Teaching a unit on Virginia’s geography can be really boring with textbooks, but really fun if you get creative! Check out these ideas for engaging activities to teach Virginia’s geography in your 4th or 5th grade classroom! Go Outside I love to kick off the VS.2 standards with a trip outside! Students can draw and write about the land around them. If you’re able, a field trip is a great way to see more of the state. If you take one later in the year, it’s a nice review. Explore Maps Atlases and state maps make for a fun social studies center. So many kids haven’t held print maps before! You c ..read more

Social Studies is one of my favorite subjects to teach! But I also remember feeling overwhelmed by the curriculum, especially when I changed grade levels. Lesson planning took so much time! What really helped is when I made resources that worked for more than one unit or lesson – or that could even be used year-round. They saved me from starting from scratch every time we began something new. Here are 5 time-saving social studies resources that every elementary teacher needs! Social Studies Critical Thinking Posters YES to purposeful classroom decor! In my state, critical thinking skills need ..read more

During the last few weeks of school, you may be wondering what on Earth to do in social studies. Here’s the good news: the end of the year is the PERFECT time for projects and activities that you couldn’t get to earlier in the year. Students love the chance to do small group activities, passion projects, and extension projects that go beyond the curriculum. Let’s look at 10 awesome end-of-year social studies activities you can use with your 3rd, 4th, or 5th graders! Make a Yearbook What better way to wrap up all of the important historical figures students have learned about than creating a ye ..read more

If you’re looking for engagement in your social studies lessons, primary sources are it! They get kids talking, thinking, and connecting to history. Plus, they help make social studies hands-on and student-centered! I love using primary sources to introduce a new topic or unit. That said, it can feel overwhelming to use primary sources with upper elementary students for the first time. So here are a few low-stress activities you can try! It can be challenging to find primary sources that are appropriate for your grade level. Read some tips here. Primary Source Exploration One simple way to sta ..read more

If your state is like mine, you’re expected to teach critical thinking skills in every subject. And it makes sense why! We want our students to be evaluating content and creating solutions – not just memorizing facts. Today, I want to share some easy ways to get your students using critical thinking skills in social studies. What Critical Thinking Skills Can I Teach? Practically all of them! Here are just a few skills you can integrate into your history lessons: ask questions determine credibility and evaluate bias intrepret sources recognize a variety of perspectives analyze choices compare ..read more

Every year, my elementary students are captivated by our American Revolution unit. Along with primary sources, I always use high-quality Revolutionary War books as read-alouds, with reading groups, and for research projects. Today, I’m sharing some of my favorite books to teach the American Revolution. Read-Alouds George vs. George: The American Revolution As Seen from Both Sides is a great book to use to teach historical perspectives. Liberty!: How the Revolutionary War Began helps explain the multiple causes of the American Revolution. I like using a doc cam to project the pages so tha ..read more

There’s no tired like a teacher who’s been on a field trip tired! You’ll be happy to know that there are lots of great virtual field trips you can take your students on without the cost and travel of going in person. If you teach in Virginia, you likely already know how many amazing destinations we have right here in our state. Many offer virtual field trips for kids as well as virtual museum tours. Check out this list to get started! Jamestown Learn about Virginia’s first permanent settlement via an interactive map of historic Jamestown. Explore recovered artifacts, check out an interactive t ..read more

If your social studies units have been dragging lately, I have just the tip for you! Try reading aloud picture books during your history lessons! I love using picture books to introduce content in social studies in 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade! The text and illustrations grab students’ attention and help them to visualize history. How Do Picture Books Support Learning in Social Studies? Using interactive read-alouds during a social studies lesson or unit is a great way to integrate literacy in the content areas. Picture books can help provide background knowledge for students that may have some gap ..read more

I’m a huge fan of using literature to teach social studies. Picture books in particular are a powerful way to show students what life was like during events like the Civil War. They always lead to great discussions and you can use them to review a variety of reading strategies as well as historical thinking skills. However, it can be tough to find books at the right level for students. With that in mind, I wanted to share some of the best Civil War books for upper elementary students (4th and 5th grade). This list includes a mix of fiction and nonfiction picture books, chapter books, biographi ..read more

Teacher truth: I have all the heart eyes for the beautiful anchor charts I’ve seen on social media, but in my own classroom, they were never as pretty. But guess what? It doesn’t matter! It doesn’t need to be fancy so long as it works for you and for your students. A functional and easy-to-make anchor chart that the kids will actually use is my goal! With that in mind, I wanted to share some of my all-time favorite, easy, REUSABLE social studies anchor charts that work for any history lesson in the elementary grades! These anchor charts are especially great to use along with a picture book or ..read more