This Day in History...

For our english class here at I.U.S.B we were assigned to make a book of our very own, it could be anything we wanted to as long as it had to do with spring. For my book I decided to give it a Social Studies theme. I chose to make my book all about the events in history that have taken place on the first day of spring. I started plannig for my book by deciding how many years that I wanted to cover. When i considered how many pages our books were i decided to make it a span of 20 years. I knew that the first day of spring was March 21st so I just used a few websites ( I will list them below) to see what events took place on that exact day from 1991-2011.

How can you use this in the classroom?? I think that this would be a great activity to use in the classroom to get students interested in things that happend in history. I also think that it would be a great idea for students to use their birthdays to see what happend in history. This gives them a personal connection to the research and makes it interesting to learn what happend on the day that they were born over the years. I enjoyed doing this anyways but I think it would have been even more fun to do my birthday! This also gives students a great opertunity to use computers and research their day!! These were a few of the sites that I found that were really useful:

www.thepeoplehistory.com

www.brainyhistory.com

www.datesinhistory.com

What are You Wearing??

This is a great activity to teach students about location!! It doesn't even require them to bring anything but themselves fully clothed. What you do is have the students look at all of the labels on their clothes and see where they are from. The shirt on the left was made in Mexico, and the pants on the right were made in Korea. What we did for the exercise in class was to take a look at our clothing and see where it was made. If you need a little help you can ask your neighbor to look at your shirt tag. For younger students you may want to make sure to tell them that shirts, shoes and possibly pants are okay to do but you would not want to be looking at underwear tags in class. Once the students have figure out where their clothes were made they are now able to find on a map where their clothes came from. I would probably use this activity for the upper grades. You should supply the map for the children and it can even be blown up for students to be able to see better. They can then take a color and color in the place where their clothes came from. This would be on a blank map so it may be a little harder for them to be able to find all of their locations on a map. It was actually hard for some of us as college students to be able to find these places. For this you can have an atlas out that they can refer to and find the location for them selves! This helps them to not only become more aware of how to use a map but also to become familiar where certain places are located.It is also good to see where the most colored area is and that the United States is not colored or barely colored. this would also be a great lead in lesson to be able to start talking about trade between different countries! Whatever the way be that you use to teach this, the students will remember. You really get them excited and involved, It is an important to relate these ideas back to their own life and purchasees so that they can relate.

Those Were the Days.....

The decades project that we were involved in a few weeks ago was not only a great learning experience for us, but it would also be a great learning experience for the students in your class! We started off by having a range of dates from the 1900's through the 1970's. We then formed our groups and started planning. From within the group it is a great experience to have to research and plan out what things you would like to include. For this particular day we were assigned that we had to see what life was all about in our decade in terms of: dance, music, people, inventions, disasters/ scandals , movies, books and historical events. This is something that you could change and have students focus on things that you were learning or things that would fit better with the standards that you would be going

over. This in a way makes students an "expert" on their decade. This makes them feel important and to be able to share information that they have learned with their other classmates. When doing this project in a classroom it is also very important to have the students walk around and view all of the other presentations and decades. Have them ask questions and engage in conversation as if they really were from that period of time! You can have students create their presentation in any way that they would like, they could use a PowerPoint, a movie, a poster board or anything that they want to come up with to you. Getting the costumes to dress up may be one of the harder things but that is something that you as a teacher can help them to come up with. It is a great opportunity for learning and being creative but is also able to be adapted and changed to tailor your individual classroom! It will be an experience that I am sure none of your students will forget!!

Digital Story Telling

Bring a classroom story to life! This is a great project to not only use as an aid to teach students but also an experience for them to get involved in. For our class we used the book January's Sparrow by: Patricia Polacco. We also plan to use this digital story in our unit about the Underground Railroad. If you wanted to use this project in your classroom, especially for younger students, you would need to make the video ahead of time. You can make a movie on Window's Movie maker if you have a PC and imovie if you have a Mac. Both programs are a little hard to use but it is easy to get the hang of. There are also "how to" videos on YouTube that will guide you through some of the process. I really liked using the imovie to create our digital storytelling because we were able to almost take a PowerPoint of still pictures and make it come to life. I thought that this was a lot easier than piecing together a bunch of video clips. When recording the voices you are also able to record then place the speaking parts where they need to go. This is nice to not have to have the voice over exactly where it needs to be placed because you can always just move it. This is where it could get very exciting for the students. If you had a younger class you could make the imovie or Windows move and then have them be different characters in the story. This would also be a good final project for a book that they have read. You could have students predict what they think would happen if there were to be another book. You could also have them as a class decide on one story to use and to draw pictures that go along with the story. These pictures can then be used as the movie. Then you have students record the speaking parts. I think that students would be really excited to see their art work and voices be made into a movie! It is a great final project you can use and include kids, or it could be a great teaching tool to help introduce a topic or book. Either way technology is always a great aid in teaching!!

