Guide to using Social Studies Simulations to step away from the lecture podium and engage your students with hands-on history activities.
Learn a variety of strategies on how to make history class engaging for students. Check out in this blog post.
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 moments I remember the most were the creative ones. I vividly remember making salt maps of the state, book report mobiles, models, papier-mâché globes, interactive brochures, puppets, and dioramas. What about you? Are the instructional moments that you remember the most tied to creative activities? There's just something so powerful about hands-on learning with creative opportunities. Now, more than ever, in our assessment-focused world of education, it's time to infuse creativity into the classroom! Check out these fun ways to turn ancient history lessons into creative hands-on learning experiences! EARLY MAN During this project, students complete 5 different learning stations. Students complete their work on flame shapes that they can transform into a 3-D fire. Working both independently and with small groups, students learn about The Paleolithic Era, the Neolithic Era, the Great Migration, and elements of a civilization. (Learn more here.) ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA As students complete 6 learning stations about ancient Mesopotamia, they'll build a 3-D ziggurat. The stations focus on geography, religion, accomplishments, politics, economics, and society. The end result is a 3-D structure that students can display on their desks or around the classroom. (Learn more here.) ANCIENT EGYPT With this hands-on project, students learn all about ancient Egypt before turning their learning into an interactive sphinx. Students build flip-able parts of the sphinx poster while their progress through 6 different learning stations. The end result is a celebration of Egypt and their learning! (Learn more here.) ANCIENT CHINA Learning about ancient China is especially engaging with this fact hunt and doodle poster. Not only will students collect critical facts about the ancient civilization, they'll also display their learning with doodles that they create. The poster's extra-long size makes it unique and perfect to display in the classroom. (Learn more here.) ANCIENT INDIA If I have to pick a favorite hands-on World History project, this one might be it. During this project, students add information about ancient India to different layers of a lotus flower while progressing through 6 stations. When they're finished, they turn their learning into a 3-D lotus flower. The end result is a stunning collection of learning. (Learn more here.) ANCIENT GREECE This hands-on learning project includes 6 learning stations about ancient Greece. During the stations, students create an accordion-style book to showcase their learning. They'll assemble the foldable parts of the book to create a Parthenon accordion book. It's interactive and meaningful. (Learn more here.) ANCIENT ROME This ancient history project is especially fun. After completing 6 engaging learning stations about ancient Rome, students will turn their learning into a 3-D version of the Colosseum. And...to amp up the "fun factor" there are even 3 gladiator figures that students can design and display inside their Colosseum. (Learn more here.) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- These projects are the perfect combination of rigor and creativity. If you're looking for fun ways to mix up your Social Studies instruction, check out these hands-on units here: - Early Man - Ancient Mesopotamia - Ancient Egypt - Ancient China - Ancient India - Ancient Greece - Ancient Rome Thanks for stopping by! Mary Beth P.S. Save on the bundle for ALL of the resources HERE.
All about using Ancient Egypt Interactive Notebooks for teaching an Ancient Civilizations unit in the middle school or upper elementary history or social studies classroom.
This no-prep and engaging Social Studies All About Me activity is great for back to school or sub day plans. Your students will love getting creative while expressing their thoughts and perspectives on history - not to mention learning more about each other in the process. With this one pager activity, students will write and create visual representations and drawings for a historical event that happened on their birthday, describing where they were born, one place in the world they want to visit, and a historical figure they would like to meet. Talk about unique! Not only will this social studies activity help build classroom community, but it can also be used as a fun way to review social studies content. Plus, you’ll receive both printable and digital versions of this activity so you can choose which works best for you. This activity is great for all social studies classes! You can use this Social Studies All About Me activity in US History, Geography, and Civics/Government classes. Feeling like you're in need of a creative and fun activity to start the new school year or semester? You'll get to know your students better with this scaffolded activity. Scaffolded student instructions are included to direct students what to write and draw for each question. Get ready to have some fun! Plus, you can even laminate these activities once complete and hang them around the classroom – creating an awesome environment for community building. So what are you waiting for? Give your students an exciting way to get to know each other with this Social Studies All About Me Activity One Pager Activity Back to School today! This product is part of a full year World Geography Curriculum. Click to see more about the highly discounted World Geography Curriculum. Be prepared to teach World Geography with these teacher presentations, projects, activities, and assessments that have been designed to better support students in your classes! These products are made to better support special education students and English Languages Learners. Product Description (5 Pages): - Teacher Directions with helpful links - Student Instructions & Checklist - Social Studies One Pager All About Me with directions - Blank Social Studies One Pager All About Me - Digital Version - Grading Rubric More Activities You'll Love ❤️ World Geography Curriculum US History Curriculum World Religions Project Questions? E-mail me at [email protected] ___________________________________ Copyright © SFSEteach Permission for single teacher use only. Please purchase additional licenses if you intend to share this product with other teachers.
Tips, tricks, and strategies for using History Stations to engage your learners. Includes step by step instructions.
Effectively teach historical thinking skills and writing using an argument qualifier continuum line.
