Mentor Texts for the American Revolution and Letting Your Students Take Ownership

I am a little late, but I thought I would link up Collaboration Cuties' Must Read Mentor Text linky for Social Studies.  I am glad they and Jivey are recommending some books for the American Revolution.  Most of my students are studying the American Revolution right now.

Mentor Texts

A couple texts we are reading the next couple week are:

Colonial Voices: Hear Them Speak

This book describes different points of view of different every day citizens around Boston leading up to the Boston Tea Party.  It is a great text to get students to discuss the events of the Boston Tea Party, but also how it affected different people.  After each person, we discuss if they were a Loyalist or Patriot and how we know from the details the person gave. After reading the book, I would have students write from the point of view a citizen in Boston or even write a skit from a patriot and a loyalist debating the events.

Let It Begin Here: Lexington and Concord

This book describes the events of Paul Revere's midnight ride and the events that got the Revolution started.  It is a great introductory text to the American Revolution.

George vs. George

This is a great book to explain the differences between the American and the British points of view.  This book will give your students an overview of the major concepts surrounding the Revolution.  This would be a good text to photocopy a short portion to do a close read.

A New Approach to Teaching Social Studies

I have been taking a little different approach in Social Studies and some other areas lately.  Instead of just teaching the material to my students or assigning them material to read, I have been giving them more ownership.  I have been creating study guides with essential questions and performance tasks.

This idea came about during a graduate school meeting in December. Every few weeks, some of the students and professors in my graduate program get together to discuss research ideas for gifted students. In our December Saturday morning, my advisor said something so simple and yet profound it jumpstarted a whole new approach to teaching for me. He said, "Students should always work harder than the teacher." They are the ones who should be learning and growing and struggling as part of that process.  He emphasized that in a blended learning environment like the one I work in, where the kids have access to technology, what the kids really need in order to learn are to be given good questions.

By giving them a set of essential questions to research and answer without me really teaching them much of the material they take ownership of their learning and also practice reading with a purpose.  They have to be move from passive learning to very active learning. I have given them access to different resources, and it is their job to research the essential questions and answer them.  Then, they have been completing different performance tasks to demonstrate their understanding.  We just finished studying the Causes of the American Revolution.  My students made dioramas, made posters, and made Power Point presentations to show they understood events like the Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party.  Some of the students work on the study guides by themselves and some work with a partner. At the end of the unit, we are discussing it all together. This is part of why we are reading the mentor texts to discuss what they have already researched.  Now though, they are very familiar with the events in the stories as I read them.

Here is an example of the Causes of the American Revolution Study Guide I gave my students.  

It has been fun the last few weeks to watch them.  They actually are very excited to do Social Studies at the end of the day, and they often have been asking to get started on it during Language Arts. How do you encourage student ownership?

Text Suggestions on Native Americans

This might be the longest I have gone without blogging.  This school year is actually going really well.  I am enjoying my students this year so much!  The second year of doing something is hands down ten times better than the first year. Last year was my first year to teach a grades 4-5 class in a blended learning environment, where we combine technology and teacher interaction to meet the needs of our students. It was also our first year last year to have any elementary grades at our school. There was so much to figure out from schedule to curriculum to identifying what blended learning looks like for elementary students at different phases. This year I have been able to learn from my experiences last year and start off the year with more consistency in schedule and curriculum.

I decided this year to pursue my PhD in Gifted Education part-time while working. While I am really glad to be able to give my students more consistency this year and watch them thrive with it, I am struggling with it myself.  Once again that whole issue of balance comes into play. I am trying to sort out my own schedule and routine for work, lesson planning and grading, going to class for grad school, studying for class and doing assignments, working out, eating better, being married, cleaning, etc. Almost all of my students have had a cold or a stomach bug in the last couple weeks. I woke up with the cold last Wednesday and have been fighting it.  I slept most of the weekend. Anyway, I apologize if my blogging lacks the consistency I usually strive for, but I will do my best.

