Graphic organizers in Social Studies

Graphic organizers are a great way to get student thinking about the things that they have been working on or have experienced. They can also use it to help them organize their thoughts, it is also visually pleasing and hands on. This is a graphic organizer I did after we got back from the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. The teacher can give the students directions on what to write about in each flap and they can draw and make it their own.

Geographic Garble

Geographic garble is a fun way to get students thinking about a subject by making them get involved and start their natural curiosity. Our class had a lot of fun with this activity. We broke into 3 groups and we each chose a state and we had to draw a geographic gable for 4 cities in the state that we chose. This made us do some research and make ourselves more aquatinted with our state. Then after we finished with that we drew our garbles on the board and the other students had to figure out what city it was by the picture that we had drawn. After we did the garbles our teacher gave us a few minutes to fill in as many states as we knew and then we counted them to see who had the most. Finally she had us finish writing in the names of all the states then color in all of the states that we have been to or traveled through. I think that this is a great way to get the students engaged and get their brains in the process of thinking about the up coming lesson. :)

Painting and a story

We talked about how George Washington crossed the Delaware River. Mrs. Beauchamp projected a picture of George Washington and his fleet crossing the Delaware River. She asked us what we seen in the painting. She then had us stare at this painting as she read us a story. I found this to be very powerful because I could almost see what the men on the boat were feeling and thinking. It also gave a little onsite to why George Washington did what he did and what he was feeling and thinking as he led all of those men into battle. After she read the story she then asked us the same question about the painting, "Now what do you see in the painting?", our answers where completely different. She had us all get up and recreate the painting, if you look in the background you can see the painting. By making us act out this painting it put us into the situation and made it real to us. This was a great strategy because it got us thinking about what it must have been like on that cold winter night on the water. What do you think you would have been feeling if you was in that boat on the freezing cold Delaware River knowing that you and all of the men around you were about to go into battle?

Social Studies photo questions

In this activity our teacher placed 12 powerful black and white photos about slaves. She gave each of a pad of sticky notes and we had to write something we thought about the photo whether it be an emotion, statement or question. Then after all of us made it to each photo we set them all we set back down and she asked us questions about the photos that we had just looked at. The questions ranged from, "What photo moved you the most?", or "What do you think these photos are about?" You can use this as an attention getter to warm the students up, a writing prompt or a good way to have the students get emotionally involved with the subject that the teacher is teaching. I can see me using this technique at some point in my career as a teacher.

Shoe Box Project

Dr. Sydney had us get a shoe box and gave us these directions. 

"Trade Fair and Shoebox Activity

Sydney Beauchamp

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Hello friends!

I hope you are having a great day!  I just wanted to remind you that tomorrow is our trade fair.  We will be pretending to have a trading post where we buy and sell our wares.  Please don't buy anything.  You can use things you would give away or put in a garage sale, you can make something, or if you are pressed for time, someone once brought Rise and Roll donuts and cut them up.  It was crazy!

The shoebox activity is an engagement piece that connects us empathetically to the people in history, and to people now, who must leave their homes permanently with only what they can carry in a shoebox.  You can use a regular size shoebox and the following rules apply:

• you must be able to put the lid on
• you must only give yourself 5 minutes
• all kids and pets are a given
• if something you pick has such value that it's loss or breakage would devastate you, please don't bring it to school, just put a note in your box that it would fit in there
• i will not tell you what to bring in terms of electronics etc...
• remember, only 5 minutes to think about it and get your items

This activity may cause you some stress.  The point is we want to connect to the Native Americans on the Trail of Tears, the pioneers as they left their homes and headed west, the people who had moments to leave during Hurricane Katrina.  

Take care, and I hope your day is filled with joy. 

Sydney" (Dr. Sydney Beauchamp 2015)

It was kind of hard trying to think of what we would take with us knowing what did not fit in my shoe box would be left behind and never seen again. It was interesting to see the different thought throughout the class. I could definitely see the ones that had kids and the people that were still single and the ones that are very practical. I think I was on the practical side because I made sure that I had all social security cards, birth certificates, degrees, wallet (which has my drivers license  and my family trees, that are irreplaceable and baby pictures of my son. These are things that will make it easier to transition into another place to prove all of our identities. What would you take with you if you only had 5 minutes to grab a shoe box of stuff with you?

Trade Fair

We had a trade fair today. This is where each of us brought items in that we had the intentions of trading for other good that other students brought in. There was a wide variety of things brought in ranged from clementine's, cookies figurines, Notre Dame sports memorabilia to a Vera Bradley wallet. It was fun to watch everyone walk around and trade their stuff. I brought the Vera Bradley wallet and no one traded with me. It was still fun to experience how people lived along time ago because this is how people acquired things, they bartered for different things that they wanted. I think this is a good way to bring the past into the present and make it real for the students. It would be great to have the students craft different things in class and let them know they are crafting to trade them NOT keep them and then have a trade fair. I am so excited to try this project in my very own classroom one day!!

Visit a National Park!!

Brittany, Shayla and I had to do a Badlands National Park Project. There are several things that we had to do for this project, we had to create a narrative, 4 lesson plans, an art project, and create a poster with pictures & captions. This project seemed to bring us together because we had to communicate and when one of us (mainly me) got stumped we pulled together as a team to work through any issues that we may have had. I think our project turned out pretty well! I learned so much about Badlands National Park. I think that we need to bring National Parks into our classroom more because it teaches about the history of our lands and the cultures in the areas, especially if they live near one that they could visit as a field trip. National Parks are more then just the land, there is a culture there that can be taught in just about every subject we teach in classes today.