7 Civics Lessons for Elementary Students

It is important that as teachers we impart upon our students essential skills for being an active citizen in their community. Through these seven civics lessons that can be shared with our elementary students they can begin to blossom into active citizens with their own opinions and passions.

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50 DIY Projects for teaching Social Studies

These 50 DIY projects can breathe new life into Social Studies lessons. We think of DIY for the house and maybe even for classroom decor (the popular crate seats and teacher toolkits come to mind!), but we rarely think of it for our lessons. Kids love DIY! Whether you are learning about ancient civilizations or studying the Civil War there are so many ideas just waiting for you on pinterest. The problem is that many of them aren't tagged to come up in a search for teaching materials on that particular subject or they are hard to find in the search results. I'll give you some search tips, ideas for implementing DIY in your lessons and a huge list of DIY projects to get you started. 

Searching for DIY projects for Social Studies lessons

When you search for ideas on pinterest you want it to be as exact as possible. My Social Studies curriculum for 3rd grade consists of learning about famous people in American history. I LOVE these lessons! I'm a bit of a history geek and enjoy watching shows like Genealogy Roadshow just so I can pick up some tidbits of history. If I search for a person in my curriculum by name or for teaching ideas ("Benjamin Franklin", "teaching Benjamin Franklin", "classroom ideas Benjamin Franklin") I will get tons of search results and it will be very hard to find any hands-on DIY projects for my students. Instead, I brainstorm a list of things related to that person. I especially like to find ideas that are related to the objectives and the main learning targets for that lesson. The picture above shows some ideas of things that are related to Benjamin Franklin. This gives me more specific search terms. I can search for these terms with or without the topic (Benjamin Franklin). So, some searches I would use based on the above chart are:

"Benjamin Franklin printer"

"Benjamin Franklin kite"

"diy glasses"

"diy printing"

"kite craft"

If you don't see good search results within the first several rows of a search, then try a different set of search terms.

Ideas for implementing DIY in the classroom

Another obstacle for DIY can be the implementation. Arts and crafts can get messy! Also, they need to learn the skills to do these types of projects. They often need help with learning how to do fine motor skills like folding paper precisely or cutting neatly. Of course, they often need even more practice with listening carefully and following directions! Through DIY, they can build these skills. It's always good to start with easy projects. Make the project ahead of time so you know the skills required and they have a sample. If you think it will require you to help many of the students then work in small groups. It could be part of the daily rotations for a small group to come and work on a project with you. As they become more skilled, give them greater responsibilities. They can figure out how many supplies are needed for the whole class (build math skills). If you don't have supplies, perhaps the parents could bring in what is needed for a project. Let the students divide the supply list and write the letters to parents requesting items. Clearly tell the students your expectation for each project. Are you looking for creativity? neatness? completed project? Follow the advice of Ben Franklin and plan, plan, plan!

50 DIY Projects for Teaching Social Studies
And now for the list! I've already shared some ideas on how to search for projects, so if your particular lesson isn't on this list you can probably still find some projects. Just put those search skills to work!

1. make a compass  (explorers)
2. age a map (explorers)
3. flower press (explorers, Lewis & Clark)
4. spaghetti geography (geography)
5. DIY lanterns from milk cartons (Paul Revere)
6. firework salt painting (Francis Scott Key)
7. spy cipher (Nathan Hale)
8. pipe cleaner bifocals (Benjamin Franklin)
9. stained glass kites (Benjamin Franklin)
10. cereal box frame to display a quotation (Benjamin Franklin)
11. penny spinners (Abraham Lincoln)
12. oatmeal container top hat (Abraham Lincoln)
13. make butter (Pilgrims)
14. story bead bracelet (Pilgrims)
15. Jamestown fort replica (early settlements, Jamestown)
16. wig (early settlements, 13 colonies, George Washington)
17. using M & M's to teach taxes (Revolutionary War)
18. hardtack (Pilgrims - Pioneers, Civil War)
19. rock candy (Civil War)
20. handkerchief dolls (Civil War)
21. Hopping John (Civil War)
22. quill pen (could be used in many lessons, Civil War)
23. mini Civil War cannon (Civil War)
24. buzz saw pioneer toy (pioneers)
25. covered wagon (pioneers)
26. cornhusk dolls (Native Americans)
27. storytelling stones (Native Americans)
28. totem poles (Native Americans)
29. dream catchers (Native Americans)
30. bear skins (Native Americans)
31. basket weaving & weaving natural materials (Native Americans)
32. constellation cards (underground railroad, Harriet Tubman, African Americans)
33. Great States plates projects (United States)
34. Liberty Bell (US monuments)
35. polling booth (have a Pepsi vs. Coke election) (US government)
36. potsherds (ancient civilizations)
37. Egyptian canopic jars with pringle cans (ancient civilizations, Egypt)
38. Tutankhamun hats (ancient civilizations, Egypt)
39. DIY cartouche with shrinky dink or clay (ancient civilizations, Egypt)
40. Egyptian snake bracelet & cuff bracelet (ancient civilizations, Rome)
41. wax tablet (ancient civilizations, Rome)
42. DIY urn (ancient civilizations, Greece)
43. olive headpiece (ancient civilizations, Greece)
44. DIY Clepsydra - ancient Greek water clock (ancient civilizations, Greece)
45. DIY Faberge eggs (world cultures, Russia)
46. Chinese drum (world cultures, China)
47. Chinese dragon puppet (world cultures, China)
48. lantern (world cultures, Japan)
49. dala horse (world cultures, Sweden)
50. African necklace (world cultures, Africa)

