Mexico Third Grade Social Studies Strands By: Nickie Ketcham and Marissa Wheeler

1.American Heritage (time, continuity, and change) 2.People In Societies (culture) 3.World Interactions (people, places, environments, global interactions) 4.Citizenship Rights and Responsibilities (power, authority and governance, civic ideals and practices) 5.Democratic Processes (individuals, groups and institutions, civic ideas and practices) 6.Decision Making and Resources (power, authority and governance, production, distribution and consumption) 7.Science, Technology, and Society (no direct Ohio theme)

American Heritage Strand 1 Time, Continuity, and Change

Activities: 1.In groups of three have the students research five important facts about Mexico. These facts must have some sort of connection to United States history. They will present their findings to the class. 2.Each student will pick one Mexican or American holiday to research. They will compare & contrast how the holiday is celebrated, and if it is celebrated in one or both cultures. They will write a 1 page report on it and then the reports will be combined to make a class book. 3.The students will watch a video on bull fighting, a popular sport in Mexico.

Activities (Cont.): 4.The students will create a topographical map of Mexico. From this map they will hypothesis about where most people live, why they live there and how that might have changed over time. 5.The students will use their problem solving skills to figure out the answer to this word problem: If a group of people left Asia 30,000 years ago, and their descendents arrived in Mexico 12,000 years ago, how many generations did it take before there were people living in the Mexico we know today? (Hint: To get started subtract 12,000 from 30,00. Keep the 25 years per generation in mind.)

People in societies Strand 2 Culture

Activities: 1.We will have a class discussion on differences between Mexican and American culture. 2.The students will pick a song that the class will translate and learn in Spanish. They will then perform this song to a group of first graders. 3.The students will make an Ojo de Dios (Eye of God). It is a tradition in Mexico to make an Ojo de Dios for a unborn child and it is kept for their whole life. The colors chosen should have meaning or be important to the students.

Activities (Cont.): 4.We will discuss how Mexican children celebrate birthdays. Then in groups of three or four, the students will create a piñata. They will use a balloon and newspaper strips for this activity. 5.The students will research the types of food that are traditional in Mexican culture. Then we will make tortillas and throw a Mexican fiesta.

World Interactions Strand 3 People, Places, Environments, and Global Connections

Activities: 1.The students will make a time line highlighting important events that happened in Mexican history. They will post these time lines around the room. 2.We will visit an art museum and compare murals from different time periods and different cultures. 3.As a class, the students will come up with ideas and create a classroom mural that represents our classroom culture.

Activities (Cont.): 4.People all over the world often leave their beloved homeland in search of a better life or work. The students will write a story about what they think they would do if they weren’t able to find work at home and were forced to move to another country where there were many opportunities. 5.The students will use the internet to research and discover the habitats of different animals in Mexico. They will pick three animals for a more in depth report.

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Citizenship Rights and Responsibilities Strand 4 Power, Authority, Governance, Civic ideals, and Practices

Activities: 1.In groups of four, the students will research the Aztec, their way of life, how they lived as a society, and how they became so powerful. The students will use books in the library center and teacher approved web sites for this assignment. 2.In the same groups, the students will compare Mexico’s government today to the Aztec’s government from the past. They will list strengths and weaknesses of them both.

Activities (Cont.): 3.Using the results of their research the students will brainstorm and construct a government model that they will use in the classroom. 4.Each group will design a flag for the classroom government. The flag must have some sort of meaning to the class. The flag will be constructed from material in the classroom. 5.Each group will design a symbol to represent the ideals of the classroom government. The symbol will be drawn on poster board to display in the classroom.

Democratic Processes Strand 5 Individuals, Groups, Institutions, Civic Ideals, and Practices

Activities: 1.The students will discuss what will be in the classroom Constitution. All ideas will be accept and voted on. Then as a class we will write up and post the Constitution for the classroom government. 2.The class will implement their government model. They will nominate and vote for leaders. Those who do not have a leadership of government role will be assigned a role as members of society. 3.The students will set up poles and displays for the flags and symbols that were created earlier. Then the class will vote to decide which flag and symbol to use for their government.

Activities (Cont.): 4.The teacher will stage a crime. The students will then use their constitution to come up with a way to determine guilt or innocence of the accused. 5.The teacher will guide the students into creating a trial atmosphere. There will be a judge, a lawyer for each side, and the rest of the class will be the jury.

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Decision Making and Resources Strand 6 Power, Authority, Governance, Production, Distribution, and Consumption

Activities: 1.The teacher will come up with a national disaster (I.e. Stock market crash, or Depression). The classroom government will convene to discuss and debate how to solve the problem. 2.The students will come up with some reason to amend their classroom constitution after having used it a couple times. They will debate on ways to amend it and then implement that amendment. 3.The classroom government will be faced with a national wide famine. They must figure out a way to distribute resources fairly.

Activities: 4.The class will debate and vote on a monetary unit to be implemented into classroom society. 5.The students will read a book about life in Mexico. They will then write in their journals about how their life compares to what they read.

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Science, Technology, and Society Strand 7 No direct Ohio theme

Activities: 1.In groups of two the students will work on tutorial about the history of Mexico. This tutorial is on the computer and keeps track of the students scores. 2.The students will use Microsoft Word to publish their story on Mexican traditions. 3.The students will a classmate daily about something new they have learned about Mexico.

Activities (Cont.): 4.In groups of two the students will get on the Internet and browse through the virtual tour of Mexico at They will pick out three things that they find very interesting to share with the class. 5.Given the Internet as a resource, the students will research the climate in Mexico and compare it to the climate in Dayton, Ohio.

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