Block City

When teaching first graders about cultures, you could add a place of worship or business for the new cultures as you learn them. Then you could discuss as a class how that new building or new set of people will influence or change the city. This would go with standard 1.03 for culture under social studies for the state of Tennessee.

Goegraphy

I have always loved geography, especially United States geography. Learning states and capitals was fun for me. I have been up and down the East Coast several times and love the scenery, especially through Pennsylvania. Students need to learn geography in order to understand history and how people live based on their climates and locations.

Creative Social Studies

My nephew is in 4th grade at Haynesfield Elementary in Bristol, Tennessee. Last week he had to do a social studies project that I really like and he really enjoyed doing. They had a booklet with a heading on each page - food, clothing, shelter, artifacts, and a couple of others. He had to pick a Native American group of people and look up information on each heading. Then he had to write 5 sentences about each heading and draw a picture. This was the coolest social studies project I had ever seen and I loved helping him to it. He was much more excited about this project than he would have been a worksheet or doing a report. Creative projects like this are much more interesting for students than the usual reading and reporting or filling out worksheets that most classes are doing.

Speaking In A Critical Voice

Students are much more apt to learning when they are able to become involved in their learning. Acting out events are a much better way for students to learn than merely teaching them dates and names. In the same light, students learn math better when they are allowed to use games instead of working problems continually. In order to reach all children, a variety of instructional methods should be used. Teachers need to develop their critical voice to be able to show other teachers and students the importance of varied teaching methods.