Kids will have fun while learning where do I Live with this printable activity perfect for preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten students.
Do your students thrive on competitive games? Are you looking for competition games for your classroom? Check out this blog post!
Pinay Homeschooler is a blog that shares homeschool and afterschool activity of kids from babies to elementary level.
Get your students outside this school year! We have some tried and true ideas and teacher tips to help you teach your students outside!
This FREE literature-based unit study introduces students to 16 different countries and cultures around the world.
Students can travel across the globe without leaving the classroom. Check out these fun geography lessons for any grade and curriculum.
Looking for fun and engaging kindergarten social studies resources? Check out the interactive notebook that your students will love!
Helping K-2 Teachers Like You Save Time, Grow Instructional Skills, and Teach With Confidence!
Having a little time at the end of class is something my students look forward to because they have an opportunity to do fun five minute social studies activities. If you find yourself with a
10 Creative One-Pager Ideas for Social Studies As a social studies teacher, you understand that the subject is one of the most important asp...
Many United States teachers may not have heard of the term "hot seating" yet, but we envision this creative teaching idea jumping across the pond from the U.K very soon! Overview “Hot Seating” is a teaching strategy in which either the teacher or student takes on the role of a character from a book or real person and sits in the hot seat. Then the other classmates ask questions and the person in the “hot seat” must answer the questions the way the character or historical figure would have answered. Background Knowledge For “Hot Seating” to be effective, students involved must have background knowledge of the character/person. This will need to take place during normal classroom instruction or outside of school. In order for students to acquire the background knowledge, they must do the research/read the book. Acquiring background knowledge can be accomplished through a variety of ways: Classroom textbook/or literature book Books from the school or public library Online resources (Encyclopedia Britannica, Explora, Kids Discover, etc.) Questioning At the center of “Hot Seating” are the questions that the students will be asking. It is highly recommend that you model the questioning process. You want the questions to focus on the personal feelings and observations that the character would be familiar with. It is important that you are the moderator during the questioning period so the questions stay on topic. Grouping Hot Seating can be structured a few different ways: Whole Class- This is where the entire class takes turns to ask another student(s) in the “hot seat” questions. Small Group- This is where a small group of students (5-6) ask one another student in the “hot seat” questions. Partners- This is where one student is in the “hot seat” and the other student asks the questions. Debate One interesting twist that you could do with your class is to have opposing viewpoints as part of a debate. There are two ways to do this. The first way would be to give a student in the hot seat a specific amount of time to answer questions from the audience. Then his/her “opponent” would do the same. The second way would be for both students are in front of the class taking turns answering the same questions (back and forth). This can really help students understand different perspectives. Extension Ideas During “Hot Seating”, you could have your students take notes on how the character/person answers the questions. Once the “Hot Seating” session has ended, have each student choose how he/she would like to display what he/she learned. Some choices could be: Make a poster Write a news article Create a timeline Perform a news show Write a song Teacher Tips: Decide how you want the hot seat to look in your classroom. In other words, decide if you want to do it as a whole class, small groups, or partners. Decide which student(s) will be on the hot seat. Choose the role/figure that they will portray. Find a "hot seat" for the person. It can be a simple student chair, or a special one for the activity. You may also want to show the students how to write a bibliography if students are doing a historical figure and are taking notes from various media. When the research is complete, or the literature book is finished, organize your class and figure out how questions will be asked. Make sure to help facilitate between the character/person and the audience asking questions. Check out our Hot Seating resources here. We hope you can try "Hot Seating" in your classroom. Your students will love it! Follow us on TPT. Find us on Pinterest.
One of the important concepts we teach in early elementary is about the great big world we live in. Students will learn about the world beyo...
Pinay Homeschooler is a blog that shares homeschool and afterschool activity of kids from babies to elementary level.
Do you need some ideas for preschool social studies activities? From recycling to road rules, fathers to firefighters, we’ve got you covered.