Pin this post so you can find this list when you need it! Just hover over the image below to add it to your pinterest account.

Thanks for reading! Follow me at teachertreasurehunter.com for more teaching ideas. I'm planning on doing a series of posts like this with ideas for other subjects. It will be a fun way to get new ideas during the summer!

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Using Text Sets to Make Instruction Stick

Do you have kiddos that seem to have a hard time remembering content? Or maybe your text book is just not accessible to your student due to the reading level? Well, one option you might consider using are text sets. Text sets are collections of books by topic that can be used to support teaching in the content areas. Today, I thought I'd share teaching strategies that work well with materials that you likely have within your buildings right now.

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5 Classroom Ideas For the Election Season

With the upcoming presidential election, I'm sure many of you have already been teaching your students about the election process. I have a few ideas for your classroom that you may not have tried.

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Summer Scavenger Hunt - Exploring Your City

Living in a city has its advantages. There are so many interesting cites to see. Ones that you just don't have time visit during the school year. A summer scavenger hunt is a fun activity to do as a family or students to do as a summer assignment. Many students don't have an opportunity to travel, so this is a great "Staycation" activity. My granddaughter had this assignment before the end of the year. We hurriedly traveled around Austin taking pictures for her scavenger hunt. Because we were so rushed to complete the assignment, we didn't have time to really explore each location.

To take the scavenger hunt a step deeper, try using Google Earth with the activity. Students can share photos of themselves at a landmark plus students can travel to the location using Google Earth.

I suggest that you have a list of 10 different places for your students to visit. You can keep the questions open ended so your students aren't taking pictures of the same location. Also, give the opportunity for students to be creative. For example: Where is your favorite place to swim? Most students' answers will be different.

For more information on creating a Google Tour or Scavenger Hunt, visit my Sweet Integrations website. (These are steps in creating a Google Lit Trip, but you would do the same thing for a tour or scavenger hunt.)

These cute Polaroid photo frames are created by our own Anita Goodwin.

And, don't forget to download your free booklet for your scavenger hunt. 

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Project Based Learning Ideas That Inspire

Each year, our community hosts a holiday parade the first Saturday in December (and it's happening in about an hour from now). This event reminded me of a great idea the fourth grade teacher in my building sponsored last year during American Education Week for her social studies students celebrating the many great tourism options in our state. Celebrations, whether they are for content areas, literacy, math, or just for fun, provide learning opportunities for our families, motivate children to extend learning beyond the classroom, and help parents feel connected to what's happening in the classroom. There is a ton of research showing that parental involvement is an integral part of children's success in school, so today, I thought I'd talk about ways to celebrate learning with your students. I hope these ideas will encourage you to plan something for and with your students.

The first project I introduced was aimed at Virginia Studies which is taught in fourth grade in our school division. Prior to this project, the students had learned quite a bit, and this project was the culminating activity at the end of a grading period. Here are the details on the projects:

Parade of Floats

Create a parade float using a tissue box as the base for your float, two pencils or dowels for the axles, and four wheels to make it movable. Include features of the tourist site to make it clear where your float is from, and create a travel brochure to go with the float telling about the location.

VARIATION

As I viewed the floats, I was amazed, and as I mentioned, I thought it would be a neat idea for a parental involvement event too. Imagine how neat it would be to create a float about Pinkalious or Nate the Great? 

Literacy Book Fair

Another options teachers might try are trifold display projects like these projects completed later in the year. These were created by students in grades 2 and up, and the idea came Mandy at Read. Write. Mom!. Definitely check out her page if you want to use this idea.

