Social Studies

This year, Ms. Leom is teaching Social Studies. She is thrilled! As a child, her family traveled to 47 of the 50 states. She LOVES nearly everything about it: geography, history, people, places ...  For the past few years, it didn't fit in her schedule, and Mr. Greninger had all of the fun.

Fourth grade Social Studies starts with three chapters of laying the foundation for the rest of the year. Students learn vocabulary and ideas that they will apply as they study the four regions of the United States: the Northeast, the South, the Midwest, and the West.

When Ms. Leom taught Social Studies (about five years ago), students read the chapters together in class, and there was emphasis on using more of an outline method to take notes.

"Outline" Method - (teacher copy of notes)

Education has changed drastically! Now note taking has more emphasis on mind mapping, using "frames", and "foldables" to take notes. Ms. Leom was thrilled to dig in and develop the materials for student success.

"Foldables" (pink & yellow flaps) and "Frames" (green)

Another exciting change in teaching Social Studies is all of the technology! (insert goosebumps). Today, we were able to watch two short videos about latitude and longitude. They are available on-line, so I can provide links, so families can view what we are sharing in class. The first video was more of a rap. The second video was more factual. Both provided important details about our topic, and the short (to the point) format allowed us to "travel" to other learning objectives as well.

we "gift wrapped" our globe ... several visuals to learn

As we study the regions, students will have the opportunity to study specific states and work on various "State Projects" later in the year. Fourth graders like to focus on the trivia facts: state bird, flower, song ... Our goals will be to apply our vocabulary (climate, economy, government ...) and look at the people, history, and places within that state that make it special. It is exciting to "encourage" students to "dig deeper" than where they think they should be!

Ms. Leom will teach Social Studies for about three weeks to her class while Mr. Greninger is teaching Science to his class. Then we'll switch classes. Mrs. Leom will teach Social Studies to Mr. Greninger's students, and her students will experience Science with Mr. Greninger.