I've read about choice menus forever, but never tried it until just recently. I decided to created a menu to use during social studies review when students finish with stations early or we have a few extra minutes in class. I introduced the menu a week ago and you would've thought I'd given my students gold! They were thrilled!! I asked if they'd seen a menu before and we talked about a fast food restaurant menu. Then I asked what they would buy if I told them they had $5 to spend at the fast food restaurant. We played around with that a few minutes and then, with great drama, I introduced the social studies menu. I told them they had 50 points to "spend" and they were beside themselves - some even wanted to know if they could "spend" more! As we were going over the points values for different items one students even said, "All the fun stuff costs more points, but the boring stuff doesn't cost as much." I really had to pinch myself! How did this happen?!?! We've had a week to work on the menus and they have really been successful so far. I've been amazed at the creativity my students have shown. It's also been really interesting seeing which people and time periods they choose to work with. I think this is a strategy I will try to use again. Maybe next time I'll try something with reading - after a class novel or maybe even for their self-selected texts. You can click on the picture to download a copy of the menu. It is specific to 4th Grade Virginia Studies, but it might be a good place to start for a menu specific to your social studies standards. I'm linking up with Holly from Fourth Grade Flipper for another great Tried it Tuesday linky.
ALL ABOUT EARTH Get ready for a month filled with so many fun activities to teach your kiddos all about our planet Earth . I teach this unit in April so it coincides with Earth Day. I’ve loaded up this blog post post with read aloud book ideas, free videos you can share with your students,
Interpreting history can seem like a daunting task for students, but with a few creative tools and ideas, teachers can bring historical events and people to life. I love providing students with an interconnection to the people who shaped our country. Our history is on-going and by studying our past, we can hopefully learn
On theBlog 2ND GRADE CLASSROOM MATH READING WRITING
These 4 questions will make your Social Studies lesson more meaningful to students!
I love teaching Social Studies. I really love it. It's exciting to present historical concepts to students and find ways to make it interesting and engaging for them. I love hearing comments like, "Social Studies is my favorite class" and "Social Studies is really fun" because they often come from students who were wary of the subject at the start of the school year. Through our activities and the creation of a positive classroom environment, they find an appreciation for my favorite school subject and sometimes it even becomes their favorite subject of the year. How cool is that?! I also love sharing my passion for teaching Social Studies and connecting with teachers like you who share that same love of learning and bringing history to life in their classrooms! But where to begin? Hint: it involves lots of freebies which are included in a FREE Introduction to Social Studies Mini Unit - 5 complete days of lessons - all activities are included - just for you! Here are some lesson ideas for introducing the subject of social studies in your classroom: Hook Ideas A good hook activity is a great way to start a new lesson. It grabs students' attention and sets the scene for the unit or daily lesson. Here are some easy ideas: 1. True or False? Write a brief series of questions about the study of history and some key terms you plan to cover. Ask students to raise their thumbs in the air (up for yes, down for no) in response to the questions. It's an easy and fun way to assess prior knowledge. You can also use mini white boards and have students collaborate in groups of 2-3 to answer true or false. After each question, you can review the right answer. 2. YouTube Videos I love finding a great (and brief!) YouTube video to use during a lesson. Here are some of my favorites to introduce the subject of social studies: An Animated Introduction to Social Science (Soomo Publishing) Why Study History? (The Pursuit of History) Why Study History? (PragerU) recommended for older students 3. Draw It This hook is perfect for mini whiteboards. Ask students to draw or write images, words, doodles, etc. when they think of the words "social studies" or "history". These images can spark discussions about concepts that relate to social studies! A Word Wall Hold up! Do you have a word wall in your classroom? If not, it's time to start. A word wall is a place to collect the important vocabulary terms you are teaching in your unit. You can even collect and keep them up all year! Word walls give students a chance to review and interact with vocabulary daily. The more students interact with vocabulary terms, the more connections they can make between ideas and build upon those concepts to better understand and make deeper connections to curriculum content. You can make your own word wall for an Introduction to Social Studies unit or download this free resource from my TpT store! :) Introduction to Social Studies Activities Now that your students are hooked, it's time to dive into the unit. I've created some free resources in my TpT store - The Teacher's Prep - to help you in this endeavor! 