For years and years, I handed out generic “Star Student” or “Best Handwriting” awards at the end of the school year.

But then I thought, “Why not integrate historical individuals and concepts into my end-of-the-year awards?”

I spent a lot of time thinking about and researching the best possible award titles and descriptions, and I’d love to share a sample set of certificates with you. Simply enter your first name and email address to have the sample set sent to you:

Relate Awards to Content Studied During the School Year

Choosing awards for students is always a happiness-inducing task for me.

We’ve studied, debated, and discussed the events and people that led to the formation of the United States all year long.

So, why not make these important individuals and topics part of students’ end-of-the-year awards?

Basing awards on the people and concepts students have learned about is a fun way to look back at the year and what students have achieved.

Because my social studies awards are unique, they provide meaningful closure to the school year and make students quite proud of what they’ve learned.

Parents love the specialized social studies awards, as well, because they emphasize good character, essential skills, and valuable personal attributes.

Be Cautious and Thoughtful When Choosing Awards

As with everything we do in the classroom, we must be careful to choose awards for our students that are fair, kind, and appropriate.

Be mindful when choosing your awards. Give awards based on character traits or students’ actions.

As a teacher of upper elementary social studies, my curriculum includes multiple individuals who participated in the tragic system of enslavement.

I do not think it is appropriate to give students awards named after individuals who enslaved others. Yes, this includes James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and even George Washington.

Sure, many founding fathers (and founding mothers) who consciously participated in the slave trade did great things for our country in its early years. Still, I can’t, in good conscience, give a student an award named after a slaveholder.

With that being said, however, there are some gray areas.

For example, the Marquis de Lafayette, according to the Lafayette Society, was a staunch abolitionist, but purchased a plantation with the goal of freeing the enslaved people living on the plantation.

A second example is Eliza Schuyler Hamilton. She grew up in a slaveholding family, but she was an abolitionist and never owned enslaved individuals on her own.

Collaborate with Colleagues

Let me tell you a story that still makes me cringe after 15 years.

I’ve primarily taught in departmentalized situations, and early on, I didn’t really understand the need to collaborate with my teaching partners about the awards that were being given out at the end-of-year assembly. We all just kinda did our own thing with awards.

Around December of one year, we had a new student move in; we’ll call him Chuck.

Chuck was this one-of-a-kind, charismatic, completely brilliant 5th grader. He had top scores in literally everything, could charm the socks off anyone, such an amazing kid.

When it came time for the last day of school awards assembly, my teaching partners and I gave Chuck award after award after award. Of course, each student received at least one award, but Chuck got sooooo many.

We’d never collaborated on the awards being given or made an effort to ensure they were spaced and distributed widely among students. #teacherfail

I’ll never forget that awards assembly. As Chuck was called to the stage over and over, he grew embarrassed, his parents became uncomfortable, other parents were annoyed, and my teacher friends and I wanted to melt into the floor.

Please learn from my cringeworthy moment and share your awards widely… Coordinate with your colleagues to ensure that you share the love with all of your students!

Social Studies End-of-the-Year Award Ideas

When choosing end-of-the-year awards to give to your wonderful students, think about more than just their academic abilities and successes. Character awards are just as valuable!

How can you relate students’ achievements and attributes to people/concepts you’ve studied throughout the year?

Here are a few examples:

• A student who often creates inventions might be a good candidate for a Benjamin Franklin Inventor Award.
• A student who is always up to date on current events might deserve a Future Journalist Award.
• A student who composes thoughtful, eloquent written responses may deserve the Abigail Adams Prolific Writer Award.

If you are looking for ready-to-print and/or editable Social Studies Award Certificates, I’ve got just what you need:

The post All About Social Studies End-of-the-Year Awards appeared first on Thrive in Grade Five.

What if I said that you CAN start social studies class in a quick, meaningful way?

You’d say TELL ME MORE, obviously!

We all know that TIME is the thing we’re most lacking when it comes to teaching social studies, right?!?

In many classrooms, students enter the room, put down their notebooks, slowly and dramatically pull out their chairs, sharpen pencils, chat with friends, ask questions that have nothing to do with the class content, and etc.

Let’s put a stop to that nonsense and build classroom procedures that include starting instruction quickly and efficiently!