One of my favorite resources I discovered recently was a website called Commoncore.org. I mentioned it before.  They have curriculum maps for Social Studies and ELA.  I am loving the curriculum maps for US. History.  It is making it so much easier for me to choose texts to incorporate Social Studies into Language Arts.

We started the year reading The Discovery of the Americas by Betsy and Giulio Maestro.

This kicked off our study on Native Americans.  It was a good introduction because it discusses the land bridge between Asia and America and mentions tribes across both of the Americas. We learned about Aztec, Inca, and Mayans first by doing some research on the following website:

http://www.ducksters.com/history/aztec_maya_inca.php

Then, we learned about the tribes of the four major regions in North America. In Language Arts, we have been working on plot and theme.  I decided to incorporate some Native American folk tales into our discussions.

We read several folk tales from The Girl Who Helped Thunder. 



This book works really well as a read aloud when studying Native Americans.  It divides North America into 6 regions and has 3 tales for each region.  Each tale is 2-3 pages. Each story has an obvious theme, so they make a great short read aloud to review over character, setting, events, problem, solution, and theme. We also discussed what we knew about each tribe based on the story.  We could infer information about their values, the types of homes they lived in, the climate, what they ate, etc.

Last week we discussed conflict and the difference between external and internal conflict.  We made mini-anchor charts to show our thinking about conflict.



Then, my students read different Native American folk tales and made a chart to identify the characters, setting, problem, external conflict examples, internal conflict examples, solution, and theme to the story they read.  Then we shared as a group.



What are your favorite texts to read when studying Native Americans?  This week we are starting our Explorer unit.  I will share more of those texts in another post.

Curriculum Maps for Common Core that tie to Social Studies

I feel like I haven't blogged in forever. I went to Orlando last Wednesday through Sunday to spend some time with my brother, dad, and my grandparents. It was a great trip even though it was short. I got to do relaxing and reading (which are two things I never seem to have enough time for).  On the way back, I got bumped to First Class so a family could sit together. Poor me...  It was fun! I had never sat in First Class before. I will miss the meal, the hot towels, and the glass of wine next time I have to sit in Coach.

The other day I came across a new resource for Curriculum Maps that tie to Common Core.  I had already purchased Common Core Curriculum Maps for Language Arts on Amazon this summer as a resource. I first read about this book last summer and had not gotten around to purchasing it.

The book has six different units for each grade level, which many of them are theme based and tie in to Social Studies. I plan on using some of the ideas for 4th and 5th Grade to plan out some of my read alouds, shared reads, and assigned nonfiction reading this year.  There are actually also some great suggestions of poems.

One area that is always a struggle to find great texts is Social Studies.  Actually, the problem is not finding texts but choosing the right ones. Since many of my students are gifted, it is important for my curriculum plans to include a lot of independent learning. If students work more independently and through more of an inquiry approach, the teacher becomes less of the central vehicle for the students to obtain new knowledge.  This is where the right text becomes important.  Students still need a vehicle to learn the content.  A high interest text can make all the difference. Commoncore.org is a website with curriculum maps that tie to the Common Core Standards.  (This website is different from the site where you can find copies of the standards.) 

CommonCore.org is a nonprofit organization that has worked to create curriculum maps that tie to the Common Core Standards. You can purchase a yearly subscription to access the maps.  They have maps for Language Arts.  (I did not purchase this subscription since I had already purchased the other book above). The part I was excited about is that they have Curriculum Maps for Social Studies.  It was $20 for a one year subscription.  They have curriculum maps for both World History and US History.  Each type of History has 18 topics that have maps.  For each topic, there are suggested anchor texts with other text suggestions.  They include text dependent questions, assessment ideas, and links to other resources like Primary Sources and websites.  I am excited to add these resources to my other curriculum.  I have been wanting to find more History nonfiction texts and historical fiction to incorporate into Language Arts.  I tend to spend a lot of time researching texts and going to the library.  I am hoping this will cut down on my time researching texts, so I can spend more time creating projects and activities to go with the texts and also finding engaging primary sources.  Do you have any great resources for curriculum maps for Social Studies or lists of great History nonfiction texts?