Do your students truly understand why they are taking a history class!? Why not teach them in a fun activity? Teach your students to think like an historians as they dig through artifacts, analyze primary sources, and read information about history. This lesson guides your students through an activity where they debate the importance of history in their lives, examine artifacts, analyze primary sources, read an article and create Doodle Notes. The lesson concludes with a spectrum discussion or a dialogue debate. Avoid the lecture – let students learn for themselves! This resource includes a paper version and a 1:1 Google version to be used with Google Classroom. On the first page will be a link that will have you make a copy of the Google Doc, so be sure to be signed in to your Google account. You can then share directly with your students. Your purchase includes: - A PowerPoint presentation to guide your students through the lesson. - Word Wall Terms and a "Predict This" activity to teach vocabulary terms. - An article with guiding questions on the topic – Why Study History? - A lesson plan that guides you through the activity - Artifacts from Abraham Lincoln to analyze during the activity - Doodle Notes for graphic note-taking (I have also provided pop-up notes if you would prefer those). - Google Slides and Cartoon Notes. ⭐Please download the preview to see more information on this resource. ⭐ ⭐Find a free game to review the vocabulary here. ⭐ Doodle notes is a trademarked term used with permission. Please visit doodlenotes.org for more information. ******************************************************************** ➬Customer Tips: How to get TPT credit to use on future purchases: • Please go to your My Purchases page (you may need to login). Beside each purchase you'll see a Provide Feedback button. Simply click it and you will be taken to a page where you can give a quick rating and leave a short comment for the product. Each time you give feedback, TPT gives you feedback credits that you use to lower the cost of your future purchases. I value your feedback greatly as it helps me determine which products are most valuable for your classroom so I can create more for you. ☺ Be the first to know about my new discounts, freebies and product launches: • Look for the green star next to my store logo and click it to become a follower. You will now receive email updates about this store. ☺ © Social Studies Success® This purchase is for you and your classroom. Duplication for an entire school, an entire school system, or for commercial purposes is strictly forbidden. Please have other teachers purchase their own copy. If you are a school or district interested in purchasing several licenses, please contact me for a district-wide quote. Do not share this document with Amazon Inspire. Please review all product descriptions and previews. If you have a question, contact me before you purchase at [email protected]. As this is a digital product, all sales are final. ❤️ Dawn
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,
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!
Integrating art and content in the ELA classroom. Tips and resources.
As Social Studies teachers, we understand the significance of a robust vocabulary in enhancing students' comprehension and critical thin...
Looking for fun and engaging kindergarten social studies resources? Check out the interactive notebook that your students will love!
What Can I Do For You? host a workshop consulting services view curriculum browse products What is Social Studies Success? Social Studies Success is a place for you – a place to get fresh ideas and to share in the excitement
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. :)
The connection between social studies and art includes different cultures while using art to explore history in new ways. Read more!
Kick off your school year with map and globe skills ! What middle school social studies classroom doesn’t cover map skills? Since map skills are a basic concept covered in middle school social studies, you'd think it would be easy to find resources for it. However, most of the resources out there a
Learn how to use social studies political cartoons to increase student engagement. Includes link to a free political cartoon analysis activity!
So, are you itching for winter break to get here or what?!? I am drowning here, people! Between report cards, conferences (for my students and my own kids!), shopping, baking, parties, wrapping... DROWNING!Don't get me
Well it took almost a full school year, but thanks to a professional development I went to, I found a review technique ALL of my 7th graders were on board with. I call it “True, False, Fix.…
5 YouTube Channels that Rock!
This is the perfect First Day of School activity for any Social Studies Class!This "History of Me" activity has students reflect on their own lives and personal history to help them learn the importance of knowing history and how it can create understanding, empathy and compassion. This activity com...
A Kindergarten blog about effective teaching and making learning fun.
Looking for fun and engaging kindergarten social studies resources? Check out the interactive notebook that your students will love!
Get your students thinking like a historian from the get-go with these tips and ideas for your first Social Studies lesson of the year.
Do you need some ideas for preschool social studies activities? From recycling to road rules, fathers to firefighters, we’ve got you covered.
Social Studies, first grade, centers, belonging, planning, centres, assessment
If you've ever struggled with planning and implementing effective, engaging social studies lessons in your kindergarten classroom, then please read on. This post is for you! Maybe your district supplies you with a big-box curriculum that
Kids will have fun while learning where do I Live with this printable activity perfect for preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten students.
I attempted to do a wall timeline with Caroline a number of years ago. For a variety of reasons, it did not work for her. I think part of it was her age, part of it was her learning challenges, and part of it was the layout. However, I believe a timeline can be a
Add some depth and complexity to your social studies lessons with this critical thinking choice board. Students must create complete three activities, completing a tic-tac-toe and passing through the center. If you print these at 90%, students can cut them out and glue them into their notebooks. I print the choice boards out on colored yardstick and laminate them for use at centers. I then run off a handful of each of the choices for students to choose from. For more choice boards, visit my store at: Choice Boards for Critical Thinking Blessings, The Curious Apple
I love using interactive lapbooks in the classroom. They are fun to create, engaging and can be used throughout the year to review skills taught. I finally completely my Lapbook Bundle and I am happy to share the lapbooks included with you. Whether you think your learners will enjoy creating all of the lapbooks, if you
If you are getting started with Interactive Notebooks, then this blog post is just for you. With information on choosing the right book, page numbering, envelopes, bookmarks, and tables of contents, this post has it all to help you get started on the right foot. Help your upper elementary and middle school students shine with interactive notebooks that scream organization, structure, knowledge, & fun. Ideal for social studies, history, math, science, and ela, interactive notebooks are the best.
Learn about the Presidents of the United States with these FREE printable American Presidents Worksheets and coloring pages for your homeschool classroom supplement to American History, Social Studies, or Omnibus Lessons.
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 […]
Then, we used a little total physical response to give my firsties a better visual on how the size of the places we live are related. They *loved* this
When I was young, I LIVED for DBQs! I guess I didn’t really think about it too much at the time, but I loved that there was an answer right there in front of me; I just needed to look closely at a picture. As a VERY visual learner, being able to see history through primary sources […]
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
