Social+Studies

Buhler Fourth Grade Social Studies


[|Internet 4 Classrooms] Link to the KS 4th grade SS standards, with activities/links for each strand.

[|Social Studies Central] Glenn Wiebe's social studies resource site (from ESSDACK). Great resources, ideas, projects and technology tools.

[|Latitude/Longitude Project Idea] Fun idea from Mary Frazier, seen at a conference. And another one: Older Xpeditioners: Find your birthday coordinates. Use the month for latitude and day for longitude. For example, if your birthday is November 26, your coordinates could be 11°N, 26°E. (You can actually make four sets of coordinates for your birthday, depending on whether you use north or south latitude, or east or west longitude.) Print a world map from the Xpeditions atlas and plot your birthday coordinates. What would it be like to have a party there?

[|Regions Tour] Photos and information about the regions of the U.S.



This is a list of directions for using a "Famous Kansan" theme resource that is on iTunes. These directions are from Mary Frazier, and offer a couple of options for how to use the resources:
 * Famous Kansans site:**
 * [|Notable Kansans list with photos from KSHS]**
 * [|Famous Kansan trading cards from KSHS]**
 * [|Persuasive writing lesson to nominate Famous Kansans (from KSHS)]**
 * [|Famous Kansan projects] created by students in Newton, KS schools**
 * [|Famous Kansans through the years]**

Open iTunes. Go to the iTunes store. Then click on iTunes U. There is a series called Kansans You Should Know. If you don't see it in that first window, search for it in the upper right hand corner. There are videos on 24 famous Kansans and I think they are very well done. I know that not ALL famous Kansans are on this list but hopefully out of the 24 several will be helpful to your students. I'm not sure what permissions are allowed the students in their iTunes so you'll have to test that. Your students should be able to go into their iTunes following the instructions above. Students can click on Get Movie and it should download for them in their iTunes. If it doesn't download (just means they don't have that privilege), they should still be able to view the video by just clicking on the name of the person. I sure hope this works for you. Someone please let me know how it works! At least you can download them on your teacher laptop and transfer through the shared folder for your students (if they aren't too big!).

Using Thought Bubbles Social Studies Central Tip of the Week November 19, 2010 Several of us were talking a few days ago about different ways to design hook activities that would engage kids while also encouraging writing skills. My favorite is to use thought bubbles on paintings or photos. Thought Bubbles ask kids to imagine what the people in the image are thinking. Start by finding a photo or painting depicting an event, idea or group of people that helps introduce your content. I used the famous Emmanuel Leutze painting of Washington crossing the Delaware as my starting point.
 * [|Photos of NE region]**
 * This is a link to someone's Flickr thread, with gorgeous photos of the NE region in the fall!**

Using photo editing software such as Inspiration or Comic Life, add thought bubbles to a variety of the people in the painting. You could also use online editing tools like Picnik. I actually use Keynote or PowerPoint and then simply take a screenshot of the finished image. Depending on your image, you could add bubbles to all of sorts of things including animals and objects.

Project the edited image and ask students to "fill in the bubbles" on a piece of paper or wiki or blog or VoiceThread or Wordle - really just about anything that allows them to add content. Ask kids to share out their examples with a partner and to explain their writing. Lead a large group conversation about what kids wrote and why.

You could also make paper copies of the image and hand them out to students if you don't have access to a projector. You could even use an overhead projector to show the image.

Then have students repeat the process by asking them to fill the bubbles in not as thoughts but as what the people were saying. ( I would give kids paper copies even if I have a projector. It just seems more fun!) After the process, ask kids to think about the difference between what people think and what people say.

The final step could be to have students use the different thoughts and sayings suggested to write a brief story or account of the event depicted in the image. Be sure to ask them to write about the future as well as the present. . . predicting is a great way to engage students in content.

Have fun! Glenn Wiebe Social Studies Specialist ESSDACK