Must Read Mentor Texts for Social Studies: You Wouldn't Want to Be...Series

I really thought I was going to finish some products this weekend for my store and classroom.  Instead, I was up late Friday night doing Statistics homework.  Saturday morning I did bootcamp and holy yoga.  The rest of the weekend was filled with cleaning, organizing, purging, donating to Goodwill, moving furniture around, laundry, grocery shopping, church, and getting ready for the week.

It's Sunday, so it is time for Collaboration Cuties' Must Read Mentor Text linky.

 

This week's topic is Social Studies. Can we say love?  I am starting my PhD in Educational Psychology with emphasis in Gifted and Talented Education. (That is why I am taking Statistics this summer).  My career goal is to create Social Studies/History curriculum for Elementary kids.  I feel like History is so important, and we need more resources that make it come alive and feel relevant and tangible for Elementary kids.  A great text is a fabulous way to help kids relate to a historical figure or time period.  Historical Fiction always has and always will be my favorite genre.  I discovered my love of reading when my grandmother introduced me to Ann Rinaldi.  She is still one of my favorite authors.  Her books are probably more Middle School reading level, so I always try to encourage my higher level fifth-grade readers to explore her books. I remember reading In My Father's House in 6th grade.

It is about the McLean family.  The Civil War started right in front of their house.  They moved to Appomattox to escape the war.  Then Lee used their library to sign the surrender.  I remember visiting Appomattox the summer after 6th grade with my grandparents.  I was so excited when we saw the McLeans' house in Appomattox.  I told my grandmother when we got to the library there was going to be a doll left on the sofa.  My grandmother thought I was silly, but sure enough there it was.  Will McLean's little girl leaves her doll in his study and it is taken over to sign the surrender and end the civil war. She is upset because she wants her doll, not understanding the importance of what is happening behind closed doors. I love historical fiction because often kids can relate to history so much more when they can relate to the age or gender of the characters.  It is such an easy way to learn history and absorb interesting details.

I often have done a round of book clubs with Historical Fiction in my classroom or had my students choose from a list of books when we are studying a period of time. I am teaching US History again this year, so I am excited to use more picture book mentor texts.  This year we studied the US Regions and Westward Expansion.  I am excited to actually cover most of the major events in US History again. 

This year was my first year to use Common Core.  I live in Texas, so I had previously followed the TEKS.  The private school I am at now follows Common Core. With the emphasis on nonfiction in Common Core I used a lot more nonfiction this year in Science and Social Studies for mentor texts.  Engaging nonfiction is hard to find that reads well aloud, so I love finding great nonfiction mentor texts. My "go-to" Social Studies source for mentor texts is the "You Wouldn't Want to Be" series.  Students always love them!  I would like to read this one to use this year: You Woudn't Want to be a Civil War Soldier. 

The series always presents the worst part of a time period - the hardships and disgusting details.  It always helps to paint a picture though about the hardships of a place and time, and the kids eat it up.  If you scroll through the other related books at the bottom of the Amazon page, you can see a bunch of the other books in the series. There are tons of books in the series for American History and World History. Usually after I read one aloud, it gets read and reread during independent reading. What is your favorite Social Studies nonfiction mentor text?

Common Core in the Content Areas: Charley the Female Stagecoach Driver

Following our thematic unit on biomes, we spent the last couple weeks of school focusing on Westward Expansion.  As the last couple weeks are always hectic and filled with last minute items we forgot to do, I did not have as much time with this unit as I wanted. I wanted to have them do a web quest on different locations on the Oregon Trail and write a journal as a pioneer moving west.  The other thing I really wanted to do was one more read aloud.

While reviewing the novel units earlier this year at www.readworks.org, I came across a book called Riding Freedom by Pam Munoz Ryan.

