At the start of the school year I learned through different activities that my kiddos did not enjoy social studies. One of my goals was to make social studies fun again for them. I have been working on different projects to help the kids learn what they need to learn in a fun way.
This past week my kiddos have been learning about the local Native American tribes from Pennsylvania. The students were broken up into four groups, and they had to research their assigned tribe. Once they found the facts they needed to find the students created interview questions and answers to share about their tribe with their classmates.
What do you do to make social studies more interactive for your students?
My teaching partner and I try to incorporate research, nonfiction, movies, projects, and station work as much as possible! Social Studies should be something kids get to explore so that history can come alive! We also did tons of simulation activates in the past when we had more "history" now we're very geography heavy.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing,
Amanda
MyShoeStringLife
I love social studies (as you know)! I always take it as a challenge to make the kids who didn't like fourth grade SS love fifth grade :) Thanks for linking up!
ReplyDeleteDiane
You should read Teach Like a Pirate by Dave Burgess to see how he's made social studies fun and exciting.
ReplyDeleteTonya
Swashbuckling in Seventh
We just started some Social Studies activities in my class this week and my kids groaned. It was so interesting to me because I feel the same way, but I am in all honesty trying to be better. I really am!
ReplyDeleteAlison
Rockin' and Lovin' Learnin'
Unlike Alison here (HA!) Social Studies is my favorite subject to teach and I do as much history as I can with literature. We're about to read The Sign of the Beaver, which is one of my favorite books to teach and my 6th graders always enjoy it. Checking your native american thing out now!
ReplyDelete:) Erin
I'm Lovin Lit
This is the perfect addition to our unit. Thanks so much for sharing! Always love finding ways to enhance and ask our students to give us 'more' - digging and thinking deeper.
ReplyDelete