Idea 1: Start every class with a social studies slide!

Students crave consistency!

I suggest displaying a daily slide with some sort of instruction or welcome message to help get class started quickly every day.

These slides can be as creative as you are! They might include interesting facts, “Did you know?” questions, short informational texts, trivia questions, journal prompts, quotes, and etc.

You should make each slide before class begins… There’s no worse feeling than having 25 pairs of eyes stare at you while you try to throw together a slide at the last second.

Grab a free sample set of the slides I use in my classroom here:

Idea 2: Tell a story to spark students’ curiosity!

“Ok, everyone sit down. Yes, Bobby, you too. Please sit down. It’s time for class, everyone listen to me. 1, 2, 3 eyes on me. Ok, that didn’t work, everyone just sit down and open your social studies books. Hang on, I’ll find the page. No, don’t throw that, Sara. Oh my goodness, you guys stop wasting time, let’s get our lesson started.”

Well, that was exhausting! I hope none of us are starting class that way.

What if, instead, you captured students’ attention like this…

“Welcome, historians! As soon as you are seated and quiet, I am going to tell you a story involving an icy river and a surprise attack on Christmas night, 1776.” (Battle of Trenton)

I think everyone would agree that the promise of a fascinating, relevant story will help students dive quickly into the social studies lesson.

After all, our brains are wired to enjoy stories. You can always rely on interesting stories to grab your students’ attention, guaranteed!

If you need ready-to-use, lesser-known history stories to use with your students, please check out my History Snip-Its Series.

Idea 3: Start with a quick, relevant primary source!

Primary sources provide an engaging, quick way to kick off your social studies lessons.

Primary sources run the gamut from objects to texts to photographs to journal entries.

Displaying a primary source object, photograph, or painting on the technology board is a fantastic way to quickly pull students into your lessons.

One example of this is the silver spoon shown below. I might put the image of this spoon on my technology board and ask students, “How do you think this object relates to an 18th Century trade?”

Students will come up with many answers, and most of them will be incorrect… but that’s ok! All answers are completely valid and valuable because they are thinking critically about the use, purpose, and creation of the object.

When you explain that this object is a silver spoon created around 1787 by Paul Revere, you’ll have piqued their curiosity and grabbed their attention.

🤔 Wait a second, the guy who ‘warned the countryside that the Regulars were out’ made a silver spoon? Yes, actually, he made lots of them because he was a silversmith! How cool 🤩

Presto! Now your students are ready for their lesson on 18th Century trades.

If you need a little more help making your social studies lessons sparkle through the use of primary sources, this is the video for you:

If you’d like to grab 15 print ‘n go primary source activities for your 5th graders, this is the resource for you: 15 Quick Primary Source Activities for Upper Elementary

If you’d like to keep this post for later, simply save this image to your teacher Pinterest board!

The post 3 Quick Start Ideas for Social Studies Class appeared first on Thrive in Grade Five.

I’ve always struggled with whether or not to allow students to talk during class.

As a brand new 23 year old teacher, I was somewhat old-school in my classroom management style and expected silence and pencils scratching across paper. That’s how I was taught!

But then – lightbulb moment!

I started to think about how I learn best and how other adults learn. Learning involves talking and collaborating with other people.

When we acquire new ideas, we often change our perceptions.

This is true for our students! When we allow them to collaborate or ‘get social’ during class, they learn and retain so much more.

I would love for you to join my weekly VIP email club just for upper elementary social studies and writing teachers. No spam, just good stuff, promise!

Let your students talk with classmates – It will be ok, promise!

As a young teacher, I thought that if students were talking, it automatically meant they were off-task.

I was fortunate to work with an experienced teacher a few years into my career who pointed out the difference between ‘work talk’ and ‘talk talk.’

Now, I use these terms frequently with students. It’s easy to tell if students are ‘work talking’ or ‘talk talking’ because their body language is different in the two cases.

Also, when considering kids who struggle with reading, being able to talk and listen during class makes a huge difference.

Giving students the opportunity to discuss social studies concepts orally will help your struggling readers to get so much more out of class.

If you need ideas for helping struggling readers, check out this blog post: How to Help Struggling Readers in Social Studies Class

Allow students to use Google Apps to collaborate!

Google Apps were made for collaboration!