It sounded like a great book and since Readworks already had a free novel unit to go with it I thought it would be perfect.  The novel is an easy read that is only about a 127 pages. It would be perfect to read with grades 3-5 as the chapters are short (which also makes for a great read aloud). The book is about Charley Parkhurst, who was an orphan girl who disguises herself as a boy to become a stagecoach driver. The historical fiction novel is based on a real story. As the Gold Rush commences, Charley moves West with some other stagecoach drivers to find opportunity.  She ends up losing an eye in an accident and still is able to drive a stagecoach with one eye.  She disguised herself as a man most of her life and built a reputation as one of the best stagecoach drivers in California.  She was the first woman to vote in California (even though she really voted under the pretense of a man.)

In order to integrate this book with Common Core, you could compare settings in the novel, you could discuss theme, you could look at Charley's development throughout the novel, and you could also discuss point of view in the novel. Readworks does a great job with their novel units of emphasizing the CCSS.  You could choose to write an informative essay about the life of Charley Parkhurst or stagecoach drivers.  Students could write a persuasive essay about whether or not women in the West should get the right to vote.  They could write their own narrative inspired by the story.

Another great book on Charley to pair with Riding Freedom is Rough, Tough Charley by Verla Kay.  This biographical picture book includes the story of Charley's life but is told in poetic verse.

This would be a great book to pair because you could discuss any differences in details about her life between the two.  You could also compare and contrast the portrayal of Charley.  Rough, Tough Charley would be a fabulous book to discuss narrative poetry.  I love the idea of even having students write a biographical poem of a historical figure.

I hope you are having a great start to summer.  I look forward to being able to get back into a blogging routine now that the end of the school year is over.

Common Core in the Content Areas: You Wouldn't Want to Be an American Pioneer

Common Core in the Content Areas

On Thursdays, I would like to start offering ideas for the Content Areas (Science and Social Studies) to incorporate the Common Core Standards.

These might be reading ideas, writing ideas, or even Math ideas.  Initially, I will probably focus on text suggestions.  With the Common Core Reading Standards placing so much emphasis on Informational Text I have tried to incorporate a lot more nonfiction into my read alouds this year.

I enjoy searching the library for nonfiction on topics we are exploring in Science and Social Studies.  I try to always distinguish between which texts seem like they would be great for a project and which ones seem like they would read well aloud.

In Social Studies, we are studying Westward Expansionism.  This week we read You Wouldn't Want to Be an American Pioneer by Jacqueline Morley.  If you have not read any of the "You Wouldn't Want to Be" books, you are missing out.  They are packed full of information on different history topics, are engaging to read, and the illustrations are funny. The kids always love these books and remember all of the details very well.

You can easily cover the Common Core Standards with this book.  You could discuss the main ideas and details, text structure, and/or the author's claim with evidence. You could discuss how the illustrations aid their understanding.  For writing, you could have your students write an informational piece about the hardships of moving west. They could write a persuasive piece on reasons why should move west or reasons not to move west.  They also could create a little persuasive brochure or poster for this same purpose. You could also have them write a narrative about the daily life of moving west. We discussed the book in depth and then I gave them questions to answer at the end. You can get a copy of the questions here.

For each text suggestion I give for the Content Areas, I am going to give you a freebie to go with the book.  I may also try and create some mini-units to go with the books to put in my TpT store. 

I hope you will consider linking up your own posts on how you incorporate the Common Core Standards in your Content Areas. I look forward to this being a weekly series.

Resources for the 13 Colonies

In Social Studies, we spent the first half of the year learning about the different regions of the US, as well as the Native Americans of each region. Second semester we are supposed to talk about Westward Expansionism.  Before we move on toward the Pioneers and Moving West, I want us to quickly touch on the 13 Colonies.  They need to understand that sellers came from Europe to the Colonies.  Then, after while they moved west.  Expansionism is always a routine of exploring, settling, and then searching for more.

