State and federal mandates and high stakes testing have created a battle for time in the classroom. This battle has resulted in minimizing social studies and science instruction to focus on tested areas. While I agree that the content area topics should be reinforced and
Geography Stations
In social studies, we're studying on geography, which can be challenging but fun for students. I wanted to have a least one day that would completely grab my students' attention, so I created nine geography stations that we used for centers during social studies. I have to say it
Government Close Reading & Interactive Notebook
I love integrating social studies and science units with reading and writing It's always a challenge for me, because it's hard to find kid friendly passages that ALL of my students can read that adequately address my social studies and science standards. One of my goals is to
Social Studies Interactive Notebook
I'm a huge believer in pushing the content areas. It always makes me so sad to see how some teachers are barely allowed to spend any time on science and social studies. Obviously, I get the importance of reading and math, but I don't think everything else should be ignored.
Social Studies & Science Word Wall
Over the years, I've gone from not having any word wall at all to having entire walls dedicated to word walls. I originally partitioned my wall into grids and had a section for each content area. When I used this format, I liked using larger half page word wall cards. I created
Great Explorations Research Project
Research projects have a bad wrap these days. I certainly remember completing my fair share of boring research projects, but it doesn't have to be that way...not even close! In fact, my students have been begging me to assign a state or country research project. That may sound a
