Integrating science and social studies with reading is a must. We all know that time is always a problem for teachers. There are simply not enough hours in the day to teach all that we’re expected to teach. It’s just not possible. Due to testing and/or district and state requirements, social studies and science often take the back seat. That’s unfortunate on so many levels. Those subjects are essential for students’ schema for reading comprehension and can lead to powerful learning opportunities.

While I can’t say that I get it in every day, I do carve out time for intentional science and/or social studies instruction. You can read more about that here. I also try integrating science and social studies into my reading and writing instruction, or maybe I should say I integrate reading and writing into my science and social studies instruction.

Below are some of my favorite resources for effectively integrating science and social studies.

In this post:

• Interactive Notebooks for Social Studies and Science
• Social Studies and Science Paired Passages
• Fluency Passages
• Epic Science
• Bookmarks

Interactive Notebook for Social Studies

Interactive notebooks are an amazing for integrating science and social studies with reading. Through interactive notebooks, students can apply what they’ve learned in reading. This is a little more challenging than answering explicit questions or right there questions, because students will need to read and locate answers from a variety of places within a text. This helps students to take their reading comprehension to the next level.

I always liked using my Social Studies Interactive Notebook, but I didn’t particularly enjoy using up class time for cutting and pasting. However, when I shifted to a digital notebook, that changed everything! It’s so much faster to prepare and for students to complete, so you have more class time. One of the best parts to using the digital version of the interactive notebooks, is that you can link informational texts to each individual page. You can get a free version of the state research page here.

Students click on the icons to be taken to assigned books on GetEpic. If you don’t already use Epic, please check it out! If you want to assign different books or different video clips, that’s totally editable. Just type in what you’re looking for, and there’s almost always a huge selection to choose from. It’s one of the best ways for integrating science and social studies!

Social Studies and Science Paired Passages

Once students have a solid grasp on informational reading standards, paired passages are great for integrating science and social studies. You can teach students to respond to an informational text, compare and contrast technical writing, and integrate information.

One great resource for integrating science and social studies this are these Science Paired Passages and Social Studies Paired Passages. Students read two passages based on the same topic. For example, one passage may be on stars, while the other passage is about the Moon. Students circle prefixes, suffixes, homophones, synonyms, or antonyms and use context clues to determine the meaning of unknown words. Then, students answer three text dependent, multiple choice questions for both passages.

Students then answer questions about the text structure and nonfiction text features for each passage. The following questions have students identify the main idea from a paragraph in each passage. You can see below how this can also be completed digitally. Students can type directly on the Google Slides.

Finally, students answer two extended response questions. The types of questions require students to integrate text from both passages, which is always a challenging skill for students.

These paired passages review all of the informational reading standards, so I don’t try to use these early in the school year. I also would not recommend trying to complete an entire set in just one class period, as that would be a bit overwhelming. Students typically experience better success when assignments like this are broken into smaller pieces.

Integrating Science and Social Studies With Reading-Fluency Passages

My favorite resources for fluency practice are these fluency passages which are perfect for integrating science and social studies topics. The fluency passages have made a tremendous impact on my students’ reading fluency, and I love the fact that my students are also reading information that we are studying in social studies and science.

I only assign fluency passages to students who need to work on fluency, because I don’t want to overly encourage excessive speed reading. Students do not benefit when they blaze through a passage and have no idea what they read. I check students’ cold read of the passage on Monday morning, and then they are to read the passage out loud to an adult three times a day Monday through Thursday and record the number of words read per minute. Students reassess on Friday, and they are always so amazed by their progress.

Epic Reading Passages

I want to give students the opportunity to work with “real” books. Since it’s not financially realistic to provide physical copies of large quantities of books to all students, I use Epic to get high quality books in my students’ hands. I recently completed a series of science comprehension questions to correlate with my favorite Epic books. The Epic Science resource has quickly turned into a classroom must-have!

This resource is geared toward upper elementary students, and I kept the passages in the range of 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade levels. Since that is a large range of reading levels, I built in in some scaffolding on the more challenging texts. I also prioritized content over reading level, because some of the levels are quite misleading. Some of the “easier” texts were much more challenging than texts with a higher level. Also, some of the “easier” texts had more thorough content than the higher-level texts. This exposure to a range of levels will benefit all students.

You can see how fun and bright the illustrations are, as well as how multi nonfiction text features are included. There are just so many opportunities on how to use this! This definitely simplifies integrating science and social studies!

Integrating Science & Social Studies Bookmarks

I like to have students highlight where they found their answers in the passages. They can highlight either digitally or with a highlighter. The only problem I’ve run into is with my magazines. Since I reuse those, I don’t want anything permanently highlighted. I JUST discovered erasable highlighters! I plan to test them out over the school year, and I’ll be sure to let you know if they work.

You can also give students bookmarks with a color-coding guide so students can color-code their answers. You can download that bookmark here. I find that the color coding helps keep students a little more focused on the task.

While I still make teaching social studies and science a priority, these strategies are so helpful when it comes to saving time and integrating science and social studies standards!

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Do you ever wonder what 4th graders should know or be able to do? Changing grade levels is difficult. I still remember crying my eyes out the first time I had to change grade levels. It was devastating! It’s hard to sort through years worth of blog posts, resources, and articles to find just what you need to get started. I know how much of a challenge it can be when you’re new to teaching 4th grade, so I’ve written this post to help get you started. Even if you’ve been a fourth grade teacher for awhile, you’ll probably find something useful!

If you’re looking for a similar post for third grade teacher look here!

Classroom Set Up

If you’re a new(er) teacher, you can feel pressured to go out and create a designer classroom. That’s not necessary. At all.

The priority should be organizing, not decorating, your classroom. Of course, I’m not saying that having a cute or decorated classroom is a bad thing. I spend more awake time in my classroom than anywhere else, so I want an environment that makes me comfortable and happy.

But, you don’t need to go out and spend lots of money creating a Pinterest classroom.  Make sure your room is clean, not too busy or distracting, and organized.

You can see my classroom here! You can read more about organizing your classroom here.

What 4th Graders Should Know – Pacing Guides

It’s important to begin the year with a plan. Of course it’s necessary to keep in mind that it’s just a guide, not rules that are set in stone. Below are my reading and math pacing guides for teachers new to teaching 4th grade. You can download example fourth grade pacing guides here. If you want to map out the year on your own, you may enjoy this blog post on Planning For The Year. Either way, it’s a great format to what 4th graders should know.