We are going to watch videos from Discovery Education on New England Colonies, Middle Colonies, and Southern Colonies, so they can see some of the differences at a glance. I also picked up some books at the library on each of the three regions of the 13 Colonies. Students will be getting into groups.  I will have a group for each of three regions.  Different people in each group will research different aspects of daily life in the Colonies like education, clothing, food, industries, cultures, geography, etc. Edhelper also has some great little reading passages on lots of Science and History topics.  If you have never looked at Edhelper, it is a good resources for $20 a year.  Many times over the years I have used it as my overall backup resource for all subjects.

My students will then do a project on what they learned.  I am thinking we will make our first glogs through Glogster Edu. I also would like to have them do something a little more hands on, so I might have them make some type of model of a typical home or something.  Any fun hands-on project ideas for the 13 Colonies?

Here are some web links I found on the 13 Colonies.  I found a cool website through Pinterest called Go Social Studies Go.  They have some really fun facts and videos on history.  They have a page for US History.  We will use the sub-page on the Colonies.  On the page for the New England Colonies, they have a link to a Horrible History video that presents the differences between the Puritans versus a family relocated from England.  The video is called a Historical Wife Swap, and it shows what would have happened between the two types of families if they had done a wife swap.  I thought this idea of using the idea of a reality show to highlight the differences between different cultures even in one section of the 13 Colonies was a really fun idea. I think there is a whole series of these Horrible History videos on Youtube for all sorts of History topics. This might even be a fun assignment. Have the students make their own video of what if they had done a reality TV show at a different point in history?  What would it have been of?

A couple books I like to use when studying the 13 Colonies because they are high-interest reads and  because they highlight daily life in a more disgusting, dreadful way are:

Source: amazon.com via April on Pinterest

Source: amazon.com via April on Pinterest

This book is an easy read and presents info on the 13 Colonies in a question and answer format:

Source: amazon.com via April on Pinterest

There is so much more you can do when studying the 13 Colonies, but I want to cover it pretty quickly.  Do you have any favorite activities or projects you like to do when covering the 13 Colonies?

After we finish the 13 Colonies, each student is going to do a report on a state (probably one of the original 13 colonies because I only have 12 students). I can then do the 13th report. I want them to make the connection between life in a historical colony and modern life in a state. It is important to understand how history affects present day. Then, we will move on to Moving West.

Lesson Ideas on Martin Luther King

We are talking about Martin Luther King this week on Wednesday because I am alternating Social Studies and Science every other day.  Tuesday we talked about Properties of Matter in Science. 

We will start our discussion on Martin Luther King by watching a video on MLK.  There are several good choices on Discovery Education.  There is also a free video with Brainpop.  I love the free videos on Brainpop because they come with little printable activities.

Tonight I ran to the library to find some books on the 13 Colonies and came across a graphic novel biography of MLK.  Thus, we will read this as a read aloud.  I love finding opportunities to use different mediums and genres of text. The name of the graphic novel is Martin Luther King, Jr.: Great Civil Rights Leader.

Source: amazon.com via April on Pinterest

We will also read a passage on Martin Luther King from Readworks.  Here are some different ones to choose from. Readworks has fabulous passages.  The passages usually are fairly short, but the questions are great.  It is an amazing free resource for extra nonfiction test practice or guided reading resources.

I was at a teaching workshop a couple years ago where the instructor took sections of the "I Have a Dream" speech and had them on notecards.  She handed out the sections to different groups, and we had to rewrite that section in our own words.  I think this is a fabulous idea, so we are going to do this as an analyzing and writing activity. Here is a link to a text copy of the speech.

My students will write sections of the speech in their own words.  I also pulled some quotes from Dr. King we will use for writing inspiration. We will break down the quotes and explain what they mean. Then, they can use the quotes to inspire their journal writing to write about whatever they want as long as it is inspired by the quote. I also will have my students write a paragraph about their own dreams for the world.  I ended up putting together a file with all of this. 

You can get it at my TpT store.  It will be on sale this week. The first person to leave me a comment with your favorite activity for learning about Martin Luther King can have a copy for free.

