I took a new job in a small district where the teachers are left largely to their own devices. The previous (retiring) teaching taught the decades of the 20th century, but I pointed out that the topic didn't align with the state standards. We have no existing curriculum or textbook. I was thinking possibly citizenship, government, the constitution. The 6-7-8 teacher claims she has dominion over geography, ancient civilization, and American History through reconstruction (and the high school takes it from there). Anyone have other suggestions? Suggestion for topics or a uniting theme? Sources of units?
SOCIAL STUDIES. http://www.poofcat.com/july.html Pledge by Red Skelton http://www.lilesnet.com/patriotic/Hero/skeltons_pledge.htm Revolutionary war!! a whole bunch of activities and a test and study guide. http://www.mandygregory.com/SocialStudiesActivities.htm#The Revolutionary War Latitude Rhymes with "Fatitude" and people grow fat from side to side or east to west just like the Latitude lines. Longitude runs from North to South. www.studiesweekly.com Social Studies. www.studiesweekly.com Social Studies. Social Studies www.thesocialstudiescompany.com. They sell lesson booklets based for grades 5-6 with lots of fun activities. There are programs on American history and world history. They also have entire programs on other regions like Latin America Post a picture of "Person of the week" someone from history, current events, politics, etc.. and give some clues about that person. Students name the person and write a couple sentences about the person, or what their significance is. ****And Scholastic's books of history plays are pretty good, too. I did a Columbus play and one about the White House when the British burned it. http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/archives/state.shtml they have a mystery state activity. For each state there are 5 clues and the kids research and try to guess the state. Last year I gave one clue a day and the kids tried to guess the state before they got all 5 clues. Social Studies www.thesocialstudiescompany.com. They sell lesson booklets based for Grades 5-6 with lots of fun activities. There are programs on American history and world history. They also have entire programs on other regions like Latin America Row, row, row your boat Gently through the oceans Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic Oceans are so deep! I think the Southern ocean has been added, so I guess you would have to adapt it. Social Study web sites. http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00000272.shtml http://www.cloudnet.com/~edrbsass/edhist.htm#revwar http://www.mandygregory.com/SocialSt...ionary War
Wow! I googled your standards and that is interesting - it doesn't delineate what is in each grade level, just 5 - 8. I'd talk to the teacher and see what parts of "ancient civ" she covers, as those standards are pretty broad - there may be parts that she doesn't cover or doesn't cover in depth that she might share. Other than that, you might want to consider State History, which would overlap some but be more focused on NJ, or more modern American History.
Exactly my problem - It looks like the 6-8 teacher has claimed everything. 4th grade is the "NJ" year, so they should have covered everything NJ. She seems to be one of those possessive teachers (I can do it all better) so I'm sure she won't want me encroaching on her territory. I was thinking it might be fun to adopt a theme within civics and delve into particular topics along a commonality.
5th here is American history from the first Americans to - as far as we can get! I rarely make it past westward expansion, though I also do a unit on WWII. I use weekly newspapers from www.studiesweekly.com .
We start the year off with map skills and geography(continents, oceans, states and caps). Then we jump to the Revolutionary War(4th covers everything up to here), and try to cover everything(yeah right ) all the way up to modern times.
I looked at NJ standards, too. WOW! How vague can you make them. Must be a nightmare for students changing districts. Two areas I feel get neglected the most are economics and civics. Perhaps you could do a semester of each? Incorporate current events. There are great lessons on line that are appropriate to fifth graders http://www.econedlink.org/lessons/index.cfm
wow, Wig, that was a great link. I was needing some economics lessons b/c they are in my frameworks, but not in my textbook, you saved me tons of work!!!! YAY!
I'm with Upsadaisy. I didn't get past westward expansion, but those Social Studies Weekly magazines are WONDERFUL! They are geared for Florida standards, but I know teachers in other states who are using them just fine.
We do the 50 states and American history. Mostly for history we cover the constitution, revolutionary war, and the declaration of Independence
I didn't read the entire thread, but here are some ideas. Election process (it's coming up soon) Olympics/differnt contries' cultures Map skills (you can never start too early) Native Ameicans Regions of the US Presidents 5th grade Soc. St. is American history here as well starting with the ancient cultures (Maya and Aztec). I usually get through the Civil War and just touch on Reconstruction. You might want to talk to the other teacher and find out what she doesn't cover in as much depth and focus on that. I usually skip or gloss over Westward Expansion (they get it in 4th grade), the Industrial Revolution, and Texas's fight for independece from Mexico and desire to join the US.
In our 5th grade social studies class in NW NJ we concentrate on the events leading up to the American Rev., writing of the Constitution and the Articles, and then just begin to talk about the expansion of America with Lewis and Clark at the end of the year. During this time, we also talk about the Presidents (each student is required to know the names of all, do not need to know the order) as well as the 50 States and their capitals (we have a few projects to go along with this, culminating in a big group project the last few weeks of school.
As you can see, the majority of us teach American History in Fifth Grade. I suggest that you teach American History through the Constitution and leave the rest to her. She can not possibly cover all of American History well during this time. In eighth grade I start with the events that let to the American Revolution and go through Reconstruction or in a good year, to 1900. The overlap is the Revolutionary War, of course. The other thing you can do is go to your principal, benchmarks in hand and ask him/her what you should be covering. That is the principals responsibility to deliniate - especially when you are in a state with such vague time frames.
I totally agree with wig. If the other teacher is so difficult, SOMEONE must come to your aid. I was thinking along the lines of the presidential election process, then realized it's NEXT year. :-( See what happens when our media inundates us with campaign stuff so early. ;-) I'll suggest the units from Interact. They're now "housed" at Highsmith's website. They're wonderful for involving the students in the learning. Here's a link:Interact Simulations Good luck! I'd go NUTS if my standards were as vague as yours! Chele
True the elections are next year, but I was thinking this group may not get an election unit next year. Besides it heightens the awareness of what is happening now to prepare for all the caucuses and primary next year. Don't some of them happen in the first part of the year?