COVID and distance learning has changed so many things for teachers. It’s incredibly hard to know how to get started when you don’t know what you’re planning for. It’s next to impossible to determine what 4th graders should know if their time in the younger graders was limited. To provide even more support, I’ve shared a First 30 Days for reading and math. What makes this plan special is that it can be used for in-class instruction, distance learning, or a combination of both. You can find that post here.

Fourth Grade Morning Work

A good morning work routine is one of the most important parts of the day. It’s also a great way to continuously review what 4th graders should know. It sets your pace and allows students to feel organized and prepared. This post shares some of my favorite ideas for morning work. It also mentions how to incorporate a soft start to your day. This morning work activity reviews all major content that 4th graders should know by the end of the school year.

What 4th Graders Should Know – Reading

After years of blogging, there is simply no way to narrow down all of my reading and writing blog posts to just one! However, I was able to whittle it down to just a few. Keep in mind, all of these lessons are available as a print and digital resource.

Reading Workshop-In this post you can get a good overview of what should happen during reading workshop. The post also discuss the differences between reading workshop, guided reading, and literature circles.

Integrating Science and Social Studies-This post shares several ideas on ways to integrate your science and social studies standards with reading. Time is always a problem, so this is a big help.

Making Sense of Reading Assessments-Depending on where you’re coming from, reading assessments may look different. They may also be quite overwhelming! This post breaks down the how and why of various reading assessments.

Upper Elementary Guided Reading Groups – Reading groups in the upper elementary classroom are complex to say the least. This post is a great place to start.

Introducing Reading Workshop – This post shares procedural lessons to allow your students get started on the right foot.

What 4th Graders Should Know – Writing

Introducing Paragraphs – This is one of my all time favorite ways to begin teaching writing! If you’re new to teaching 4th grade, I highly recommend starting the year by teaching students how to write paragraphs through these back to school books!

If you want ideas on how to teach writing, this Guide To Teaching Writing is just for you! Remember, even if you recognize what 4th graders should know coming to you, it doesn’t mean they will know it.

Personal Narratives-Here is a blog post that shares how to teach students to write personal narratives. I do have blog posts for other writing genres, but this seems to be teachers’ favorite genre to start the year with.

What 4th Graders Should Know – Math

When thinking about what 4th graders should know, don’t forget about math! Math Workshop/Guided Math-This post describes how math workshop can be used in a fourth grade classroom.

Upper Elementary Math Centers-You don’t have to incorporate math centers in fourth grade. If you do utilize centers, you don’t have to use them everyday. There is so much flexibility! This is a great post to show how to use math centers in an upper elementary classroom.

First Days of Math Workshop-I highly recommend this post! It’s SO important in order to have success during the year. There are step-by-step lessons to teach math workshop with routines and procedures.

Math Manipulatives-Math manipulatives aren’t just for the little ones. Big kids need them too! However, you don’t need to spend a fortune, and there are important things to remember when using manipulatives.

Multiplication Facts-There are few topics in math that cause more anxiety (for students and teachers) than math facts. This post helps take that away. There are TONS of fun ideas and freebies to make learning multiplication facts fun AND meaningful!

What 4th Graders Should Know – Social Studies & Science

Far too often social studies and science are neglected in third, fourth, and fifth grades. When you teach content heavy grade levels, it’s incredibly hard to find the time to squeeze it all into the day. This is one of the primary reasons I love integrating as often as possible. In this post I share a few ideas on how to integrate social studies and science into language arts and math.

Testing

Yes, fourth graders have to participate in state testing. I can say with 100% certainty that the best test prep is high quality instruction all year. It’s important to be extremely careful to approach testing with the right attitude with students. I don’t use it as a fear mechanism for motivation or over emphasize the importance of test scores.

While I can’t take away all of the stress relating to testing, you can make the year easier by integrating review into your instruction all year. You can see some of my favorite ideas here.

It’s definitely not possible to share all of my resources with you, but I would love to give you some ideas. The items below are my top 10 favorite resources for teachers who are new to teaching 4th Grade.

What 4th Graders Should Know

Top Ten Resources for Teachers New to Teaching 4th Grade

This Reading Workshop Bundle is probably my favorite product! It’s one of those that really does have everything! There are 180 reading comprehension lesson plans and printables to go with each lesson plan. I’ve also included fluency practice, vocabulary, and reading homework.

My Fourth Grade Math Units is a compilation of YEARS of work! This bundle includes 10 math units with hands-on lessons, skills practice, and task cards!

I honestly don’t know what I’d do without my Weekly Word Problems. I now use the updated version with the constructed response practice for my morning work. It’s one of my favorites!

Once again, I’d be lost without my Fluency Passages! I use these for weekly fluency and comprehension homework. The best part is that the entire pack is integrated with science and social studies!

My Language Arts Morning Work is an excellent spiral review. This will help keep tricky grammar and reading skills fresh all year. (I know the cover of this one says third, but I’ve linked the 4th grade version. My fourth grade cover is in the middle of being updated 🙂

Writing can certainly be tricky, which is why I love having the Writing Bundle ready to go! This contains three writing units  aligned to the Common Core Standards: informational, opinion, and narrative!

I love these Multiplication Facts Booklets! Teaching multiplication facts is a year long process, so I incorporate these booklets all year long. The are a great way to teach conceptual understanding and memorization of multiplication facts.

I use the Prefix of the Week packet along with my Homophone of the Week for weekly vocabulary and word work. This makes a cute bulletin board and comes with different booklets!

I use this Math Constructed Response packet at least once a week. This is one of those concepts that requires practice all year long, rather than taught as an isolated test prep skill.

I’m cheating a little here! I actually have a few 4th grade assessment packs, and I love them all! I especially like the language arts assessments, because it’s often difficult to find reading assessments that include the passage and assess one standard at a time.

You are going to love fourth grade! One of the best things about fourth grade is that students are young enough to still love school and have a desire to please their teacher. Yet, they are independent enough to participate in really fun activities. Plus, the older students are awesome at catching my corny jokes! Like all students, they need love, consistency, and strong procedures for optimal success. Don’t sweat the test! Your preparation starts from Day 1 and with good instruction your students will be ready!

Don’t hesitate to ask any questions! I’m always happy to help.

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Teaching American government doesn’t have to be boring or overly complicated. Government is an abstract concept, and many students have a difficult time making connections to the concepts. The vocabulary is also difficult for upper elementary students. Fortunately, there are many ways to make this unit meaningful AND fun for students,.

