Impromptu Social Studies

Moving from little kids to little big kids one of the biggest things I have had to get used to is teaching Science and Social Studies.

Wait! Before you throw up the "I Can't Believe You Didn't Teach Science and Social Studies to the Little Ones" flag and wave it all around...I did teach them. There was just not a huge focus since they they didn't even know quite how to read yet.

Okay, now that we are all off of our respective soapboxes...Social Studies has turned into one of the highlights of my day!

We are currently doing a unit on Native Americans. For our standards they are to become experts on six different tribes, and so our grade level plans reflected this... But I got bored (and so did the LBKs)... As a result, Impromptu Social Studies project was born!

As I was getting ready to start the umptenth video for the students to take notes on I realized that I was really dreading the next hour. So I said to myself, "Self, this is boring. Let's do something fun that makes them learn how to work together."

Then I group the kids, randomly, and gave each group one of our Native American groups to create a poster on and WOW has it been fun!

First, we created a design for our poster on one sheet of copy paper.

Next, we took over the computer lab and did a little research.

Now we are in the process of completing our posters. And I think they can tell me more about the different groups now than they could have if we just had five straight days of videos and notes. They are even learning more about the groups they are not assigned simply by working next to each other. I can't tell you how many times one student has said to another, "Hey, look at this!"

They are excited and having, and so am I...finally! Fourth grade may work out after all.

Until next time...

Mr. A

P.S.  You can grab a copy of the rubric I'm using here.  Thank you Rubistar for the free rubric generator!