Category: Social Studies

Jan 14 2016 January 14, 2016 May 12, 2016 NoComment by David

4th Grade Revolutionary War Comics

Posted in 4th Grade, Social Studies

CaptureFourth graders at Davis Elementary have been studying the Revolutionary War in Social Studies (VS.5), and they have been learning how to formulate questions about nonfiction text in Reading (SOL4.6b). So today students in Ms. White’s class created Revolutionary War comics and asked their classmates questions about them. We used StoryboardThat to make the comics because it has plenty of Revolutionary War backgrounds, characters, and props for the students to use. First we brainstormed ideas for the comics so everyone wasn’t doing the same thing. Students could make comics about any Revolutionary War event they had learned about so far. Since they were just beginning the unit, they didn’t have many events to choose from yet, but as they learn more, they can make additional comics. I showed them how to change the characters’ poses and expressions to fit the context. I also explained that the speech bubbles needed to include enough facts and information for their classmates to answer the questions. When they were finished, we took screenshots of the comics and posted them to Google classroom with a question. The students enjoyed reading each others’comics and answering their questions, plus, it was a great review. You can see some student samples here.


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Jan 05 2016 January 5, 2016 May 10, 2016 NoComment by David

3rd Grade Greece & Rome Nearpod

Posted in 3rd Grade, Social Studies

CaptureNearpod is a cool webtool for making interactive presentations that provide live feedback from your students. They can answer your questions, draw or label a picture, take a quiz, vote on a poll, fill-in-the-blank, and more! Ms. Middleton at Holladay Elementary wanted to learn more about it, so today I showed her 3rd graders a Nearpod activity I created about Greece and Rome (SOL3.1). I tried to showcase each feature: it includes (1) a poll about the occupations in ancient Greece and Rome, (2) a 2-question quiz about the building projects of these two civilizations, (3) a fill-in-the-blank activity about the geography, (4) a map students can draw on to locate Greece and Rome, (5) a matching memory test, and (6) a free response question. If you wanted to create your own Nearpod, you would log in with your Google account and click “Create.” Then you would add different slides by clicking the type of activity you wanted. You could also upload a PDF file and each page would become its own slide. When you finish, you click “Publish.” To start a live session with your class you would go to “My Library” and click “Live Lesson” on the slideshow you want to share with them. Nearpod will give you a PIN number for the lesson, and when students go to Nearpod, they just enter the PIN number. They don’t need to log in. Let me know if you’d like me to show Nearpod to your class!


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Dec 10 2015 December 10, 2015 May 9, 2016 NoComment by David

5th Grade Southeast Region Maps

Posted in 5th Grade, Social Studies

CaptureFifth graders at Davis Elementary have been learning about the southeast region of the United States, so today, students in Ms. Bailey’s class created interactive maps of the southeast region. First I posted a link to My Google Maps on Google classroom. My Google maps allows you to create and save your own maps. The students had to identify places of importance or interest in each state and place a marker on those spots. I showed them how to customize the markers and how to add text and photos to each one. Next the students clicked the Share button and changed the setting from “Private” to “Anyone with the link can view.” We copied the links and posted them to Google classroom so they could see each others’ maps. You can take a look at them here.


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Dec 10 2015 December 10, 2015 May 4, 2016 NoComment by David

2nd Grade American Indian Math Animations

Posted in 2nd Grade, Math, Social Studies

CaptureSecond graders at Davis Elementary have been learning about subtraction in Math (SOL2.7), and they’ve been studying American Indians in Social Studies (SOL2.2). Today students in Ms. Becker’s class created American Indian math animations. First we opened Pixie, and I instructed them to chose the Powhatan, Lakota, or Pueblo Indian tribe to illustrate. We discussed how to paint the environment for each tribe: the Powhatan lived in the woods, the Lakota lived on the plains, and the Pueblo lived in the desert. After the students painted the background, we went to stickers, and I showed them where the American Indian stickers were located. They added images of the Indians, their homes, plants, and animals. Since they were creating a subtraction problem, they had to copy and paste one of the stickers multiple times for the initial number (for example, 14 buffalo, 12 canoes, 18 pots). The students added a text box and wrote a sentence like, “The Lakota Indians saw 14 buffalo.” Next the students clicked File > Duplicate to make a copy of the picture, and they typed a sentence telling how many were subtracted. They also deleted the corresponding number of stickers. We exported the two pictures as JPG files, then went to Gickr and uploaded the image files. Gickr turns still photos into an animated GIF file. Once the GIF files had been created and downloaded, students uploaded them to Google classroom for their classmates to solve. You can see them all here.


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Dec 03 2015 December 3, 2015 May 3, 2016 NoComment by David

1st Grade Needs & Wants Qwikslides

Posted in 1st Grade, Social Studies

CaptureFirst graders at Davis Elementary have been reviewing needs and wants (SOL1.8), so today students in Ms. Gerrard’s class created needs and wants slideshows using a webtool called Qwikslides. Qwikslides has many great features: there’s no login, it’s fairly easy to use, and the finished slideshows work great on the iPads and laptops. First the students deleted the default text and typed their names. Then they went to the next line and typed “Needs.” They opened a new tab and used Google image search to find pictures of needs (food, water, shelter, clothing, etc). The students copied the links to the photos and pasted them into Qwikslides. Next they wrote “Wants,” and repeated the process to add pictures of wants. Finally, they customized the fonts and colors of the slideshow. We posted the links to our slideshows on Google classroom, but you can see them all here.