Teaching Government Through Simulations

Students always enjoy a good simulation, simulations tie in perfectly to social studies. When I teach government, I use a direct democracy and representative democracy simulation to engage students. It’s a fun way to make a difficult concept concrete and meaningful. In this simulation, students determine which new playground equipment should be purchased.

They first vote on the new playground equipment through a direct democracy. Then, they vote on the playground equipment through a representative democracy. In this version, students vote on a student council representative. They have to decide which representative best reflects their own opinions, and they see that there may not always be a perfect fit. The simulation is a part of my American Government Unit.

Government Reading Passages

I love integrating social studies and science units with reading and writing, and it’s a great way to present new content to students. I’ve created a Government Close Reading packet that I incorporate this into my social studies lessons, rather than my reading lessons. I only focus on one passage a week, so it doesn’t take us too much time to complete. Here’s a glimpse at how I use the close reading passages:

• Monday:  We read the passage together. Students write notes and ask questions.
• Tuesday:  Students answer the first read questions and cite text evidence.
• Wednesday:  Students reread the passage, highlight key words, and circle any unknown words.
• Thursday: Students reread the passage and answer the second read questions.
• Friday:  Students answer the third read question.

The passages are written on three different reading levels. This helps teachers differentiate their instruction.

There are three sets of questions for each passage. The first set of questions requires students to answer explicit questions using information from the text. I always have my students underline the answer in the passage. On the second set of questions, students focus on vocabulary and nonfiction text features. This is also where students think about main idea and author’s purpose which are always challenging skills for students. The third set of questions is where students apply informational writing strategies with a constructed response question.

Government PowerPoint

Powerpoint (or other presentations) are a good way to introduce new topics. I often start my government unit by teaching about the three levels of government. I made a little PowerPoint presentation that explained the three levels of government in student friendly terms. You can download a copy of the PowerPoint presentation here.

Government Graphic Organizers

You can use several different graphic organizers to teach levels of government and branches of government. Another great strategy is to incorporate interactive notes, which helps students organize information. The graphic organizers below are part of my American Government Unit.

Government Interactive Notebook

As students learn new content, they can add entries to their social studies interactive notebooks. This is a wonderful tool that allows students to take focused notes in an engaging and purposeful way. I have students add to their interactive notebooks on the day after I introduce a new topic. This gives students an opportunity to explore and process the new information the previous day. You can find my Social Studies Interactive Notebook here.

Branches of Government Sort

Government Task Cards

You can also incorporate task cards into your government instruction, because I don’t know if I can ever provide enough review for my students! We enjoying playing Scoot with our government task cards. Be sure to download the free task card here.

Teaching Government With Games

One of students’ favorite government review activity is the government review fortune teller (Cootie Catchers).  There are three different versions of the review game, and my students LOVE playing with them! Just a warning, you may have to force students to put them away.

The only materials needed for my favorite game are three pieces of paper, tape, and a marker. Write each branch of government on a different piece of paper and tape the paper into three different locations in your classroom. Give students a clue or question where the answer is a branch of government. Once the clue is read, students must walk to the sign that reflects the answer. Once students are in place, any student standing at the wrong area of the room is out and must sit down at his/her desk or table. To keep students reasonably calm, I did add a ‘no running’ rule to the game. Anytime a student ran to a corner, s/he was out. (I also had to add a ‘no sliding into the corner’ rule.) Continue calling out questions until there is one student standing, and that student was the winner.

The Concern

We probably played ten rounds of this game during a 30 minute segment. As I was making up this game, one of my concerns was that students would just follow each other, and that’s exactly what they did. However, that didn’t last long. In one of my first questions every student but one went to the wrong corner. That was perfect, because it let me know I need to spend more time talking about the General Assembly, and let my students know that they should follow their own instinct. One of my best and most unexpected surprises was how my students reacted when they were out. In a lot of games, once a student is out s/he just tunes everything else out. This was not the case. My students got out their social studies interactive notebooks and started pouring over the government entries. As soon as I called out a question, they were searching for the answer in their notebook. They knew they would have plenty of opportunities to get back in the game.

Government Centers

I also love having a government choice board that can be used as a social studies extension project or for student centers.  This choice board incorporates the higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy, so students will analyze, combine, forecast, expand, construct, create, explain, hypothesize, and improve. The activities included in the choice board are also a great way to integrate reading, writing, and social studies. This is also in my American Government Unit.

American Government Project

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There are SO MANY fun ways to make economics activities engaging and hands-on for students, and it’s a great way to incorporate a little math into instruction. This post shares some of my favorite ways to teach economics to upper elementary students.

I begin my economics unit by teaching about goods and services. I have my students use magazines and newspapers to create a collage. They divide a sheet of construction paper in half and label one side with “Goods” and one side with “Services”. Underneath each label, students should glue pictures of examples of goods and services.

I love reading A Chair for My Mother to further develop the concept of goods and services, and it also ties in nicely to needs and wants. I follow the text with a goods and services sort, where students sort pictures into either category-good or service.

After teaching about goods and services, I begin teaching about productive resources: human resources, natural resources, and capital resources. I love using this Social Studies Weekly video to introduce Productive Resources. I then have students complete a productive resources sort.

Once my students have a good general understanding of productive resources, I begin to teach them more thoroughly. I start by teaching about human resources, which is a fairly easy concept for students to understand. One of my favorite activities is to have students complete a human resource brainstorm activity. Students work in groups and try to brainstorm human resources needed in a school, bank, restaurant, and hospital. Groups complete against each other to see which group can think of the most human resources.

After introducing human resources, we begin talking about capital resources. I LOVE using a top ten list for this. I know that it sounds so simple, but it is SUCH a great lesson for students. I’ve found that it’s a good idea to model this task with a different topic first. For instance, what might capital resources would a restaurant need. As a class, we brainstorm every possible capital resource may need. This allows students to practice differentiating between human, natural, and capital resources. After we do this, I explain that students are going to work in their groups to brainstorm every capital resource a TEACHER needs for his/her classroom. I’ve learned that it is best for students to focus on a classroom, rather than a whole school, since they have much more personal experience with a classroom. After students brainstorm what a teacher needs, they must work as a group to develop a top ten list. The whole group must agree on the list, and students have to determine the ten most important resources for a classroom. This requires so much discussion about capital resources, and I love getting to hear what resources students think are the most important.

