Help! My students hate social studies class and I don’t know how to fix this!

I received this desperate message from a teacher friend a while back.

I don’t want any teacher to feel this way. Social studies is my very favorite subject to teach and (usually) my students’ favorite subject to learn. Let me help!

I’ve shared my post, How I Teach 5th Grade Social Studies, with many of you but this post contains many more ideas for engaging students and making social studies class the highlight of the school day!

We can help your students fall in love with social studies! Keep reading…

Why Some Students Don’t Like Social Studies

History is not boring – just the opposite, in fact.

Sometimes, the way social studies is taught leaves a lot to be desired in terms of student engagement.

When ‘social studies’ means listening to long lectures and memorizing arbitrary names, locations, and dates, well, that can be mind-numbing.

When students are expected to read from textbooks, often written far above their reading levels, it’s not just boring, it’s downright difficult.

At that point, many students will begin listing social studies as their least favorite subject in school.

At times, students enter my class with an attitude of Why do we need to learn history anyway? What’s the point?

So, I created a story that I read to students. This story flips the script and is just the spark needed to get them excited about diving into our social studies curriculum. Access the story for free here: Why study history? A story for upper elementary students

If you want some ideas for teaching social studies, this free week-long email crash course is probably just what you need!

How to Help Your Students Fall in Love With Social Studies

The first step in engaging learners is to be excited about what you’re teaching.

If you need guidance on how to plan social studies lessons, click here for a helpful post. You’ll even be able to download a free checklist and example lesson.

Students can sense the enthusiasm, or lack thereof, of the teacher, even if we try to hide it.

Here are some tried-and-true ways to help you AND your students love social studies:

• Make it relevant by connecting the past with the present. For example, how did the lives of 18th Century colonial children compare with the lives of children today? How were colonial-era toys different from the toys children play with today? Are there any commonalities?

• Supplement the textbook. Yes, the book can provide some basic content knowledge but students need a balance of instructional strategies, though.

• Incorporate other kinds of books – Spend time reading aloud to your students from chapter books and picture books. Let them explore engaging informational texts. You can find my list of favorite read-aloud social studies book here. My list of favorite history-themed chapter books can be found here.

• Get students out of their seats periodically! Sitting at a desk all day can make students sleepy and unmotivated. If you get them up and moving, your engagement will improve – guaranteed! This post will help you make social studies come to life for your students!

• Incorporate movement, music, and drama! We remember things that evoke emotion – fear, humor, etc. So incorporate laughter, singing, acting, and everything you can to encourage active learning.

• Our brains seek novelty, so look for fascinating, lesser-known stories, like these: Sensational History Snip-Its Series. If you need history stories to tell your students, I have a free weekly email series that is dedicated to sharing fascinating stories from history. Click here to learn more and sign up!

Be sure to sign up for my VIP email club just for upper elementary social studies teachers! No spam, just great ideas and resources!

Social Studies Boredom Busters

The following ideas pair well with social studies – try one today!

• Students love looking at memes, so why not have them create history memes? This post will guide you through the process and you can grab a free digital activity guide for your students: History Meme Project for Students

• Dioramas – cliche? No way! Kids get very excited about creating 3-D representations of a historical event or era. This classic activity is still fun AND relevant for our modern students.

• Do a Biography Deep Dive with your students. Biography Deep Dive Activity (Be sure to grab the free, comprehensive list of individuals to study.)

• Alphabet Book – List out the letters from A – Z and brainstorm aspects of a social studies topic to go with each letter – this can be done individually, in a small group, or as a whole class. The end product can be in Google Slides Format, or in an actual book!

• Enjoy a virtual field trip! We can’t always load the buses and go to amazing historical places but we can go on virtual field trips, often for free! This post will tell you about my favorite virtual field trip location, the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia.

• Paper Bag History – For this activity, the student fills a paper sack with items representing a historical event, time period, or person. She/He then presents the bag to the class, talking about each item. A written report might accompany this. Alternatively, the student could present in a ‘Who Am I?’ fashion, by showing artifacts and letting classmates guess which historical figure the artifacts represent!

• Create a history remix image! Using easily accessible, open access images, you and your students can create history remix images easily! This post will tell you how my students complete this project. There’s even a free instructional screencast you can grab!

• History Book Clubs are all the rage in my classroom! These clubs are the social studies version of literature circles. This post will explain how I set up and manage my History Book Clubs.

• Use interactive notebooks to help students create their own “living textbooks.” This post will tell you how to get started AND how you can efficiently manage your students’ interactive notebooks.

• Make cross-curricular connections between social studies and math, ELA, science, music, and more. Here is one super fun way that I connect social studies and math: Teaching About 18th Century Colonial Money

• Jazz up the journal entries you assign to students. Instead of “What did you learn today?”, give students direct, social studies-related prompts to write about. This will lead to writing engagement and critical thinking! Visit my BIG list of social studies journal prompts here.

• Point out the primary sources all around students by doing a Family Interview Project. This post will tell you how this project works: How to Assign a Family Interview Project

• Check out some primary source images and texts with your students. Primary sources give us a window into the past that textbooks and videos can never provide. This blog post will be helpful to you: How to Teach with Primary Sources in Upper Elementary

• Connecting social studies with current events leads to great discussions and higher comprehension of historical concepts. This post contains multiple ideas and sources for introducing current events to your students: Teaching Current Events in Upper Elementary

• Help your students become Expert Historians with a research project and presentation – This post will give you all of the details: Expert Historians – An Engaging Research Project for Students

Teachers know that each class is different. What works well with one group might not work with the next group. Keep trying, though, because instilling in our students a love of social studies is worth the effort!

Please consider joining my VIP email club just for upper elementary teachers! No spam, just great ideas and resources!