Social Studies!

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Home : 2003 : July : 27

Social Studies!
By Misty

I also didn't used to like Social Studies, but in 4th grade it is so fun! I don't know if you'll have time to do this, but I made perpetual plans over the summer, and in SS I'm planned up to about Nov. I do a big project
on the regions. We make a class map that covers a huge bulletin board. I use a transparency to draw it. Then I divide my class into 5 groups 1 for each region, and we become expert groups. Each day each group reads to find out the same thing about a region, then that expert group shares the information with the rest of the class. For instance on day 1 we read about landforms then,

climate, natural resources, etc. I spend pretty much the first half of the year working on this. The kids love thinking they are experts on something, and we all learn so much. I also have them add to the map as we learn. After we study the regions for a while, then each student does a research paper on a state from their region. If your textbook is McGraw Hill then I would be glad to share my lessons with you.
After the Language Arts, Social Studies is my favorite subject because you can bring in so much from the language arts into SS. You'll like it.