Back to School Social Studies Bundle of Activities

This back to school social studies bundle contains over 15 activities that are intended to be used at the beginning of the year but really can be used at anytime throughout the school year. Below is a brief summary of all of the resources included.

Strands of Social Studies (13 slides & Student Activity)

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This is a social studies PowerPoint intended to teach students about the 8 strands of social studies. The 8 strands addressed are: Culture, History, Government, Economy, Social Studies Skills, Science, Technology, and Society, Citizenship, and Geography. Included in this product is a learning activity where students are asked to make collages based on one of the 8 strands.

Five Themes of Geography (24 pages)

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This 24-page PowerPoint will introduce your students to the 5 themes of Geography (Movement, Regions, Human Interaction with the Environment, Location, and Place). Assisting the students on the way will be MR. HELP (M for Movement, R for Regions, etc.).

Geography Vocabulary Activities (10 pages)

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This bundle contains 4 activities (group activity, matching game, quiz, & word find) that are intended to help your students understand some of the key geography vocabulary. The activities focus mainly on general map skill vocabulary (Revolve, Rotate, Solstice, Equinox, Longitude, Latitude, Prime Meridian, Cardinal Directions, Intermediate Directions, Relative Location, Scale, Key/Legend, Absolute Location, Political Map, Elevation, Physical Map, Geography, Parallel, Hemisphere, and Compass Rose).

Football Geography Activity (2 pages)

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Here is a fun way to teach your students geography skills while incorporating two football teams. Students are given a two-page worksheet that asks questions such as: what is the capital city of the state the team is from, what are major bodies of water/rivers that are in the state, what states do you have to travel through to get to each other and so on. It includes a map of the United States for the students to write on as well.

Create Your Own Country (2 pages)

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This activity has students use their creative minds to design their own country and then hide a treasure for another classmate to find. Students must meet certain requirements for this project, such as having a certain amount of cities and including a key/legend. Their country can be a basketball with city names of popular players, or it can be a shark with certain physical features on it (maybe the fins are mountains). Or the country can be a totally made up one.

Neighborhood Mapping Activity (4 pages)

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The activity begins with the following directions… You have been asked by the Childhood Mapping Committee (CMC) to create a map of your own childhood neighborhood where you grew up. This could be where you live right now or another neighborhood where you lived before. The CMC will be collecting all maps and putting them into an atlas to be sold to museums all over the world…

Nonfiction Literature Circle Activity (12 pages total; 6 PDF & 6 Editable)

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Are you looking for a creative way to have your students learn social studies concepts that gives them more power in their learning? This activity works with any social studies textbook that involves: key vocabulary, important people, key concepts, and maps. Students have defined roles with specific requirements for what they need to do. Your students become experts in those areas by taking on one of the following roles:

-Artful Artist

-Daily Director

-Map Maker

-People Presenter

-Test Taker

-Word Wizard

Textbook Detectives (3 pages)

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Often times, teachers expect their students to know how to use a textbook. Because this is often taken for granted, many students never learn how to effectively use their social studies textbook as a resource. This 2-page document is intended to help students learn about: the table of contents, the glossary, the index, the reference section, how to find key vocabulary, the difference between units, chapters, and lessons, how to use pictures, diagrams and charts, and how to find information quickly. This also includes an answer key and a 1-page teacher rubric with two Textbook Detective certificates.

Understanding Text Features (12 pages)

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The focus of this strategy is to teach students how to use text features to comprehend text. This is a 12-page PDF slideshow that contains descriptions of text features and some videos to go along with the strategy. Please note: Sometimes video links expire. We apologize for this if this happens.

Also included is a teacher read aloud section for modeling the strategy and a section for students to put the strategy into practice.

Using Text Features to Predict Slideshow (11 pages)

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This 11-page PDF slide show is intended to help your students understand how to use text features to help make predictions. It contains a teacher modeling section and a section where students can put the strategy to practice.

Inferences in Nonfiction Slideshow (11 pages)

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The focus of this strategy is to teach students how to make inferences from non-fiction text. This is an 11-page PDF slideshow that will have your students become Inference Detectives. This activity also will have your students write down clues on two nonfiction examples of inferences. There is also a teacher modeling section and a putting the strategy into practice for the students.

Citing Evidence Test Prep (14 pages)

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This 14-page zipped file resource is intended to prep your grades 3-5 students ready for any state-wide test where they will have to cite evidence in their written responses.

Included in the zipped resource is:

-A 13-page kid friendly resource that will walk students through what citing evidence is, some examples to work through together, and then an assignment at the end to practice.

-A 1-page resource that can be cut into four that includes tips on how to respond to a question that asks for evidence.

Please take a look at our preview for some more details.

If you bought all of these products separately, it would cost you $35.00.

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