I have a few other lessons that I use as needed, where students create a types or resources foldable and a natural resources after using The Giving Tree. I like to give students a brief economics checkup to assess their understanding of the unit. The first mini assessment covers what I have taught up to that point in the unit and allows me to see if I need to spend extra time on those topics, of if students are ready to move on to new content.

Once students are ready, I then teach about entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship. To help make this relevant for students, I have students develop their own business plan. Students describe their business and explain why they think their business will make a profit. Students list the natural resources, human resources, and capital resources they will need for their business. Then, students determine how to best advertise for their business. I had a fifth grade teacher recently take this activity FAR, and she had students actually start their business and held a 5th grade business expo. It was amazing!

We do a couple skill practice pages where students differentiate between a human resource and entrepreneur and producers and consumers. There is where I squeeze in more of that all important economics vocabulary. By the end of the week, I give my second economics check-up or assessment.

In the third week of economics activities, I introduce creating and maintaining a budget, which is great for teaching personal finance and economic decisions. I created an activity where students decide how they would spend $250. I have to keep updating the electronics section, because the technology keeps changing! I originally had a disposable camera on the list, and my students had no idea what that was.

Creating a budget leads into a great conversation about opportunity cost, because we all know we can’t have everything we want. I read Paying Taxes and have students work in cooperative groups to create anchor charts that explain the types and purposes of taxes. This is a great government review for students.

Just to be on the safe side, I do go ahead give another check-up. There is so much new vocabulary in the unit, and I’m constantly checking to see what I may need to reteach. The check-ups are short and sweet, so they don’t use up too much class time.

I then get to move on to some of my favorite economics lessons in the unit. I teach students about supply and demand and use a brief Brain Pop video to help explain the concept. To reinforce the idea in a meaningful way, I play a bit of a trick on my students. I secretly buy mini cupcakes for all students in my class. I keep one of the cupcakes on my desk and don’t say anything about it. Naturally, students notice it right away and begin asking about the cupcake. I pretend to be exasperated and begin to negotiate with students. Okay, okay, I’ll consider giving you this cupcake. What is it worth to you? What could you give me? Every year students bite and a bidding war begins. Within a few minutes students offer ridiculous amounts for the cupcake. I finally give the highest offer the cupcake, and once I see that I have everyone’s attention, I show the class that I do have one for everyone. The person who got the original cupcake usually complains that it’s not fair, and I ask him/her to explain why. All of this leads in to an amazing conversation on supply and demand. When there was only one cupcake (scarcity) the price was WAY higher, but when there was enough for everyone, the price lowered.

I then introduce competition with another fun lesson. Students choose one or two school supplies from their desk and place a price tag (sticky note) on or beside the school supply. Then, students take their recording sheet and walk around the room shopping for school supplies to purchase. After students shop we meet back together as a class and discuss which items they would choose to purchase. Anytime there are more than one of the same item for sale, I ask students to explain how they chose to purchase that item. Almost always, the answer is, “because it’s cheaper”. This leads into a great conversation about competition and how it effects the marketplace.

I then introduce the concepts of imports and exports, which I tie in with prefixes. I have students complete a sort, where they sort different situations with import or export. This is one of the harder concepts for my students, so I like to read a picture book and show another BrainPop movie. I also have students look around the classroom to find examples of different imports. Typically, almost all students are wearing an import of some type.

I follow that with a couple lessons on interdependence, which I tie-in to food webs in science. I end the unit with an economics test that covers everything taught within the unit.

Vocabulary is critical part of economics lessons. I created an economics vocabulary freebie that’s pretty creative. There are two pages with boxes for every term students should know and a direction sheet for students. Students will write a synonym for four words, antonym for four words, use four words in a sentence, give examples of four words, and draw a picture of four words, and write a definition for four words. There cool part is that students get to decide where to use each representation. You can download this here!

I always love integrating social studies and reading, so I like to incorporate economics in my reading instruction too, or maybe I should say incorporate reading instruction into my economics lessons. I’ve created a set of Economics Reading Passages that tie in perfectly to my economics unit! The topics included in the close reading pack are: productive resources, supply and demand, goods and services, economic decisions, and personal finance. Each topic includes three differentiated reading passages that are written on three different levels.

I then have three sets of questions for each passage. The first set of questions is more basic with explicit questions, and the second set of questions requires students to think about vocabulary and nonfiction text features. The third set of questions is great for constructed response practice, because students respond to the question with a paragraph.

As we work our way through the unit, I have students add new content to their social studies interactive notebook. This is such a great way to help my students organize and process new information. I use a different template from almost all of my economics lessons.

Hopefully, this post gives you a few new ideas for fun economics lessons! If you’d like to see ideas on creative ways to review social studies vocabulary, be sure to check out this blog post. You can read this post to read about a systematic approach to teaching social studies and science.

The post Economics Activities appeared first on Ashleigh's Education Journey.

Changing grade levels is difficult. I still remember crying my eyes out the first time I had to change grade levels. It was devastating! It’s hard to sort through years worth of blog posts, resources, and articles to find just what you need to get started. Since it’s such a challenge, I’ve written this post about moving to 4th grade to help get you started. Even if you’ve been a fourth grade teacher for awhile, you’ll probably find something useful!

A couple years ago I wrote a blog post for teachers who were new to third grade or transitioning back to third grade. If you’re moving to 3rd grade, be sure to check out that post.

In this post:

• Pacing Guides
• Fourth Grade Morning Work
• Reading
• Writing
• Guided Math & Workshops
• Social Studies & Science
• Classroom Management
• Top Ten Resources

Pacing Guides

It’s hard to start the year without a plan, so you can download example fourth grade pacing guides here.

Covid and distance learning has changed so many things for teachers. It’s incredibly hard to know how to get started when you don’t know what you’re planning for. To provide even more support, I’ve shared a First 30 Days for reading and math. What makes this plan special is that it can be used for in-class instruction, distance learning, or a combination of both. You can find that post here.

Fourth Grade Morning Work

A good morning work routine is one of the most important parts of the day. It sets your pace and allows students to feel organized and prepared. This post shares some of my favorite ideas for morning work. It also mentions how to incorporate a soft start to your day.

Reading

After years of blogging, there is simply no way to narrow down all of my reading and writing blog posts to just one! However, I was able to whittle it down to just a few. Keep in mind, all of these lessons are available as a print and digital resource.

Reading Workshop

In this post you can get a good overview of what should happen during reading workshop. The post also discuss the differences between reading workshop, guided reading, and literature circles.

