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Most students wouldn’t say that Social Studies is their favorite subject because let’s be honest….it can be boring learning historical facts that are not relevant to students.
If you are a 4th grade teacher in California, you have the privilege of being the only person to teach about our state’s history. They will not receive this topic ever again, so it is important that you do teach it. I thought I would share some ways that I teach California Social Studies in an engaging way that make my students cheer when it’s time for the Social Studies lesson.
I like to have students take notes in a fun way by taking notes in a flip book, tab book, or a foldable. This instantly engages students in the content and has them participate in their learning rather than passively learning information. I put a few examples of how I use interactive notes to teach CA Regions below.
I have use projects to help students learn a social studies topic through researching. You can have students get into groups and each research one subtopic.
For example, you can have 4 groups and each group is responsible for learning about a different CA region and become an expert on it. Then they can present their information to the class so that everyone can learn all about all 4 regions. I use the CA Regions Brochure as a way to display their information that they have research…similar to a travel brochure.
This is also how I teach about the 21 missions in California. Students can research a mission and create a CA Mission Brochure to display their learning to the class.
This is my favorite way to engage students and the best way to introduce or wrap up a unit!
The first year I taught CA History I knew I wanted to make a special GOLD RUSH DAY! The one thing I remember from my 4th grade experience was panning for gold in kiddy pools outside our classroom. This memory inspired me to create GOLD RUSH DAY.
I designed a whole day at the end of our Gold Rush Unit as a culminating activity. I had students dress up in historical costumes, spray painted rocks gold, created integrated theme activities across all subjects for the entire day…talk about ENGAGEMENT! During GOLD RUSH DAY students participated in a reader’s theatre for reading, rotated in 4 different mining for gold stations (where they got to collect *real* gold) figure out how much money they got in gold and how to spend it at the mining camp store for math, and so much more. You can read more about GOLD DAY here or get GOLD RUSH DAY activities here.
I hope this gives you some ideas to incorporate Social Studies into your classroom and makes students excited to learn about their states history. Leave me a comment below if you have any questions.
For more ideas and teacher tips, follow me on Instagram @faithfullyelementary.
