Elementary Social Studies

'James Oglethorpe' Visits Mt. Bethel Elementary

As you make plans for bringing social studies to life this year for your students, consider having a living history interpreter visit your classroom or school. One source of these programs is Jenny Goldemund of Georgia Educational Programs, Inc.  Jenny will work with you to make sure that every school can experience powerful, affordable living history opportunities. For more information visit Georgia Educational Programs Inc.  or call 770-313-0519.

James Oglethorpe is just one of the historical figures the interpreters can portray. In May, I enjoyed hearing Oglethorpe discuss his life and times and how he helped to establish Georgia with second graders at Mt. Bethel. Students were so engaged and interested they kept General Oglethorpe overtime. Here are some photos from that visit.

   

Earlier in the year, I bumped into Sequoyah at Norton Park, and he was equally fascinating. If you're interested in finding out more about inviting such historical figures to your school, visit the site linked above.

Adding Children's Lit Titles to Your Media Center

Our summer course, "Bringing Social Studies to Life With Great Children's Literature," was a wonderful opportunity to explore a wealth of new and not-so-new titles that tie to our Social Studies GPS.

When your media specialist asks you for suggested titles to add to your school's collection, we hope you'll consider some of the titles below. Bernadette (Bernie) Clements, intrepid media clerk, developed the following media proposal that other schools might find helpful in adding to their collections. Thanks, Bernie, for sharing your ideas!

Download Lossgrk-5mediaproposal

Download Lossgrk5mediacenter wish list

Download Lossgrk5mediaproposal cover letter

Enjoy these scenes of happy readers from our summer course below:

   

  

 

Finding Children's Literature Titles Related to Social Studies

This summer's professional development course, "Bringing Social Studies to Life With Great Children's Literature," gives us a chance to do what we love: explore many new titles and strategies for using them to teach our social studies in powerful ways.

Here are links to some websites that are guaranteed to yield many new titles for your treasure chest of great children's books:*

Kids Econ Posters (for the literature lists)

Social Studies through Literature 

Cooperative Children's Book Center

The ABC's: A Bibliography of Children's Books With Social Studies Themes

Opening Doors to Social Studies With Children's Literature

Open Wide, Look Inside

Teachers Helping Teacher

and don't forget to check out links on the left hand side of this blog for more great ideas!

* Many of these sites were explored from the article by C. Frederick Risinger, "Integrating Literature and the Arts Using Internet Resources," in Social Education, May/June 2009, p. 168-169.

Cobb Students Give the Stock Market a Run for the Money

Rebecca (Becky) Delass's students were the highest performing elementary group in the regional Stock Market Game competition this year. They placed seventh in the overall competition, behind only middle and high school teams.

Of far more value than the competition, though, Becky's students learned a great deal about economics and how to invest their money. What a powerful life lesson! Becky, who teaches fifth grade at Garrison Mill, has been teaching the Stock Market Game for several years, and highly recommends it. Not only does it help with economics standards, she wrote, her students loved the experience.

Thanks, Becky, for going the extra mile to provide your students with authentic performance tasks such as Stock Market Game. Hopefully we'll have many more elementary teams from Cobb next year! Be on the alert for information about Stock Market Game workshops available in the new school year.

Wanted: 2nd Grade Teachers Eager to Explore a Local Resource

Marjorie Thomas, the new education coordinator at Hyde Farm in eastern Cobb County, is on board and raring to go with classroom visits by selected 2nd grade classes this fall. For details about the Hyde Farm visit and how it can help you teach both social studies and science standards, see the flyer below.  I encourage your participation in this groundbreaking new experience for our students!

JoAnn :-)

Download Hyde Farm 1

Summer Courses for Elementary Social Studies

Have you been longing for the chance to explore new concepts and resources related to the new K-5 Social Studies standards? We're serving up three delectable opportunities to enhance your talents and extend your teaching repertoire. 

Earn PLU's, develop classroom materials, and share with colleagues! For details, download the course list below, then register through Professional Learning online NOW! 

Questions? E-mail joann.wood@cobbk12.org

Download Summercourses09

April - May Elem. Social Studies newsletter from Georgia DOE

For this year's finale, Marlo and Sarah, our friends at the Georgia DOE, have outdone themselves! They have created a final newsletter for the year, and have also developed GPS booklists that correlate children's book titles with the standards we teach at each grade level.  Wow!

Hope you find just what you're looking for in these valuable documents.

Download April-May 2009

Download GPS Aligned Book List for K-2 Social Studies

Download GPS Aligned Book List for 3-5 Social Studies

I'd love to hear back from you about titles you might add to either or both of these lists. Happy reading!

JoAnn

Social Studies Q & A (adapted from March 24th contact training day)

Our social studies contacts met on Tuesday, March 24th, and discussed many things going on in the district related to social studies. In our question and answer session we covered report cards, course guides, benchmark tests, and other topics. See the powerpoint below for more details.

Download Q & a march24

The sample Standards Assessment Toolbox page for 2nd grade standard SS2E2 is also available for download:

Download SAT 2nd grade social studies

Mark Cobb, of McCall Primary School, took great notes from the meeting on March 24th and sent them to share. Thanks so much, Mark!

Download Notes - Social Studies Contact Meeting

Please keep your questions and comments coming!
JoAnn

Classroom Token Economy Tips from Steve Bell

 Pitner's fourth grade teacher extraordinaire, Steve Bell, shared with our Social Studies contacts his version of a classroom token economy setup, and has now generously created guidelines and included his template for what he converts to Bell Bucks. I know some of you may find this profitable (ha).

Download Classroom economy set up
Download Classroom Currency

Thanks so much to Steve for sharing!
JoAnn

History Talk at the Marietta Museum of History

This just in from our friends at the Marietta Museum:

EVENING WITH HISTORY - MARCH 19 at 7pm

 Former State Representative Steve Tumlin will share his enthusiasm for the accomplishments of National PTA Founder and Mariettan Alice McLellan Birney; a woman he calls "one of the most progressive and interesting women in Georgia History."