Teaching Reading Through Social Studies and Science

This post shares several ideas on ways to integrate your science and social studies standards with reading. Time is always a problem, so this is a big help.

Making Sense of Reading Assessments

Depending on where you’re coming from, reading assessments may look different. They may also be quite overwhelming! This post breaks down the how and why of various reading assessments.

Upper Elementary Guided Reading Groups

Reading groups in the upper elementary classroom are complex to say the least. This post is a great way to get started.

Introducing Reading Workshop

This post shares procedural lessons to allow your students get started on the right foot.

Writing

Introducing Paragraphs

This is one of my all time favorite ways to begin teaching writing! I highly recommend starting the year by teaching students how to write paragraphs through these back to school books!

Narrative Writing

Here is a blog post that shares how to teach students to write personal narratives. I do have blog posts for other writing genres, but this seems to be teachers’ favorite genre to start the year with.

If you are looking for a general overview of HOW to teach writing, don’t skip this post!

Guided Math & Workshops

Math Workshop/Guided Math

This post describes how math workshop can be used in a fourth grade classroom.

Math Centers

You don’t have to incorporate math centers in fourth grade. If you do utilize centers, you don’t have to use them everyday. There is so much flexibility! This is a great post to show how to use math centers in an upper elementary classroom.

Teaching Math Workshop Procedures

I highly recommend this post! It’s SO important in order to have success during the year. There are step-by-step lessons to teach math workshop with routines and procedures.

Math Manipulatives

These aren’t just for the little ones. Big kids need them too! However, you don’t need to spend a fortune, and there are important things to remember when using manipulatives.

Memorizing Multiplication Facts

There are few topics in math that cause more anxiety (for students and teachers) than math facts. This post helps take that away. There are TONS of fun ideas and freebies to make learning multiplication facts fun AND meaningful!

Social Studies & Science

Transform Your Social Studies and Science Instruction

This is a series of blog posts that cover several different instructional ideas for teaching social studies and science. The series discusses vocabulary, presenting content, exploration activities, assessment, and more!

Classroom Management

A Starting Place for Distance Learning

This is your go-to, can’t-miss, starting place for distance learning.

Classroom Management Strategies

Includes free and editable behavior log.

Classroom Focus Wall

This is a great post for setting up a focus wall and math bulletin board.

Top Ten Resources

This Reading Workshop Bundle is probably my favorite product! It’s one of those that really does have everything! There are 180 reading comprehension lesson plans and printables to go with each lesson plan. I’ve also included fluency practice, vocabulary, and reading homework.

My Fourth Grade Math Units is a compilation of YEARS of work! This bundle includes 10 math units with hands-on lessons, skills practice, and task cards!

I honestly don’t know what I’d do without my Weekly Word Problems. I now use the updated version with the constructed response practice for my morning work. It’s one of my favorites!

Once again, I’d be lost without my Fluency Passages! I use these for weekly fluency and comprehension homework. The best part is that the entire pack is integrated with science and social studies!

My Language Arts Morning Work is an excellent spiral review. This will help keep tricky grammar and reading skills fresh all year. (I know the cover of this one says third, but I’ve linked the 4th grade version. My fourth grade cover is in the middle of being updated:)

Writing can certainly be tricky, which is why I love having the Writing Bundle ready to go! This contains three writing units that are aligned to the Common Core Standards: informational, opinion, and narrative!

I love these Multiplication Facts Booklets! Teaching multiplication facts is a year long process, so I incorporate these booklets all year long. The are a great way to teach conceptual understanding and memorization of multiplication facts.

I use the Prefix of the Week packet along with my Homophone of the Week for weekly vocabulary and word work. This makes a cute bulletin board and comes with different booklets!

I use this Math Constructed Response packet at least once a week. This is one of those concepts that needs to be practiced all year long, rather than taught as an isolated test prep skill.

I’m cheating a little here! I actually have a few 4th grade assessment packs, and I love them all! I especially like the language arts assessments, because it’s often difficult to find reading assessments that include the passage and assess one standard at a time.

You are going to love 4th grade! One of the best things about moving to 4th grade is that students are young enough to still love school and have a desire to please their teacher. Yet, they are independent enough to participate in really fun activities. Plus, the older students are awesome at catching my corny jokes! Like all students, they need love, consistency, and strong procedures for optimal success. Don’t sweat the test! Your preparation starts from Day 1 and with good instruction your students will be ready!

Don’t hesitate to ask any questions! I’m always happy to help.

• Classroom Set Up-Here’s a few classroom pictures.

To learn more about how I plan for the year, you can check out this post on planning for the year.

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Have you ever had a moment when every single students’ eyes were completely glazed over, and you were pretty sure no one actually heard what you were saying? That was me on Thursday. I was seven days into my government unit, and I thought we were doing pretty good. Students had completed a few interactive notebook entries and a few graphic organizers, and I wanted to quickly review before my students completed a checks and balances worksheet I had made the night before. As I started to review, I could see that the main, maybe even only, focus of my students was that in 30 minutes they would finally get to go outside to recess. They weren’t being rude or disruptive, and they really did try to pay attention. They just weren’t engaged with what I was talking about. As I gazed around the room, I knew I had about 10 seconds to come up with a plan B, because the last thing I want is a room full of disengaged students. Since my students still had very little understanding of the three branches of government, I wasn’t ready to introduce my more rigorous activities that lend themselves to active engagement. I needed something right away that didn’t require any prep (I needed the lesson STAT) and something that my students could do, even though they were just starting to build their knowledge of American government. Flying by the seat of my pants, I somehow turned that lesson into one of my favorite activities of the year.

The only materials needed are three pieces of paper, tape, and a marker or sharpie.

Just write each branch of government on a different piece of paper and tape the paper into three different locations in your classroom. This is definitely the lowest prep activity I’ve ever done!

Show students which corner or area of the room represents each branch of government. Explain that you are going to give them a clue or question where the answer is one of the branches of government. Once the clue is read, students must walk to the corner of the room that reflects the answer. Once students in place, any student standing at the wrong area of the room is out and must sit down at his/her desk or table. To keep students reasonably calm, I did add a ‘no running’ rule to the game. Anytime a student ran to a corner, s/he was out. (I also had to add a ‘no sliding into the corner’ rule, but I’m going to assume that I’m the only one who’ll have that problem.) Occasionally I would count down from five and any student not in a corner was automatically out. I continued calling out questions until I had one student standing, and that student was the winner. We probably played ten rounds of this game during a 30 minute segment.

