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...
And it's one of my favorite projects that we do all year.
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.
Kids will have fun while learning where do I Live with this printable activity perfect for preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten students.
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
Students can travel across the globe without leaving the classroom. Check out these fun geography lessons for any grade and curriculum.
Get your students outside this school year! We have some tried and true ideas and teacher tips to help you teach your students outside!
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 […]
Learn how to use social studies stations in the Middle & High School classroom to increase student engagement. Includes link for a free station activity!
Integrating art and content in the ELA classroom. Tips and resources.
March 22, 2017 Here is an infographic we created for the post we published earlier today titled ' 15 Great YouTube Channels for Social Studies Teachers'. The visual features what we think are some of the best channels on YouTube that provides educational video content relevant for social studies classes. Please check out the previous post for links to these channels. You can also download this visual in PDF format from this page. Have other suggestions to add to this list? Share with us on our Facebook page. This post originally appeared in Educational Technology and Mobile Learning ( www.educatorstechnology.com ).
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...
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...
Fun virtual field trips in the Social Studies classroom can make your lessons more engaging and content-filled! Try these suggestions!
The connection between social studies and art includes different cultures while using art to explore history in new ways. Read more!
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
Every year I look forward to the Wax Museum! It’s not just how darn cute the kids look, or how much the parents oooh and ahhh over what a great event it is, (we all need those pats on the back) but it’s the fact that I know how much the kids have gotten out […]
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 […]
Every year I look forward to the Wax Museum! It’s not just how darn cute the kids look, or how much the parents oooh and ahhh over what a great event it is, (we all need those pats on the back) but it’s the fact that I know how much the kids have gotten out […]
5 YouTube Channels that Rock!
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 […]
Learn how to create simple models and maps with early years students with this free geography printable!
Digital activities for Social Studies: 5 EASY to use technology tools for Social Studies Projects
Every year all of our 5th graders participate in our school's Wax Museum program. It is seriously one of the highlights of the entire school year! Here's a run down of how things work: -Students choose a biography on a famous American. -They read the book and complete the American Hero book report. -They design a poster, create a costume, and memorize information about their hero. -For the Wax Museum, the students bring all their stuff and set up in the gym. -We invite our school, parents, community members, etc. to come see our program. -Our students become wax figures and when someone pushes their button they come to life and give information about their hero. Here are some pictures from this year's museum: Aren't these kids absolutely adorable in their costumes?! (I normally don't post pictures of my students on here, but luckily I'm friends with both of their moms and they gave me permission to post their cute faces.) And I think these two posters turned out AMAZING!! If you are interested, I have uploaded (and revamped) all of my resources and put them for sale in my Teachers Pay Teachers store. I have included everything you might need to get started and to implement this project in your own school. I'd love for you to check it out! Does your school do a Wax Museum?
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...
If you have 10 minutes left in your social studies class and don't know what to teach, you will love these creative social studies teaching strategies!
Build Your Own Bundle - 20% off of 3 resources (Code: ELLE3) 30% off of 5 resources (Code: ELLE5) 40% off of 8 resources (Code: ELLE8) In this creative report resource, you'll find 13 differentiated activities for ANY COUNTRY - these templates are perfectly sized for lapbooks and interactive notebooks. This social studies/geography project is complete as is, or makes a great companion to your current curriculum. You'll love that this project is guided and can be used for independent work. Your students will love it because it's fun and a change of pace. It's so straightforward and clear that you can even feel confident in leaving it in your sub folder! Find the State Lapbook Project Here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/961226080/state-research-project-for-any-usa-state There are covers for 40 countries - each will feature the country flag. Students will enjoy researching their own country or another one of interest to them. The pieces are interactive and will be incredibly engaging for your students - there's a mini gallery, tiny postcards, a basket of books, an art gallery, and a mini-book of cuisine. Countries Included: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Egypt, England, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Russia, Sweden, Thailand, U.S.A., Argentina, The Bahamas, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Holland, Iceland, India, Jamacia, South Korea, Norway, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Saudi Arabia, Scotland, Spain, Switzerland, South America, plus a blank for ANY country Topics Included: Country Flag Important Historical Events Largest Body of Water Popular Landford Languages Spoken Major Industries Continental Facts Surrounding Countries Famous Places Country Timeline (1700s - 2000s) Popular Cuisine Government Native Plants Holidays National Anthem Weather Popular Sports Animals Museums Most Populated Cities Important People Continent Map Interesting Facts Supplies Needed: You’ll find this project very inexpensive. More than likely, you already have what you need for this activity. •one file folder per student •one set of activity sheets per student •one student’s guide per student •scissors •stapler •white glue •Crayons or colored pencils •1 metal brad per student Sample Project: In the document file, you’ll find a sample of the layout of this project for lapbooks. For interactive notebooks, students will have the freedom to organize how they’d like. <<>> Terms of Use Copyright © Project Based Learning with Elle Madison. All rights reserved by the author. This product is to be used by the original downloader only. This means it is for ONE teacher. Additional licenses may be purchased by the original buyer at a discount. Copying for more than one teacher, classroom, department, school, or school system is prohibited. This product may not be distributed or displayed digitally for public view. Failure to comply is a copyright infringement and a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Clipart and elements found in this JPEG are copyrighted and cannot be extracted and used outside of this file without permission or license. Intended for classroom and personal use ONLY.
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.
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.
{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!
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!
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.
Social Studies Interactive Notebooks are a great tool to reinforce learning in any classroom. Give your students a forever resource this year by ...
You will love these creative classroom decor ideas for social studies teachers or history teachers! Check out this list of 10 different ideas for...
Engage your students with fun historical hoodies! Integrate social studies, art, and literacy with this great end of year review activity.
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,
Can research actually be fun and engaging for kids? You bet! These Research Project Posters are super student friendly and help guide your students in what exactly to research. And they are perfect for students to display their research!
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