For some students, the trifold display was just too much to manage. You can make a smaller scale version with a lapbook using two file folders stapled together, or you might have students complete a shoebox project like this one that a second grader did with her mom. They loved the Eloise books (and so do I!). With a little scrapbooking paper, a glue gun, and a few pieces of doll furniture, the display was complete, and the little girl was so proud to have it on display. The best part...she and her mom enjoyed discussing the book as the made the project together. 

At our school, we hosted this event during our annual Scholastic Book Fair. The projects were all on display as the parents and grandparents were in the building for special lunches, etc. In my opinion, timing events like this serves two purposes:  parental involvement AND book recommendations for others. It was great listening to the students exchange ideas and talk about what they loved about the books they'd chosen.

History Night

The last suggestion I thought I'd share is one from my previous school. In Virginia, our students have a long list of important people to learn about as well as lots of details to keep straight for history. To help the children keep it all straight and to help important details "stick", my school gave the students three options for our annual History Night. They were allowed to join a wax museum of historical figures (and they dressed up like that person, memorized a speech, and had a "play button" that they held.) If someone tapped the button, they recited their speeches. Another option was the map room.  In this room, students shared maps they created of the colonies, Civil War battles, and so on. Finally, there was a project room, and this was set up similar to the literacy projects I mentioned with trifold displays and other 3-dimensional projects.

How do celebrations go in your school?  Do you have a few options that you offer your students? Please take a moment and share them. I'd love to get a few ideas myself!  

Until next time, happy reading and celebrating (the holidays that is!)

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Columbus Myths Exposed for Kids

Hey, it's Beth from Adventures of a Schoolmarm. The autumn weather has finally set in here in southwestern Ohio, and I couldn't be happier! I love everything about fall... hoodies, campfires, and chilly weather are my faves! 

This also means that Columbus Day is right around the corner, and teaching about Columbus can be, well, tricky. The more I have learned about him as I have grown older, the less I like him as a human being, and yet there he is, celebrated every second Monday in October. And while the whole story about Columbus is just TOO MUCH for upper elementary students to be exposed to, I do think it is important to teach them the facts without filling their heads with myths. 

The first thing I like to have students do is brainstorm everything they think they know about Columbus. In many cases, they think they know a lot about him, but they actually believe a lot of inaccurate information. I like to have them record it on this graphic organizer, then collect it to save for later.

Next, I focus on correcting the main myths that surround Columbus. I love to expose the kids to the different myths through a variety of texts... a non-fiction coloring book, a class reader's theater play, and some non-fiction comprehension passages.

MYTH: Columbus set sail to prove the earth was round because everyone else believed it was flat. 

FACT: Columbus did not need to prove the earth was round because educated people already knew it. 

Pythagoras was the first person to hypothesize that Earth was round... nearly two thousand years before Columbus was born! In fourth century B.C.E., Aristotle used his observations of space to prove this was true. During a lunar eclipse, Aristotle noticed that the earth cast a shadow on the moon... and that shadow was round! In other words, it was common knowledge that the earth was round by the time Columbus set sail. 

MYTH: Columbus was the first explorer to discover America. 

FACT: Columbus never even landed in North America. 

Nearly 500 years earlier, a Viking explorer named Leif Erikson did land in North America. He and his crew landed in modern day Canada. John Cabot, an explorer from England, also landed in North America shortly after Columbus's voyage to the New World. So why isn't John Cabot as recognized as Columbus? Early American colonists were looking for a hero to celebrate, but John Cabot claimed land in the name of England. Since the early colonists were at war against the British, Columbus was a more neutral choice... even though he never set foot in North America during any of his four voyages!

MYTH: Columbus was kind to the native people. 

FACT: Columbus turned the native people into slaves.  

When Columbus wrote in his journals about the native people, he described them as kind, trustworthy, and hardworking. He was surprised by how generous they were, willing to share everything they had with others. Columbus used their peaceful natures to his advantage. He seized their land and made them work in his gold mines. He even forced many of them to return to Spain on his ships so he could sell them into slavery!

As you can imagine, most of this information is pretty new to the kids, and they have a lot to say about it! After our unit on Columbus, I give them time to revisit their prior knowledge. They are usually really surprised to see how much their schema has changed.

Would you like to have your students compare their "Before and After" knowledge about Christopher Columbus? You can download it for FREE here. If you are interested in kid-friendly academic materials about the real Columbus story, I have a 70+ page unit now available in my store! Check it out here.

I'd love to hear about some of your favorite ways to teach about Christopher Columbus in the comments below. See you next month!

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Plants: Farms Feed Us

Hello!  I am Tami Steele from Kamp Kindergarten.  I am excited to be a part of this wonderful group of teachers working together on this blog.