As I was making up this game, one of my concerns was that students would just follow each other, and that’s exactly what they did. However, that didn’t last long. I couldn’t have scripted it better if I tried. In one of my first questions every student but one went to the wrong corner. That was perfect for me, because it A. let me know I need to spend more time talking about the General Assembly, and B. let my students know that you have to listen to your own instinct. From that point on, I didn’t have any problems with that at all.

One of my best and most unexpected surprises was how my students reacted when they were out. In a lot of games, once a student is out s/he just tunes everything else out. This was not the case. My students got out their social studies interactive notebooks and started pouring over the government entries. As soon as I called out a question, they were searching for the answer in their notebook. They knew they would have plenty of opportunities to get back in the game.

I didn’t use anything special for my questions. I’ve taught this unit several times now, I just thought of things my students were expected to know. I did try to start each round with fairly easy questions and increase the difficulty as fewer and fewer students remained.

I survey my students after our last game. Even though I was confident that I knew what there answer would be I wanted to hear it from themselves. I asked if the game was A. boring, I didn’t learn anything; B. really fun, but I didn’t learn much; C. really fun, and I learned a lot. Their answer was an enthusiastic C!! I can’t ask for more than that! If you’re looking for actual government lessons and projects, you may want to check out this blog post!

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Two books that have completely transformed my vocabulary instruction are Bringing Words to Life and the Marzano’s Building Academic Vocabulary. One of the biggest takeaways from my reading is that vocabulary instruction must be intentional, purposeful, and planned.

One of my favorite strategies for teaching academic vocabulary is frontloading or preteaching vocabulary. This technique is highly recommended for ESL or ELL students, but I’ve found that it’s highly beneficial to everyone. Frontloading vocabulary is a before-reading strategy where you introduce words to students through photos, analogies, metaphors, and symbols. When you introduce the words, give students time to discuss the words with partners (think/pair/share), small group, whole group. Pre-teaching vocabulary is not having kids look up definitions or other boring practices.

But First, We Plan

I’ve learned that I have to plan my vocabulary instruction and absolutely cannot wing it. When I start without a written plan, I don’t follow through. The first step in planning academic vocabulary instruction is to create a list of academic vocabulary to be taught in social studies and science. Below you can see an example of my social studies and science vocabulary terms. You can click here for a PowerPoint version or here for a PDF version. Since our standards and students are so varied, you’ll have to find a system that works for you.

When teaching vocabulary, keep it simple. Whenever I try something elaborate or time consuming, I end up quitting by Halloween. My approach to teaching academic vocabulary is very basic and consists of three steps.

Step 1

Introduce vocabulary. During this time, it’s essential to keep students’ interest, so keep this portion of the lesson VERY brief. Try to present the word in an engaging way as possible, and then give examples, pictures, symbols, synonyms, or examples of the word. Allow students to briefly discuss the word with a partner or a small group (who they sit with at their table).  My favorite strategy is think, share, pair, because it’s so quick, easy, and effective.

Step 2

Add the word to students’ notebooks. Since I’m limited on time, copies, and paper, I don’t print anything out for the vocabulary. I simply have students draw a version of the Frayer Model in their notebooks. We fit two boxes on one page, and we almost always add a definition, example, and picture. In the fourth block we may use synonym, antonym, non-example, or sentence.

Step 3

Review with games. The first two steps should be short and sweet, and Step 3 is when the fun begins! Anyone who has taught more than a week or two knows that review is essential for students to be able to store and retrieve information from their short term and long term memory. Review shouldn’t be boring. It should be a part of the day students look forward to, not dread. This vocabulary review gives students a basic knowledge base that will allow students to soon develop a deep understanding of those concepts.

I suggest cycling through four games of your choice. Any more than that is hard to manage and create. Four is enough to keep the games novel for students, which prevents them from losing their effectiveness. As you begin to plan your games and the terms reviewed, you will need to decide if you only want to review the words in the particular unit you are studying or if you want your review to be cumulative. I personally like cumulative reviews, because I feel like it prevents students from forgetting some of the more difficult terms. At the beginning of the year, I usually incorporate some second grade grade vocabulary words into our games, because each of the games need 20-30 words.

I Have, Who Has

BINGO

BINGO is one of the oldest games in the book, but that doesn’t make it any less fun. It’s a great way to review social studies and science terms. I give each student a BINGO board and call out one question at a time. If the student has a word that is the answer to a question, they cover the word with a counter or other marker. You can download a free geography BINGO game here.

Guess It

One of my students’ favorite games of all time is Guess It, which is similar to Headbandz. The great news for this game is that it requires little to no prep. To play have a collection of social studies or science terms on index cards. Have one student chose a card. Without looking at the word, the student should hold the card to their forehead so the word faces out. Students should then give clues about the word so that the student can guess the term. We usually start the game by playing a few rounds with the whole class and then I break students into groups of three or four. The discussions I hear during this activity make my teacher heart smile every time!

You can write the words on index cards or print a pre-made set. I printed the cards from my social studies and science word wall cards. To save paper and ink, I’ve even printed multiple pages on one piece of paper, because you don’t need anything big for this activity.

I also like to display all of my essential science and social studies vocabulary on a work wall. I consolidate math, social studies, and science word walls into one large word wall. I’ve printed large letters that I display across the top of my word wall, and I hang brightly colored ribbon underneath each letter.

I’ve made a a version with a white background or a chalkboard background. I love the chalkboard version, but I definitely don’t like how much ink it uses!

Both social studies and science word wall cards are available in my TpT Store. The science word wall cards include over 70 different terms. All terms necessary for teaching the Georgia Standards of Excellence are included, as well as several more!

Social Studies Word Wall     Science Word Wall

I know it’s a lot, but this first step will make a tremendous impact in your science and social studies instruction.

 

The post Social Studies and Science Vocabulary appeared first on Ashleigh's Education Journey.

While I agree that the content area topics should be reinforced and integrated into students’ tested curriculum, it’s not enough on its own. There should also be intentional social studies and science instruction.

In reality, this instruction may not be every day. Many teachers alternate between teaching elementary science and social studies, which is better than nothing at all. In this post, I break down how to teach social studies and science in a systematic and scaffolded approach.

