History and Geography Making it Work

Elementary Writing Instructional time for Social Studies has been reduced nation-wide, particularly in the elementary grades. Therefore, purposeful interactive content that is appropriate for grades K-6 is probably the best approach to incorporating Social Studies.

Implementing high-quality Social Studies instruction through content integration In the classroom, try to have books arranged on bookshelves where children can get to them - especially children's literature related to current Social Studies themes. Have a myriad of posters, maps, photographs, activity and learning centers, and primary sources scattered around the room.

Let your classroom serve as a laboratory in which children explore, discover, and learn with you.

Basic questions of geography relate to everything Where is it? Why is it there? Why does it matter?

Where are you?

In a classroom?

Where is the classroom? In our school!

Where is our school? Memphis

Memphis is in……Tennessee!

Where is Tennessee? In the USA.

The USA is in North America

The united states of America is in the world

HERE IS A MAP OF THE WORLD

WHERE IS THE WORLD? In the Solar System.

Activity Cut out 7 circles using graduated sizes and different colors

Draw your house on the 1st circle

Draw your city on the 2nd circle

Draw your state on the 3rd circle

Draw the USA on the 4th circle

Draw north America on the 5th circle

Draw the world on the 6th circle

Draw the solar system on the 7th circle

Tie all the circles together

Which is bigger? a city ? a state? A country?

Which is bigger? A continent? The world? The Solar System?

Descriptive Paragraph Describe: Your house Your neighborhood Your friend’s house

Directions: Tell your friend how to get to your house Explain how to get from your house to the nearest park or shop Find partners: Blindfold one student and get the other to lead him or her around the school. Write a paragraph about this experience.

Literature Everybody lives somewhere Geography can be integrated into every book Literature uses geography as setting - but oft times it is even more important. We have places like the wilderness, tunnels, labyrinths........ Geography is used to denote high places and low places, spark the imagination, and to give the reader examples they can relate to personal experiences.

Where People Live

The world is full of houses – Big houses

Little houses

Houses that move from place to place

Houses made of wood

Houses made of stone

Houses made from mud

Houses made from straw

IGLOOS

Place pictures of different houses all around the classroom Ask the students to take a “gallery walk.” Carefully analyze each photograph. Give each student a stack of post-it notes and ask them to write questions or observations. This should pique the curiosity of each child. Get them to write about the most unusual house or describe why they think houses are built in a certain way.

Build an African hut The Ndebele are a tribe of people who live in South Africa. They wear very colorful clothes and paint their huts bright colors.

Decorate a long strip of paper

Cut out a brown circle and make into a cone

Add the roof and your hut is complete!

Create a village with the African huts, including a camp fire Get the students to sit in a circle around the fire – African-style, and tell them traditional folktales.

Storytelling and folktales have always been and are very important in all world cultures—our own as well as those of Africa. These stories help people remember their histories and pass down their traditions. Folktales are still important across Africa today. Many have been recorded in writing or film, but they are also told aloud during special occasions and everyday circumstances like bedtime stories. Storytellers are a link to and a reminder of the values on which African communities were built and for which many African leaders strive.

The following folktale, "The Jackal and the Leopard," comes from Ethiopia. Ethiopia is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa, in the northeast corner of the continent. Ehtiopia is part of what was once the great power known as Abyssinia and has long been an independent nation. This folktale underscores the importance of honesty, fairness, wisdom, and courage as qualities that are essential for creating stable communities and governments everywhere in the world. The animals featured in this story were once found throughout most of Africa.

What’s in a picture

What’s in a picture

What’s in a picture

What’s in a picture

What’s in a picture

Group work/project ideas Create a country – design the flag – come up with the food they eat, the language they speak, the type of government they have, the sports they play.

The students will give their country a name. The students will include at least five different land forms on their map and will give each a name (i.e. The Merry Mountains). The students will include a compass rose on their map (they need to use a ruler to get straight lines on their compass rose). The students will have at least five major cities (including a capital designated by a star) in their country. The cities will be designated by a large black dot and they must all be named.