Social Studies Projects

So, our social studies curriculum is split into four "units" instead of chapters.  And the 3rd grade curriculum is all about the United States and its neighbors - Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean.

One of the biggest pieces of unit 1 is all about the regions of the United States.  But our curriculum shoves it all into one lesson.  Our team has decided to take 2 days to teach every lesson in the unit...which gave me 2 days to teach all 5 regions of the US, complete with climate and landmarks.  So, instead, I decided to do a project.

My kids split into 5 groups and created posters about their different region.  That way each group was responsible for learning the material themselves, and then sharing it with the class.

First thing they did was fill out a worksheet asking those important questions:

• what states are in your region
• what's the climate like in your region
• what landmarks are in your region

Then they work on their posters, which they then share with the class.

My kiddos really loved this activity...they're oddly excited when they get to make posters.

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Also, we have 2 teacher stores here in Pensacola.  One of them, School Works, is owned by some friends of ours...so, of course, that's the one I shop at.  And I always tend to buy things that I normally wouldn't buy cause I'm really not looking.

Well, anyway, I found these wonderful coloring maps of the United States.  So I bought them.  And right after my students created their region posters, we colored our US maps.  My kiddos were, for real, so excited that they each got their own map to label and color.

We talked about state abbreviations and labeled our maps.  And as we colored them in, we color-coded the regions.  It was honestly one of the calmest parts of my day (well, the 2 days it took us to complete it).

Thanks for sticking out this long post.  I'll be updating again soon...promise!