Google Apps are a quick and easy tool for students to use individually, with partners, small groups, or even the entire class.

I love that Google Docs can be updated in real time. Once you teach your students the etiquette of using a shared Google Doc, you can allow them to work together on Docs, Slides, Sheets, and more!

If you need a refresher or a few fresh ideas for using Google Apps in your social studies class, this is the blog post for you… I’ve even included several explainer videos 🙂 How to Use Google Resources in Upper Elementary

Ask students to analyze primary sources together!

Primary sources are (or should be) a huge part of your social studies instruction.

Giving students a primary source and asking them to work with a partner or small group to analyze it is always a great way to build interest, understanding, and retention.

Ideas for Analyzing Primary Sources

• List the top three interesting things you notice about this primary source.

• Write three questions you have for the author/creator of this primary source.

• List two ways that this object may have been used by a person in the 18th Century.

• Using what you know about George Washington, explain what you think he is doing in this image.

Using history stations in conjunction with primary sources is one of my favorite ways to build collaboration. This resource will give you an example of how I set up my history stations: Primary Source History Stations Bundle

Encourage students to collaborate using their interactive notebooks!

Interactive notebooks are living textbooks in my classroom.

If you need help getting started with interactive notebooks, visit this post: Interactive Notebooks – How to Get Started

We use our interactive notebooks almost daily to take notes, write journals, create foldable activities, answer questions, and more.

Did you know that you can also use interactive notebooks for student collaboration?

Easy Interactive Notebook Collaboration Ideas

• What is the question? Use this quick activity to boost student collaboration while giving students the opportunity to review important information. First, ask students to set up their interactive notebook pages and add just the “answers.” Their partners will fill in the questions!

• Find 4 Opinions – For this quick activity, students will write a question and ask 4 classmates to add their opinions. This is a great way to boost student engagement and encourage critical thinking.

• Partner Project Planning – Allow students to list and sketch their fabulous project ideas in their interactive notebooks. They’ll have a record of their ideas that can be referenced while working on the project and after.

Allow students to work on history projects together!

Working with classmates to compete history projects is so much more fun than working alone.

In your social studies class, there should be no shortage of options for students to choose from when embarking on a new collaborative history project.

History Remix Project – This project is an excellent student collaboration tool. Students will use primary source images (available for free from reputable open access sites) to “remix” and create something new.

History Meme Project – Students will use primary source images to create history memes. This is one of my students’ favorite projects of the year 🙂

“No Taxation Without Representation!” Poster Project – This project is one that students can complete individually, with a partner, or in a small group with beautiful results!

Implement history book clubs in your social studies classroom!

I love, LOVE history book clubs.

Think old-school literature circles, but HISTORY-themed books.

History book clubs allow tons of collaboration, critical thinking, and reading practice. It’s a win all around!

This blog post will provide all of the details you need and *bonus* all of the club role names are history-themed: How to Implement History Book Clubs in Upper Elementary

Integrate movement into your social studies class!

Allowing students to talk AND move around during class?

Wow, what a treat for students!

If we’re making social studies class more ‘social,’ we should definitely include a few opportunities for collaboration WITH movement.

• Scoot Games – These are soooo fun! You’ll need to place cards with questions on each desk and ask students to stand up and rotate every time you ring a bell or flick the lights, whatever works in your room. Students are moving from question to question and recording their answers on an answer sheet or piece of notebook paper. Many of my resources include Scoot Games for review, including my New England Colonies Unit.

• Task Cards – Instead of giving out a worksheet with twenty questions, why not break the questions up into task cards? Student groups will be able to answer the questions on the cards and swap them with other groups, leading to multiple opportunities for collaboration. I enjoy using task cards with my students, especially when learning and reviewing the Bill of Rights.

• Gallery Walks – Small groups of students will move from primary source image to primary source image while answering a set of questions or making observations. Gallery Walks allow students to move, collaborate, and think critically about primary source images. I included one Gallery Walk in each of my Native American Regions Mini-Units.

I would love for you to join my weekly VIP email club just for upper elementary social studies and writing teachers. No spam, just good stuff, promise!

If you’d like to keep this blog post for later, simply save this image to your teacher Pinterest board!

The post How to Make Your Social Studies Class More ‘Social’ appeared first on Thrive in Grade Five.