) . (click the title and it will take you to the book on Amazon) This book is GREAT! I really gets the point of the Boston Tea Party across, keeps the interest of the students, and helps them to understand the action with the dialogue and pictures. We compared the non-fiction text to the graphic novel to see how the graphic novel really summarized the history text. It was great to see how the important parts were pulled out and portrayed graphically. The students then read a non-fiction article about one of the battles of the American Revolution. When they were pretty confident that they understood the information, including the pictures and captions, timelines, diagrams, etc..., the students created a flow map of the most important information. After the flow map was complete, the students then were given a comic book template that I had previously printed from Comic Life itself. The amount of flows they created in the step above dictated which template they took. (truth be told, I showed them all the templates I had ahead of time so they could aim their flows to the correct amount) Then then had to create a graphic novel, in the style of the Boston Tea Party one we read, that told the story of the battle they each read about. I have to say, these were fantastic. The kids really got into it and REALLY understood the summarizing aspect of the whole thing. Now, if you don't have Comic Life, or access to enough computers to make this worthwhile...have the kids color the template and you have an awesome board. But if you do have access to the technology...read on. Once the templates were done, the students then drew the pictures individually WITHOUT the speech bubbles or white boxes. They used these, along with the capture feature on Comic Life, to get their own drawings on the computer. Then, after the pictures were input onto the computer, they put the caption boxes and speech bubbles and, viola, a comic was born. To complete the entire process took about two weeks. I can't tell you how much I love these. I just kept reading them and looking them over. They not only look awesome, but they really do have a lot of academic rigor to them. This was a fun way to work on summarizing! Have you ever used Comic Life? What did you use it for? Any tricks to share with us? What about summarizing?? Any fun projects to share?
Picture books are one of my all-time favorite ways to introduce content in social studies! They're perfect for bringing in higher order thinking skills.
Social studies is my absolute favorite subject to teach. Telling stories from the past, and finding connections to the present and future, is such a great way to reach the students and help to create scholars. One way that I have found to effectively reach the kids in my room when it comes to social studies is through picture books. Using text with a historical background that is written at my students' reading level is perfect for grabbing (and holding) their interest. So I thought I would bring you 5 different books that I have found successful in my classroom for teaching social studies concepts. (The pink links are affiliate links and will take you to to Amazon to purchase the books!) The Gift of the Sacred Dog (Reading Rainbow Books) by Paul Goble Native Americans This is a great myth that tells about how the arrival of horses in North America (when European settlers came) impacted the tribes living here. While this is a myth (and not nonfiction) it still offers a great glimpse into how Native American tribes lived, their culture, and how myths played a central role in storytelling. It also lends itself to a great discussion about how horses changed the way Native American peoples, the Sioux in particular, lived. Sarah Morton's Day: A Day in the Life of a Pilgrim Girl (Scholastic Bookshelf) by Kate Waters Colonial Times When I teach the students about the original 13 Colonies, and the settlers who came from England to establish the new lands, I love using Sarah Morton's Day by Kate Waters. It is a photo-journal written in first person point of view, that shows a typical day in the life of a Plymouth Colony girl. Reading through this book, the students are able to see what hard work it was to settle these new lands in the early 1600s....and realize that even the kids had to work! (There are two other companion books, Samuel Eaton's Day: A Day in the Life of a Pilgrim Boy and Tapenum's Day: A Wampanoag Indian Boy In Pilgrim Times that show life through the eyes of a Pilgrim boy and a Native American living at the time.) I then like to have my students create their own "photo-journal" from the point of view of a Pilgrim boy or girl living around the same time. Using details from the text, as well as our social studies books and other resources, the students follow the same pattern as the Sarah Morton text and describe life from sun up to sunset. The Boston Tea Party (Graphic History) by Matt Doeden American Revolution Using this graphic novel, which tells the basic story of the events causing and leading up to the famous Boston Tea Party, is a great way to hook my reluctant historians. Seeing the true details of the event come to life with comic book drawings and speech bubbles is enough to make each of my kids eager to learn more about this piece of history. I then am able to transfer that curiosity into learning about the various battles of the revolution and the students creating their own comics about the historical events. Betsy Ross by Alexandra Wallner American Revolution Ok...I know I already wrote one suggested book about the American Revolution, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE this time period. There are so many different "American Heroes" that came out of this time, that I usually do my biography unit in conjunction with this social studies topic. A nice book to use is this one about Betsy Ross. It is a very accessible book for all students to read, contains a lot of history, and even addresses some historical myths surrounding this prominent lady. Using this book, we are able to see just what life was like for Besty growing up, as well as delve into the genre of biography. From here, I am able to branch off and do many different projects surrounding Mrs. Ross. Two of my favorites are creating our own American flags and biography reports of other notable people during this time period. I love creating both hanger people and Magazine biography reports. They just come out so awesome...and all stem from this little picture book. (click the links to access the files I use on TpT.) If You Traveled West In A Covered Wagon by Ellen Levine Westward Expansion This is a nonfiction book with lots of little tidbits about what it was like to travel west along the various trails that cropped up after the Louisiana Purchase. There is a great deal of information included in this book, all written at a level that the students can understand. I love using this one as we are discussing various parts of the Westward Expansion movement. It is useful for the entire unit! So there you have it. A few books that you can use to enhance your social studies curriculum. What books have you used that you have found particularly useful in teaching social studies standards?
What a FUN way to get students involved in processing contributions of key Enlightenment figures in history class! It works great in interactive notebooks or any other class format! In this history investigation students research or use the notes included to write a brief historical biography about 5 Enlightenment figures. Then, students complete a meme from a template. This fun history activity can be done completely on paper or via a Google link, that students can use to create their own meme in a template Google Draw outline. Students fill in fillable text boxes and copy pictures from the internet. There's also a poster meme option for student-created page-size memes for teachers to post in their classrooms! This is fun, often hilarious, and looks great! Here's what you get: 1. A complete teacher lesson description and lesson guide. 2. A two-page paper driven meme template that is versatile for any historical content that students can use to detail historical figure accomplishments, draw pictures, and create memes. 3. A Google Draw link to a fillable five-person mini-research template for students to create memes on computers. 4. A page size post-able meme template via free Google Draw. 5. Three example memes with example historical figure descriptions. 6. Class one-page notes about Hobbes, Voltaire, Beccaria, Montesquieu, Wollstonecraft, and Locke. This template works great to make Civil War memes, Enlightenment Thinker memes, Greek Thinker memes, Scientific Revolution memes, Age of Exploration-Explorer memes, Westward Expansion memes, Reformation figure memes, and any other time period that includes key historical figures! ☀ ☀ ☀This history investigation lesson pairs excellently with ANY of our Station Readings or even the Historical Snapshots posted in out store!☀ ☀ ☀ Tony Pavlovich,instructomania Voltaire Memes, Hobbes Memes, Montesquieu Memes, Beccaria Memes, John Locke Memes, Mary Wollstonecarft Memes