5 Step Process

There is a five-step process for teaching elementary science and social studies, First, frontload vocabulary by pre-teaching vocabulary terms. The next step is to present the content through a variety of forms. After presenting the content, let students expand and explore the topic through learning activities. After exploring, students should apply what they’ve learned. The final step is a summative assessment, with formative assessments utilized throughout instruction.

Social Studies and Science Vocabulary

It’s no secret that vocabulary is a major predictor for student success. Academic vocabulary is essential for teaching elementary science and social studies. This includes words that are traditionally used in academic text, which are not common in everyday reading. These terms are important because they help students comprehend text across different content areas such as social studies and science.

One of my favorite strategies for teaching academic vocabulary is frontloading or preteaching vocabulary. This technique is highly recommended for ESL or ELL students, but it’s beneficial to all students. Frontloading vocabulary is a before-reading strategy where the teacher introduces words to students through photos, analogies, metaphors, and symbols. Pre-teaching vocabulary is not having kids look up definitions or other boring and inefficient practices.

Planning Vocabulary Instruction

Vocabulary instruction needs to be intentional. The first step in planning academic vocabulary instruction is to create a list of academic vocabulary necessary for teaching elementary science and social studies. Of course, this is specific to your grade level and state standards.

When teaching elementary science and social studies vocabulary, keep it simple. My approach to teaching academic vocabulary consists of three easy to follow steps.

Step 1

Introduce vocabulary. During this time, it’s essential to keep students’ interest, so keep this portion of the lesson VERY brief. Try to present the word in an engaging way as possible, and then give examples, pictures, symbols, or synonyms of the word. Have students briefly discuss the word with a partner or a small group. My favorite strategy for this process think, share, pair, because it’s quick, easy, and effective.

Step 2

Add the word to students’ notebooks. Since I’m limited on time, copies, and paper, I don’t print anything for student vocabulary. I simply have students draw a version of the Frayer Model in their notebooks. We fit two boxes on one page, and we almost always add a definition, example, and picture. In the fourth block we may use synonym, antonym, non-example, or sentence.

Step 3

Review with games. The first two steps should be short and sweet, and Step 3 is when the fun begins! This review is essential for students to store and retrieve information from their short term and long term memory. Review shouldn’t be boring. It should be a part of the day students look forward to, not dread. Consistent vocabulary review gives students a knowledge base that will allow students to soon develop a deeper understanding of concepts.

I suggest cycling through four games of your choice. Any more than that is hard to manage. Four games are enough to keep the activities novel for students. As you begin to plan the terms to be reviewed, you will need to decide if you only want to review words in the particular unit you are studying or if you want a cumulative review. I personally like cumulative reviews, because I feel like it prevents students from forgetting some of the more difficult terms.

Example Vocabulary Game – I Have, Who Has

Example Vocabulary Game – BINGO

BINGO is one of the oldest games in the book, but that doesn’t make it any less fun. It’s a great way to review social studies and science terms. Give each student a BINGO board and call out one question at a time. If the student has a word that is the answer to a question, they cover the word with a counter or other marker. Download a free geography BINGO game here.

Example Vocabulary Game – Guess It

One of my students’ favorite games is Guess It. The great news for this game is that it requires little to no prep. To play have a collection of social studies or science terms on index cards. Have one student chose a card. Without looking at the word, the student should hold the card to their forehead so the word faces out. Classmatess should then give clues about the word so that the student can guess the term. We usually start the game by playing a few rounds with the whole class and then I break students into groups of three or four.

Example Vocabulary Game – Board Games

You can display your science and social studies vocabulary on a word wall. I consolidate math, social studies, and science word walls into one large word wall. I’ve printed large letters that I display across the top of my word wall, and I hang brightly colored ribbon underneath each letter. I’ve made a a version with a white background or a chalkboard background. I love the chalkboard version, but I don’t like how much ink it uses!

Both social studies and science word wall cards are available in my TpT Store.

Social Studies Word Wall     Science Word Wall

Teaching Elementary Science and Social Studies-Presenting Content

After teaching elementary science and social studies vocabulary, it’s time to present information and content to students. For students to learn and remember the content, they must first pay attention as you present the information. That’s why it’s important to use a variety of resources. The brain loves novelty, so try to keep it fresh and interesting for students.

By preteaching vocabulary, students will be able to make connections with the content as they read and discuss the material. I do not recommend giving students a reading passage with comprehension questions. I’ve done this, and I don’t feel like the majority of my students learned much from those lessons. I try to save that for later.

Resources for Presenting Content

• Studies Weekly-This is one of my favorite resources for social studies. It covers almost all of our state standards. The science version isn’t aligned as well, so we don’t use those. These are also available for almost any state and grade level.

• BrainPop-This is always a student favorite. The videos capture and maintain students’ attention. For my third graders I like the Jr. version, but I’d probably use the regular version for older students.

• Study Jams-This is very similar to Brain Pop, except it’s FREE and the videos are a bit shorter. Unfortunately, at this time there are no social studies videos.

• EPIC-Teaching social studies and science content is much easier with EPIC. There is a huge collection of trade books to choose from. It’s a teacher and student friendly website. Plus, it’s free. I have all my favorites organized into categories.

• Generation Genius-This is one of my favorites. It’s packed with fantastic science videos. Plus, each video comes with an optional corresponding Kahoot. Students love it!
• TpT-I’ve bought some wonderful resources from TpT that are specific for my state state standard. I’ve also written several packs myself to use to present content. You can see those here. Don’t forget, you don’t have to use reading passages. I’ve also bought some great PowerPoint lessons that perfect for presenting content for my students.
• Youtube-There is a plethora of content on Youtube. But-be sure to watch it first!
• There’s also Flowcabulary-I almost added this to vocabulary resources, but it’s really more than just vocabulary. Either way, it’s great!

Interactive Notebooks

After introducing the material, students can interact with the text and content with an interactive notebook entry. For social studies, I use my Social Studies Interactive Notebook and for science I use The Science Penguin’s Science Interactive Notebook. Interactive notebooks are more fun for students than traditional note taking. You can use paper-pencil notebooks or digital versions of the notebooks.

Teaching Science and Social Studies-Exploration

Social studies and science should be more than rote memorization of dates and facts. When teaching science and social studies, students need to interact, explore, and experiment with the content. These are the activities that bridge the gap between facts and vocabulary to being able to apply what they’ve learned. This is the hands-on, active learning portion of instruction that students love and that will allow them to retrieve content from their long term memory.

