If you need help teaching social studies in 30 minutes or less daily, you’ve come to the right place.
Of course, having such limited time to teach social studies is not ideal, but sometimes, this is a teacher’s reality.
Social studies is a critical subject that should be given at least an entire class period daily.
We all know that social studies instruction provides the essential background knowledge and nonfiction literacy skills that create excellent readers.
However, the reality is that teachers must often cram social studies into super limited slots of time.
Let’s run through some ideas for quick social studies instruction, but first, make sure you are part of my free VIP email club where I share ideas, freebies, tips, and fun for upper elementary social studies and writing teachers.
Focus on Basics
There are sooo many fun activities to integrate into social studies class, but if your time is extremely limited, you should focus on getting the basics taught.
Think: What is the main idea of this unit, and how can I get students there quickly?
Example: Let’s say you are teaching about Jamestown Settlement.
- You want students to understand that this was the first permanent English settlement in the New World.
- Students need to understand that settlers struggled to survive and ultimately suffered a horrendous period of starvation.
- You need students to know that Jamestown eventually became a successful venture due to the introduction of tobacco as a cash crop.
Implement: How can you help students to understand these concepts in a very limited amount of time?
For this unit, you might consider using an already prepared Google Slides presentation to introduce and teach the concepts. Then, choose a few printable activities you believe would be most beneficial to your students.
These social studies units include ready-to-use Google Slides presentations to help you introduce each lesson quickly, confidently, and visually.
Integrate Social Studies into Other Subjects
My favorite integration includes teaching social studies and writing together.
Sure, sometimes my students write on fiction or choice topics, but we do a lot of writing about social studies topics, events, important individuals, and ideas.
Asking students to write about what they are learning in social studies is super beneficial because they have time to process the nonfiction information they are learning WHILE refining their writing skills. #teacherbigbrain
For example, I teach five paragraph essay structure, and throughout the process, we complete writing assignments using the social studies topics we are studying.
Example of a Simple Paragraph Prompt: Write one paragraph to describe the economy of the Middle Colonies.
Example of a Five Paragraph Essay Prompt: Artisans, like blacksmiths and wigmakers, made goods by hand. If you could spend the day working with an artisan, which specialty would you choose? Describe three reasons for choosing this specialty.
Formal writing, like the prompts above, is valuable and helps students quickly reach their writing benchmarks.
But remember, you should also ask students to write informally, such as through journal prompts or free writing.
Our goal is to keep those brilliant little minds consistently engaged in social studies. ⭐️ 🌎 🌟
Provide Quick, Engaging Reviews
You may not have time for a full class period review, but you can spend 5 minutes, right?!?
If you have just a few minutes to review important content or topics, you can use quick activities, like these:
- Ask students to work with a partner to connect vocabulary words that are related in some way. Proficiency in vocabulary is critical for background knowledge and understanding of the content.
- Ask students to use sticky notes to write a sentence that describes their biggest takeaway from the lesson. Leave the sticky notes up for a few days to allow students to read what others students wrote.
- Encourage students to make a Top 5 List of the most important things they learned during the lesson.
More Quick Review Ideas & Ready-to-Use 5 Minute Activities 👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽
Tell History Stories
You may not be able to do a full lesson on the Boston Tea Party, but you CAN use your storytelling power to share event basics with students, like:
- Who was involved?
- Why did this event happen?
- What happened during this event?
- What was the outcome of the event?
Using stories with your students helps them grasp the gist of the lesson in the few minutes you have to teach social studies.
Storytelling will captivate and engage your students like nothing else, promise!