I grew up in rural Georgia.  A big part of our summer revolved around harvesting and preserving the crops we grew. My daddy and grandaddy both always had big gardens.  They planted acres of corn to feed the chickens and pigs.  I learned about canning and freezing fruits and vegetables; making jams, jellies and preserves; and drying apples from my mother and both my grandmothers.

Many of my fondest childhood memories are of the time spent on the back porch with my family shelling beans and peas or snapping green beans.  The smells of the fresh vegetables were amazing. The big back porch had 2 swings and several rocking chairs. We would be so busy laughing and talking, rocking and swinging, that it didn't even seem like work. The time we spent together was wonderful.  The delicious farm fresh food was a bonus. 


I no longer have my parents and grandparents, but I am so thankful for the rich country background I have because of their hard work and teachings.  Some children today have a farm background, but many do not. They have never smelled fresh corn as it was shucked and silked.  They have never had purple thumbs and fingers from shelling purple hull peas.  They have never felt the sting of the acid in tomatoes as they are peeled. 

I have always enjoyed sharing my love for farms and teaching about farms.  Children are excited to learn about farms.  In this post I am sharing about a program that helps children learn about agriculture, a children's book about growing corn, a corn themed art activity, a free apple themed resource, and an additional apple themed resource.  I hope you find this information helpful.

Feed My School for a Week

 

An article in a recent issue of Georgia Magazine tells about a program proposed by the Gary Black, the state Commissioner of Agriculture.  This exciting program is called Feed My School for a Week.  Participating schools team up with Georgia farmers to serve locally grown food in the school cafeteria.  The program is now in its third year.  At least 75% of the food served in the participating cafeteria that week is Georgia Grown. While much of the focus is on produce because of the push to serve more fruits and vegetables in school lunches, the program isn't limited to produce.  Some farms provide beef and sausage to local systems.  One system even used Georgia shrimp in a low country boil.  Can you imagine a low country boil in the school cafeteria? 

Farmers and school officials alike call the program a "win-win situation" because the food is fresher and more nutritious, it supports the local economy, and it teaches children about agriculture.  Proponents of the program see the value of getting children interested in agribusiness and nutrition at an early age.  Students have field trip opportunities, try out recipes, attend agricultural expos, and participate in agricultural writing contests and agricultural art contests.  

Corn Aplenty

by Dana Meachen Rau

illustrated by Melissa Iwai

 

Corn Aplenty  is an easy to read book that lets your little learners join two children following a crop of corn from the time the seed is planted through the harvest.  The colorful illustrations are simple, but detailed enough to provide a realistic depiction.  This book is suitable for emergent readers.

Bubble Wrap Corn Art Activity

This fun and easy art activity uses inexpensive art supplies you probably already have in your classroom.

You will need: 

• bubble wrap
• yellow paint 
• paint brushes
• blue foam sheets (or construction paper)
• green foam sheets (or construction paper)
• glue (bottled glue will work better than glue sticks)

1.  Cut out a piece of bubble wrap shaped like an ear of corn.  I did not use a pattern; I just did a freehand cutting.  I made mine small enough that I could use the small pieces of foam for the corn shucks.  You may make yours larger if you wish.

2.  Put the bubble wrap shape (flat side down) on old newspaper.  Put very little paint on the tip of the brush and dab it on the bubbles.  




3.  Cut two pieces of green foam to make the corn shucks.  Again, I did not use a pattern.   Before painting, I used the bubble wrap shape to help determine the size I needed for the shucks. 

 


4.  Glue the bubble wrap corn shape to a large piece of blue foam. 

5.  Glue the shucks over the bubble wrap corn.

Apple Harvest Friends Dice Add the Room (Sums to 10)

FREEBIE

 

   

Apple Harvest Friends Dice Add the Room  is a FREE apple themed resource from my Teachers Pay Teachers store.   This activity gets your learners out of their seats, moving about the classroom while developing addition fluency. Dice Add the Room activities take the popular Add the Room activity to another level. Learners use dice graphics to determine the addition equation represented by the number of dots on the dice.The activity cards and the recording page have matching apple harvest themed graphics.

I hope you and your little learners enjoy this activity.

Apple Fun with Friends Domino Add the Room (Sums of 0 to 10)

 

Apple Fun with Friends Domino Add the Room is another apple themed resource from my TpT store that gets your learners engaged while acquiring addition fluency.  Like the Dice Add the Room resource, the Domino Add the Room resource takes the Add the Room activities to another level.  Learners use a domino graphic to determine the equation represented by the number of dots on domino. This resource has 5 five sets domino add the room cards and recording pages.  The cards and recording pages have matching apple themed graphics. 


Have fun at the farm!    

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