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Nov 17 2015 November 17, 2015 May 3, 2016 NoComment by David

2nd Grade American Indian Place Value

Posted in 2nd Grade, Language Arts, Math, Social Studies

CaptureSecond graders at Holladay Elementary have been learning about the American Indians in Social Studies (SOL2.2) and place value to hundreds in math (SOL2.1). So today Ms. Fournier’s class wrote place value questions about the American Indians for their classmates to solve. I posted an assignment in Google classroom with a blank Google document and made a copy for each student. When they opened their copy, I instructed them to chose an Indian tribe (they had only learned about the Powhatan and the Lakota so far) and to type the name of the tribe for the title. Then we changed the font, size, and color of the title. Next they typed a few facts about their tribe, and one of the facts needed to include a 3-digit number. I also suggested that they make the important words bold, since they’ve been learning about that as a nonfiction text feature (SOL2.9a). Finally I showed them how to insert an image. We published our assignments, copied the links, and posted them to Google classroom with a question for our classmates to answer. They had to identify the ones, tens, or hundreds place of the number in the text. You can take a look at all their stories here.


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Nov 12 2015 November 12, 2015 February 29, 2016 NoComment by David

4th Grade Polls from the Past

Posted in 4th Grade, Math, Social Studies

CaptureWith Presidential elections coming up next year, it seems that public opinion polls are popping up everywhere, asking Americans for their views on issues ranging from economics to the environment. Today students in Mr. Cochran’s class created public opinion polls from the past. They are currently learning about the Jamestown colony (VS.3) so they created created polls asking the Jamestown settlers or the Powhatan Indians for their input on different problems they faced. First they had to decide if they were going to poll the settlers or the Indians. Then I showed them how to create a Google form with a multiple choice poll question. We customized our forms by changing the header images and adding photos. Next the students walked around the room and answered each others’ poll questions as if they were a Jamestown settler or a Powhatan Indian. After the voting was finished, I showed them how to view the responses in a spreadsheet. The students graphed the results and posted them to Google classroom. You can see all of them here.


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Nov 12 2015 November 12, 2015 February 18, 2016 NoComment by David

4th Grade Nonfiction Text Features

Posted in 4th Grade, Language Arts, Science, Social Studies

website2Fourth graders at Davis Elementary have been learning about nonfiction text features (SOL4.6a) and drawing conclusions using textual information (SOL4.6f). So today students in Ms. White’s class created nonfiction websites using CheckThis. Since they have been studying clouds (Science SOL4.6) and Jamestown (VS.3), they made their websites about one of those topics. First we reviewed text features to include like bold type, headings, captions, and photographs. I also explained that their classmates would be using the information in their websites to draw conclusions, so they needed to be thinking of good questions to ask about their topics. Next, we went to CheckThis and created a website without signing in. Since students can’t create an account, we had to finish the website during the one hour lesson, which wasn’t a problem for this class. I showed them how to customize the colors and fonts of their page. Then the students typed their information, making important words bold. I was surprised at how much they were able to type in such a short time! They also added a photo and a poll. The polling feature is one of the reasons I prefer CheckThis to other webpage-creation services because it adds an interactive element to the students’ websites. Finally we published our sites, copied the links, and posted them to Google classroom with a good question for our classmates to answer in the comments. You can take a look at all their websites here.


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Nov 05 2015 November 5, 2015 February 16, 2016 NoComment by David

1st Grade Past Present Comics

Posted in 1st Grade, Social Studies

CaptureFirst graders at Davis Elementary have been studying past and present (SOL1.1), so today students in Ms. Long’s class created past/present comics using StoryboardThat. First we helped them log into Google classroom where I posted the link. Then I showed them how to search for a background from the past and a background from the present. Next we added a person from the past and a person from the present to the correct background. We discussed the differences in clothing, buildings, and technology. I showed the students how they could customize the colors of the characters. Finally we added speech bubbles (called textables) and wrote complete sentences with the characters telling whether they were from the past or the present. I helped them take screenshots of their finished comics, and we posted them to Google classroom. You can take a look at some students samples here.


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Oct 15 2015 October 15, 2015 February 11, 2016 NoComment by David

4th Grade Interactive Word Problems

Posted in 4th Grade, Language Arts, Math, Social Studies

Capture1Fourth graders at Davis Elementary have been learning how to add and subtract decimals in Math (SOL4.5c), and they have been studying Virginia industries in Social Studies (VS.10b). Today I showed them how to use Google Docs to create interactive decimal word problems about the industries of Virginia. First I shared a blank template with them in Google classroom. I reviewed how to add a title and change the font, size, and color. The students chose a region and an industry, then they wrote a word problem that involved adding or subtracting decimals. They also added a photo of the industry (Insert > Image). For the interactive part, we created multiple choice answers that, when clicked, would let the visitor know if they were right or wrong. The process involved using bookmarks and links. First we skipped about 20 lines down the document and wrote a “correct” message, like “You’re right!” Then we skipped about 20 more lines and wrote an “incorrect” message, like “Try again!” We added a bookmark next to the title, the correct message, and the incorrect message (Insert > Bookmark). Next we highlighted each answer choice and turned it into a link by clicking the link button (it has a chain icon) and linked the choices to the correct bookmark. Finally we highlighted the correct and incorrect messages and linked them to the title bookmark so visitors could click them and go back to the top. Take a look at some student examples here.


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