Jennifer Findley today shared a cute idea to work on Point of View in writing by looking at the Rosa Parks story.  We have been talking and talking about point of view, so I love this idea!  If I squeeze this next week, then we will use a Readworks passage.  Otherwise, we may use it for Black History month, and I will actually probably pick up some books at the library. Readworks has lesson ideas for using Rosa Parks: My Story.

Source: amazon.com via Jenna on Pinterest

Integrating Nonfiction Studies with Science and Social Studies

The Common Core Standards put as much emphasis on nonfiction as they do literature.  It is important to find ways to incorporate nonfiction into your classroom. We have been studying weather over the last couple weeks in Science and previously we talked about earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunamis. I decided for Science this week to grab a big stack of nonfiction books at the library.  I checked out books on different types of storms and natural disasters.  I grabbed Hurricanes: Earth's Mightiest Storms because it is a CC Examplar text, as well as several books by Seymour Simon since his Volcanoes book is an exemplar text. 

I also grabbed other books on tsunamis, mudslides, drought, wildfires, etc. The students had to choose a topic and read the book.  Their task is to create an alphabet book over facts they learned about the weather/storm/natural disaster.  I gave them the option of making the alphabet book as an actual book by hand or making a PowerPoint with a slide for each letter.  They love their Mac's so they all chose a PowerPoint.  We have read other alphabet books already this year on other topics, so they were familiar with the text structure of an alphabet book.

It has been a good assignment though.  I tasked them with the idea that all of their facts have to come from the text and not the internet.  We were able to talk about reading nonfiction with a purpose.  It also gave us a chance to review text features.  Since they are having to use all 26 letters of the alphabet, it makes them think a little differently.  We also talked about helpful resources for this task are to use the index and glossary at the back since they are alphabetized.  How do you incorporate nonfiction? 

I like that they are having to read a longer text and not just an article.  At the end, I am going to have them answer some general questions on the their text.  So, some of them may have to go back and read a little more closely.  Truthfully, this is how many of us read nonfiction though.  Authentically, we often skip around, scan the facts and pictures, skip to the chapters we are most interested in, and then go back and reread.  I want to help them to become authentic and enthusiastic readers.  How do you incorporate nonfiction to meet common core?

Nonfiction Fun Texts on the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade and the First Thanksgiving

Today, we read Balloons over Broadway by Melissa Sweet.

The book is about Tony Sarg, the original puppeteer who got the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade started in 1924.  The illustrations are beautiful and very life-like.  It has a very collage-like feel to it.  I actually think this would be a fun follow-up project to the book to have the students create a biographical collage of text and pictures about someone of interest to them.

We read the book and created a character trait map on Tony Sarg. (Here is a Character trait map from Laura Candler.) He was very inventive, clever, and creative.  There are tons of examples of his creativity and inventiveness throughout the book. After reading the book, they researched the Macy's Parade and designed their own balloon.  My students really loved reading about the parade route and looking at the pictures of the balloon line-up on Macy's website. If you go to Melissa Sweet's website, you can download a discussion guide and activity kit for the book. I used the maze and the "design your own balloon" page from the activity kit.

I first read about this book from the blogs: Kid Lit Frenzy and Teach Mentor Texts.

Tomorrow we are going to read You Wouldn't Want to Sail on the Mayflower. 

It describes life for the pilgrims, but focuses on all of the gross and unpleasant parts.  Students always love it.  I am going to follow it up by having them write a letter back home to England from the point of view of a Pilgrim describing their journey and that first winter. Once again here is the interactive letter writer from Read Write Think.  Here is another one from abcya.com.

Last Minute Election Resources and Text Suggestions

One of my primary goals as a blogger has been to share texts and ideas to incorporate Social Studies and Science with Literacy.  I love Literature and feel that it should be integrated into all learning experiences. Having your students read nonfiction is so important in this digital age, as so much of what we read in our daily lives is nonfiction. I am going to try to be more consistent on sharing text suggestions for Social Studies and Science topics, as well as technology resources that apply.