Bringing the Neighborhood into the Classroom

Today in class we were able to get to know and understand the valve of our own neighborhoods and the others around them. We were all to bring in a picture of our neighborhood or what we thought of when we thought about our neighborhood. We then all posted our pictures on the wall for everyone to be able to see. We went in a couple groups and filled out a diagram comparing and contrasting our neighborhood picture with that of someone elses in the class. In doing this we were able to see that even thought we all attend the same school, some of our neighborhoods are very different. It was a nice activity to be able to see where people lived and what they had around them that you may not and what you have around your neighborhood that other people did not. This can show students the value of neighborhood and that even though they may appear to be very diferent they have some things in common. We were also given a chance to include some writing skills into this lesson by making up a short poem about our neighborhood. We were also given the chance to answer some questions about what we loved about or neighborhood and what we may want to change about it. This activity provides a great lead in to talking about other things in a community such as street names, addresses and how apartment ones are different, also intersections, sidewalks, how people get around and so much more!! This is a great acttivity to make things really relate to the students and give them information about things that are right outside of their doors. This is also very simple to do with students because even if they do not have the means at home to get a picture of their neighborhood it can be done at school through google maps as long as they know their address! Great authentic learning activity that you can shape and mold to fit any grade level! I would recomend doing this activity to introduce the idea of neighborhood and expand on this idea!

The Journey of a Trade Fair

We recently got to participate in a trade fair in our Social Studies calss here at I.U.S.B. This is a picture of people trading their goods. The day started off with all students bringing in

something that they made or had at home that they would be willing to trade with other people. People brought things likebrownies, cupcakes, dinner rolls, candy, pictures, bracelets, cakes and more! We were to have our items that were up for trade displayed on our desks with what one trade would get you, so you knew that only one bracelet, or that the brownies and candy came together. We then walked around and looked at not only everything our class had to offer but also what the other section's class had to offer as well. It was shared that this was the first time that both sections have been combined to make one big trade fair. After that it was fair trading!

This activity gives students to learn so much about trade and how the economy works. Students are able to see first the idea of trade and how things may have worked in history where bartering and trade were very popular. It is a much more enriching thing to experience then to just hear about it. Students also stand to learn a lot about relationships and attitudes, it was discussed that if were were in grade school some of the things may have made children mad or upset if they did not get what they were wanting to trade for. This then would provide a great oppertunity to teach lessons and learn how things like that could have also happened in history. Students also can learn more about the economy today with the trade fair by seeing supply and demand right in from of their eyes. If someone brought an abundance of one thing not as many people wanted that thing, but if there was only one of something that 3 or 4 people wanted then the demand for that object was high. It then became very difficult for the owner of that Item to decided one person and what the trade was worth. In this very case I ended up trading for promises and ended up making 3 more signs for people in the class!

Over all I think that this would be a great learning experience for students to be able to go through and to learn first hand. I would wait to do this with older children because of some of the emotions that it brings about. It is also a great opertunity to be able to learn about something, then to be able to do it. It is also a great lead in to a discussion about what happend, how it made people feel and other great conversations that can be had from this experience! I recomend this activity to all upper elementary teachers teaching about the economy.

Great Book To get Students Interested in Hurricane Katrina

This is a great way to start off a lesson or unit on Hurricane Katrina. It is a story of triumph and friendship as an unlikely pair of Bobbie the dog and Bob Cat the Cat. They were both lost from their owners during Hurricane Katrina. The two stick by each others side to survive and make it to a new home. There is not too much about the actual facts of Hurricane Katrina but the book is really based on a true story! This would get students interested not only because it is the story of two animals but also because it has a great story line. From this book you could build on and begin to read more books that talk about the actual Hurricane in depth.

If you are not sure whether this would be a book for you below is a link to a video that shares the first few pages for you...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSSSyAW-4eQ&feature=related

Great Field Trip Opportunity!!

