How can I be the primary educator?

Let your child navigate google maps

Learning to navigate roadways by memory is becoming a lost art thanks to the IPhone revolution. If you have a paper map in your car, ask your child about the physical features (lakes, rivers, mountain ranges) you might see along the way. Ask your student if the car is traveling North or South. The same questions can also be applied to your Google Maps App, just remind your student not to ask Siri.

Go for walks, pick up things, and ask questions

Geography is a social science. Just like biologists and chemists, geographers make observations about the world around them. Scientific concepts such as climate, ecosystems and geologic features inform a geographer's experience of a place. The granite pebbles your child picks up on a walk with you aren't found in the physical geography of every country; ask your child why they think that is. 

Listen to The Moth 

The Moth is a spoken word project that takes place world wide. People tell stories from memory, communicating powerful memoirs about their lives. Many of these stories are told by people whose narratives highlight the culture and values of foreign nations. Listening to select Moth memoirs will expose your child to foreign points of view and, as a result, human geography.

What ongoing activities can we expect?

Essential Questions

Example: Unit 1

Studying the Distant Past: How do we study and represent the distant past?

The History and Evolution of Homo Sapiens: How did human bodies and activities change during the Paleolithic Era?

The Neolithic Era and its Environmental Impact: 

What were the effects of domestication and metallurgy on people, human communities, and the environment?

Student as Social Scientist

In Social Studies, students will take on the roles of different types of social scientists, depending on the activities we do in class. 

They will:

-Engage with artifacts, like an Archaeologist.

-Read documents, like a Historian.

-Study different cultures, like an Anthropologist.

-Study geographical features, like a Geographer.

-Study fossils, like a Paleontologist.

Where we will explore:

-Unit 1: Ancient Africa

-Unit 2: Western Asia, Middle East, and Northern Africa

-Unit 3: Sub-Saharan Africa

-Unit 4: Central America, The Caribbean Islands, and South America