Everyone has been sharing great Election resources and products.  We have been discussing Native Americans and the US Regions, and my students have been doing book club units with My Side of the Mountain and Island of the Blue Dolphins. As a result, we have not had much time yet to discuss the Election.  I wanted to start discussing it some today, but I was sick. We are going to spend most of tomorrow looking at some Election Resources and possibly the rest of the week.

Readworks.org is a great resource I came across a couple weeks ago.  It is completely free and has great lesson ideas for Reading and Common Core. Here is a link to some passages they have on the election.

ReadWriteThink has some lesson plan ideas related to the election.

While at home sick today, I was researching the exemplar texts for Common Core.  One of them is So You Want to Be President. I checked it out from the library tonight, and we are going to read it tomorrow. 

Here are some ideas for using with this book:
http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/lesson-plan/so-you-want-be-president
http://coolkidlit-4-socialstudies.pbworks.com/w/page/16473227/So%20you%20Want%20to%20be%20President_Lesson%20Plan
http://www.irvingisd.net/vote08/lessonpdfs/ES_3_5_vv_for_everyone.pdf


We also are going to read The Kid Who Ran For President over the next two weeks as a read aloud. There are some resources for this book on TpT.  I will probably just use my graphic organizers that are tied to Common Core.

Another cute book is Off and Running by Gary Soto.  It is about two kids who run for class president.

I made a Live Binder of all the fabulous resources other bloggers have been sharing.  In case you are last minute like me, hopefully you might find something helpful.

Social Studies Texts to help introduce economics

So for my Social Studies texts for this week, I have two related books for you by Marjorie Priceman.  Both books introduce some basic economics concepts and ideas of trade and how things are made.

1) How to Make Cherry Pie and see the U.S.A

(For this one, no picture was available on Amazon.) This book goes over all the components that would be needed to make a charry pie and where you in the U.S.A you would have to go find them if the market was closed.  I like how this story shows how things are made and how the different parts come from different places.  I think most kids are used to just going to the store and they may not have wondered where it all came from.  It also shows how different parts of the country grow different things.  So this story could be used with discussions of trade, economics, production, US regions, etc.  It really can tie into lots of Social Studies topics. 

2) How to Make Apple Pie and See the World 

This story is similar to the US story, but looks at different countries.  I think I would have students follow this up by studying some different cultures or maybe trying foods from different cultures.  You really could do some fun activities with both of these books. 

Students could become different countries or states and tell you about the products they are known for.  I like the idea of instead of just having students make an entire book or project on all different facets of a state or country, maybe just focus on components like food or domestic products.  Let them learn one thing well and present it. 

With my Social Studies instruction this year, I want to narrow topics a bit instead of always covering huge encompassing topics and periods.  I want to chunk the learning and ideas into more manageable parts like trade, transportation, food, etc. 

Social Studies Texts: Scrambled States of America

For my Social Studies text recommendations this week, I have two books for you: The Scrambled States of America and The Scrambled States of America Talent Show.

Both of these books are super cute and would be a great introduction to learning the states or looking into the different regions.  The Scrambled States of America is such a cute story.  Some of the states are feeling happy with their location so they decide to throw a party and all get together. The states mingle, have a good time, and some of them to decide to start switching places.  After trying out new locations, they all find they are more unhappy and go home.  It is a great story to infer information about the different climates and and regions of the country.  I would follow this up by having students do a RAFT writing activity from the point of view of a state.  I would probably have them do some research on a state and then write from that state's point of view.  I might even make a little grid menu of writing/project ideas to go with this book to share with you later. 

In the Scrambled States of America Talent Show, the different states decide to have a talent show and all the states perform different songs and dances.  I would read this book with the first one just because it is cute. I would probably follow up this book by having students research cultural aspects of the different states and regions.  See what types of music and foods are in different parts of the country.