1. Vocabulary Activities We've already discussed the importance of vocabulary posted in a word wall - now let's talk about some activities students can complete to interact with the vocabulary in a variety of ways! The Introduction to Social Studies Vocabulary Activities resource (it's free, too!) has three activities to use with your students. I like spreading out these activities over the course of the unit to give kids extra practice. The first activity I typically start with is the Introduction to Social Studies Vocabulary activity in which students write the definitions for each vocabulary term. As we use the terms in class during the unit, I give them time to write a sentence using each word in the chart. On subsequent days, there are two more activities to use - a matching activity and a crossword puzzle. Again, the more students interact with the words, the more opportunities they will have to understand the important concepts you are teaching in class! If that sounds like activities you'd find useful in your classroom, download it here! 2. Informational Text Ok, now it's time to dive into the heart of the unit - reading informational text! If you don't already have access to informational text or would like to supplement the resources you currently have, I've created an Introduction to Social Studies Interactive PowerPoint that is filled with informational text students can read. It also directly corresponds to a set of interactive notebook graphic organizers for student note taking. Oh! And not only is it available in PowerPoint in an interactive format, there's also TpT Easel and Google Drive versions included, too. I've got you covered! Check it out here! And yes, it's also free. (It's a theme!) :) 3. Interactive Notebooks How do students organize their notes for this unit? In an interactive notebook! I love these graphic organizers because they consolidate student notes in one place. The graphic organizers directly correlate to all the activities I've mentioned above so far and give students the opportunity to summarize the main ideas and details they learn as they are introduced to the study of history. I love interactive notebooks so much, I made complete sets for Ancient History, American History and Civics / American Government ... in both paper and digital formats. You can check them out by clicking on the links in the last sentence! And of course, this section wouldn't be complete without a paper and digital copy of the Introduction to Social Studies interactive notebooks to take with you! Click here for the digital interactive notebook and here for the paper interactive notebook. 4. Task Cards Last (for now!) but certainly not least are task cards. Task cards can be used as bell ringers, entrance tickets, exit tickets, station work and more! I alternate their use based on my class needs of the day, but they include brief writing prompts to encourage students to think critically about the content they are learning in class. If task cards seem like something you'd like to add to your Introduction to Social Studies unit, click here to download a free resource of them from my TpT store! And Finally... Thank you for all you do for your students to bring history to life in your classroom and engage students in topics that will foster a love of learning. I hope these resources make your life a bit easier and save you valuable time in the school year. I absolutely love hearing from teachers like you. If you find the resources useful in your classroom, I invite you to leave me a note in the feedback sections and let me know how you used the activities in your classroom. I read every word and your notes mean so much to me! Happy Teaching! Oh, and here's a link (click here!) directly to a page in my TpT store that lists all of these free resources in case you don't want to scroll back through the post. :)
ALL ABOUT EARTH Get ready for a month filled with so many fun activities to teach your kiddos all about our planet Earth . I teach this unit in April so it coincides with Earth Day. I’ve loaded up this blog post post with read aloud book ideas, free videos you can share with your students,
Read a few ideas for civics and government activities. There are free lessons and activities as well as other fun hands-on, engaging ideas.
Formative assessments in Social Studies
Learn how to use social studies stations in the Middle & High School classroom to increase student engagement. Includes link for a free station activity!
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
Integrating art and content in the ELA classroom. Tips and resources.
Engage your kids in Social Studies with these hands-on teaching ideas. Make your own GEODOUGH to teach geography with these simple ideas and recipe.
Guide to using Social Studies Simulations to step away from the lecture podium and engage your students with hands-on history activities.
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 […]
As a kid in school I loved when my teachers celebrated creativity in the classroom. In fact, when I reflect on my own education, the moment...
Do you need warm up ideas? I want to share 3 warm up ideas for social studies classes with you. These are engaging and easy to implement!
Learn how to create simple models and maps with early years students with this free geography printable!
If you've been wondering how to teach the several types of maps that your students need to know, you're in the right place! Ever since the existence of man, we have had maps. There have been
So I gave myself a goal this year. I want to add as many hands on, experiential activities into my class as possible. So far, they have been an amazing success! I blogged about this activity last month. This week my kiddos got to experience what it felt like to be a hominid. They looooooved it and beg for more labs!!! Homo Erectus building their tower. Neanderthal and Cro Magnon Homo Habilis very proud of their horrible tower and their lack of fine motor skills. Click here and check it out! Posted with Blogsy
The connection between social studies and art includes different cultures while using art to explore history in new ways. Read more!
Fun virtual field trips in the Social Studies classroom can make your lessons more engaging and content-filled! Try these suggestions!
Are you looking for a new way to get your students out of their seats and engaged with your social studies content? Gallery Walks are a great inquiry-based activity that is easy to set up and implement. Check out some of my tips for holding an effective Gallery Walk in your social studies class. What is a Gallery Walk? A gallery walk is a classroom-based activity where students silently walk around the classroom to view images that are placed on the wall, just like an art gallery or museum. Typi
Make teaching about past vs present in your kindergarten social studies lessons a breeze with these fun and engaging resources.
