Social Studies Units

In 5th grade our anchor standards are “Rights and Responsibilities''. We cover many different areas of Rights throughout the school year. Our first focus is on the Constitution. In this unit, we focus on our Classroom Constitutions to find understanding in writing out our own list of rules to follow in the classroom. Our “practice” is through the use of our Peardecks, located in Google Classroom, where we learn about The Preamble, Three Branches of Government, and Checks and Balances. We finish each unit with an assessment that we call a “Lesson Game”. They tend to look forward to these as they get to “show off” what they have learned throughout this lesson. We also use other tools to help aid in our learning through the use of Gimkit and Quizlet. Our next units will cover “The Bill of Rights,”  “Civil Rights Movement.” and in the spring a focus on”Foreign Policy in a Global Age” and end with a unit on  “Human and Equality Rights.” We usually end with a little Iowa History and Financial Literacy. (After each unit we do earn a hands-on project that also shows me their understanding over that particular standard.)

In 6th grade, our anchor standards are “Culture and Regions”. We cover many different areas of geography and cultural learning throughout the school year. Our “practice” is through the use of our Peardecks, located in Google Classroom, where we learn about multiple areas of ancient civilizations. We always try to make connections from the past to the present and focus on why these areas are still relevant.

 We start our first unit in the fall where we focus on the 5 Themes of Geography through a Google Slide project on a specific country of their choice. This is a little more interactive as we work with peers and present the projects to the class. Then, we move into learning about Ancient Mesopotamia. Our first Ancient Civilization. We will finish each unit with an assessment that we call a “Lesson Game”. The kids tend to look forward to these as they get to “show off” what they have learned throughout this lesson.  We also use other tools to help aid in our learning through the use of Gimkit and Quizlet. 

Our next unit will be over Ancient Egypt, and then onto Ancient Greece, ending with Ancient Rome. The last part of the year we learn a little about Iowa History. After each unit we do earn a hands-on project that also shows me their understanding over that particular standard.

Our Exploratory class has been moved into our Social Studies class time. We will focus on the Youth Marketplace Curriculum which hits our Financial Literacy Standards. This program will be incorporated into the 4th quarter unit that focuses on students learning about products, services, customer base, and profit. We will have our marketplace this spring on our concert night.

For both 5th & 6th grade:

Our day to day consists of watching a 10 minute student based news program that covers the news in current events. It has been a great “bell ringer” to get us into the Social Studies mode and also helps us to be aware of our surroundings as U.S.Citizens. Many great discussions have been had in the past. You may have heard stories about this from your child.