Exploration Ideas For  Science and Social Studies

I love incorporating science or social studies stations for this portion of my instruction. I feel like it’s the best way to get the most out of my limited time teaching science and social studies. I’ve included a links to a few of my favorite blog posts that give examples of how I use this strategy in my classroom.

• Magnet Stations
• Force and Motion Stations

• Geography Stations

Occasionally, we complete whole group experiments or activities. Each topic lends itself to it’s on form of exploration. I’ve linked a couple blog posts on whole group science experiments that were successful in my classroom.

• Space
• Ecosystems
• The Scientific Process
• Heat Experiments

• Government
• Economics

My very favorite resource for science exploration is Mystery Science. It is truly the BEST!

Teaching Science and Social Studies-Application

At this point in the process of teaching elementary science and social studies, students are ready to show what they know. Students should begin to analyze and evaluate, and apply. This is also a great time to incorporate writing. Sometimes I have to remind myself that a lesson doesn’t have to be cute and fancy for it to be effective. A simple paragraph can be a powerful tool.

I try to keep the activities interesting for students, so I occasionally incorporate choice boards. These are great for teaching science and social studies. You can have students complete the choice board with a tic-tac-toe option or have students complete one activity from each row.

My advice is to mix it up. If you do the same activity week after week, it will become boring and mundane for students. If you do a choice board one week, try a writing assignment the following week, and then maybe something a little more creative the next week. While I like for the flow of my lessons to be consistent, I do like to keep students on their toes, so they don’t know what to expect.

There are digital resources that can be utilized during this portion of your instruction. I enjoy using Readworks paired passages. This integrates reading, writing, and either social studies or science.

Another great resource is PBS’s Interactive Lessons. This also incorporates many different modes and levels of learning.

Before beginning any of these activities, it’s important that your students understand your expectations. I try to set the bar high and keep high expectations, so that students will complete quality work.

Teaching Elementary Science and Social Studies-Assessment

I was hesitant to make summative assessment a part of the instructional process, but I felt that it was necessary to emphasize that summative assessments should not take place until after the student has experienced multiple learning opportunities with the content. I’m not going to record a grade when I first introduce new vocabulary or concepts. I wait until students have received guided practice, support, and feedback. This does mean that you may not have a ton of grades, but more does not always equal better.

Throughout the entire instructional process of teaching elementary science and social studies, I am constantly assessing students through formative assessments. The assessments may be observations, class discussions or individual conferences. I occasionally use exit passes that help me address misconceptions and allow me see if there are any areas that need reteaching. If I see that a small group of students are having difficulty, I may work with that group of students or provide them with a little more scaffolding. If I see that the majority of my class is confused, I’ll make adjustments to my plans.

When you use exit tickets (exit passes) the assessments should be short and to the point. This is not your instruction. It’s a simple follow-up assessment to help guide your instruction. For summative assessments, use a variety of styles of questions and formats. This includes, but is not limited to, traditional multiple choice questions, short answer, and matching.

Hopefully, you’ve found some new ideas for teaching elementary science and social studies!

 

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The centers consisted of nine different geography activities that are all listed on the student recording sheet. The recording sheet is completely optional. I like to use it to help students keep track of what stations they have already completed. In Station 1, students draw and label the Rocky and Appalachian Mountains, as well as the Colorado, Rio Grande, Mississippi, Ohio, and Hudson Rivers on a map. The general version has students label the seven continents. This is a great general knowledge geography worksheet and can be used in insolation or with the stations.

In Station 2, students used a town map to answer cardinal and intermediate directions questions. I’m always surprised to see how challenging this is for my third graders. It seems like it should be easy, but it’s not. I know the green background is heavy on ink, so I also made an ink saving version of the map. I laminate my map, so that I only have to print two copies. This can also be used as an individual geography worksheet, if you prefer not to use the stations.

In Station 3, students find 16 different countries shown on a world map and place them in the correct hemisphere.This allows students to apply what they’ve learned about the four hemispheres, and it gives them further experience reading a map. As with the other activities, this can be part of student geography stations or as an independent geography worksheet.

Station 4 had students match geography terms with their correct definition. I print the words on cardstock and laminate the cardstock, so that I can reuse these many times. I included essential vocabulary such as longitude and latitude.

At Station 5, on version of the activities has students compare and contrast the Rocky and Appalachian Mountains. In the other version, students compare and contrast a map and a globe. I love using double bubble maps as an alternative to Venn-diagrams, just because it gives my students a required number of differences and similarities.

Station 6 had students write a paragraph about one of three writing prompts. Gotta squeeze in that constructed response practice whenever I can! I like that this activity gives students a choice in what to write about, so each student can select a prompt they are comfortable with.

Station 8 gave my students much needed practice on using longitude and latitude, which we can never practice enough longitude and latitude practice. Students find seven different points on a map using longitude and latitude through this geography worksheet.

In Station 9, students complete a circle map using landforms. Students can write descriptions and/or examples and non examples in and out of their circle map.

Hopefully, these social studies centers and geography worksheets and activities will be helpful and give you some ideas as well! If you’d like more ideas on how to teach social studies through engaging activities, be sure to check out this post.

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Social Studies Interactive Notebook – Organization

Social Studies Interactive Notebook-Geography

Some of the geography activities in the social studies interactive notebook include types of maps, landforms (shown below), the seven continents, and hemispheres (shown below).

There are slides for teaching the regions of the United States. The digital version of the activities is shown below.

Government

 History

Social Studies Interactive Notebook

Wars, Conflicts, and Battles

I wanted to provide a lot of flexibility when it came to teaching about different wars. Standards and expectations vary greatly from state to state and from grade level to grade level, so I created open-ended options where the teacher determines how in-depth students should go in the entry. Each of the three graphic organizers include the following:

• blank option
• French and Indian War
• Revolutionary War
• War of 1812
• Civil War
• World War 1
• World War 2
• Vietnam
• Korea

Social Studies Interactive Notebook – Historical Figures

There really isn’t a way to list everyone that should be listed. At the time of creating this resource, I included all requested individuals. However, we all know how frequently our state standards change, so it’s almost impossible to keep up with all states’ updates. That’s why there is a blank page for each type of historical figure activity. You can see the digital blank version as well as the Harriet Tubman version below.

This is the printable version of the same activity using Paul Revere.

Economics

The entries to use with economics include supply and demand, productive resources (shown below), and economic vocabulary (shown below).

My students found my interactive notebook before they started their notebooks and couldn’t have been more excited to get started!  Here’s a link to the Social Studies Interactive Notebook.

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