Going along with the Theme of the Underground Railroad from my last post I have come accross a really great museum that would be great to take students to! the museum is what use to be Levi Coffin's home. If you know anything about him he is thought to be the "President of the Underground Railroad" and his home, the "Grand Central Station of the Underground Railroad". This is such a big part of history that students would be able to explore for themselves!! There you can see artifacts from the slaves that traveled through his home and explore all the secret passageways where slaves were hidden and transported. What is even better is that it is located in Fountain City, Indiana which depending on where your school is located, not that far of a drive. Below is the link to check out the site. There you can find prices, hours and directions and other great links to visit on information about the Underground Railroad! They even offer a group discount and children 6-18 are always only $1!!

http://www.waynet.org/levicoffin/default.htm

The Underground Railroad

Below is a list of very helpful resources when plannning a unit on the Underground Railroad for 4th grade students. There are 5 books that are all around a 4th-5th grade reading level and 5 websites. Read the description for the websites to see if they are intended for teacher use of student use.

Books:

1. Allen Jay and the Underground Railroad
This book is about a Quaker boy who meets a slave who is trying to find freedom. The quaker boy helps him to freedom by using the Underground Railroad. This book is also an “on my own” reader suitable for a 3rd to 4th grade reading level.

2. Aunt Harriet's Underground Railroad in the Sky
This book is about two children who are separated and guided by Harriet Tubman through what the life of a slave was like. This is a good book to teach young children the history of slavery and the Underground Railroad. It is also very helpful in introducing important people of that time such as Harriet Tubman. This book is at a 4th grade reading level.

3. Follow the Drinking Gourd
This book is a great way to introduce music into a unit. It is about a white plantation worker who ends up becoming friends with some of the slaves on the plantation. This book is about the song Follow the Drinking Gourd and its actual meaning. This is a great example of how the slaves used song to express themselves and to secretly guide then to freedom. This book is at a 4th grade reading level.

4. Trouble Don’t Last
This book is about a boy who was born as a slave and his experience with the underground rail road and his route to freedom. It is also an award winning history book. It has a reading level of 4th/5th grade.

5. The Underground Railroad for Kids: From Slavery to Freedom
This book is the only nonfiction book that I picked. I think that this is a very good informational book for kids. It may be above some of their reading levels but would be a great book for students and teachers to look at together. The book starts off as a time line and then going into more detail about the things on the time line. There are great facts but also really great pictures for students to look at. There are also activities that children can do within the book.

Websites:
1. www.nationalgeographic.com/railroad.
This was a really great site to visit. Not only was the information from a credible source but it also had a section for teaching kids and ideas for in the classroom. There are many facts, pictures and activities that you can do with children. I liked the interactive journey through the life of a slave.

2. www.teacher.scholastic.com/activities/bhistory/underground_railroad
This was a really good site for teachers. There were tons of likes to get to other ideas and activities about the Underground Railroad. This site also had a great interactive journey that the students could even listen to! There is a list of resources of books, slide shows and things that teachers can do to enhance learning about the underground rail road.

3. http://www.pocanticohills.org/tubman/tubman.html
This was a website created by a school and teachers. This site focuses mainly on Harriet Tubman. It was aimed for second graders. There are a lot of good resources on this page including online quizzes, crosswords and extension activities.

4. http://www.42explore2.com/undergrd.htm
This website was a great resource on where to find other information about the Underground Railroad. It was nice how it was separated into sections such as: words to explore, for kids by kids, websites for teachers and be an explorer. This was more of a website for the teacher to get ideas from. It contained a lot of good ideas.

5. http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/underground
I would use this site for my own purposes. It is not a site that is really kid friendly but is a place where I could go to get information. It does though offer a list of sites that you can visit that where part of the Underground Railroad. This would be great to see where your class may be able to go on a fieldtrip to.

Classrooom Artifacts

For the classroom artifact activity we were to bring in a few objects that if someone found 100 years from now, they would represent who we were and our family beliefs. After the this activity, I realized how important it is to not only get to know your students but to also give them a voice in your classroom. This was a great way to not only learn about ourselves and what we may stand for but also to see what other people are all about as well! I think that this would be something that would be really easy to do in the classroom. It takes an "all about me" approach and dives in even deeper. This would be a great activity to start the year off to get to know your students and give them a chance to get to know each other! You can even give students time to explain what each thing they brought in stands for or what it means to them. Every student would have their time to shine and everyone would get to know eachother better!