Create a "Museum Exhibit" for History Projects

Click the video posted by ScienceNotebooking, who posted a super idea  for history and social studies projects.  This simple craft is created using little more than an old pizza box and plastic wrap.  Underneath the plastic wrap, the box can contain students' 3D creations, pictures or other visual items next to their written research.  This mimics the effect of looking at an exhibit or display in a museum.  You can use it for all kinds of research projects and have students bring their boxes to class, and allow everyone to walk around to view and read the "exhibits" they have all made.  For instance, she says her class behaved as archaeologists presenting artifacts (of their own creation) that were important to various Native American tribes.

Review Any Subject with a 'Word Whomp'

This cool idea comes courtesy of Beg.Borrow.Teach, and it's a neat way to review almost any subject, particularly social studies and history.  They call it Word Whomp.


Simply make letters for A-Z on cards or paper.  Put them all in a paper bag or a shoebox.  Give it a good shake, select a letter, and give students 1-3 minutes to write everything beginning with that letter that comes to mind about the subject.


For instance, if they're studying the Great Depression and the letter "S" is picked, a student may jot down "soup lines, social security, stock market crash," etc.  The student with the most things listed correctly can have the privilege of picking the next letter from the bag.  


I think this activity is ideal for review just prior to a unit test.


You can probably adapt this to closely resemble the game Scattegories.  Perhaps you can have the students discover if anyone came up with words that no one else did, and they can win the round.


Visit the blog to see her examples of the activity and the extension she included!

Analyze Characters with MyFakeWall.com

http://www.myfakewall.com/

If you want a creative assessment tool and way to integrate technology, visit MyFakeWall.com.  If your students are avid Facebook users, they may enjoy creating imaginary Facebook pages for historical figures, book characters, and anyone else you want them to study.


If he had Facebook, who would Ben Franklin have listed as his friends?  What would Elizabeth I's timeline look like?  


These are the types of questions that can really spark your students' creativity.  Show them some examples and let them create profiles, updates, and friends lists of whomever they are studying.


For a printable alternative, try some of the TeachersPayTeachers accounts that offer free Facebook page activities.

Free, Printable Black History Worksheets

Schoodoodle has a free, printable booklet full of worksheets about African-American historical figures.  This is perfect not only for Black History Month lessons, but also for any time you want reading comprehension activities or a spotlight on important people in American history.

The booklet contains exercises on people like:

• Frederick Douglass
• Benjamin Banneker
• Ida B. Wells-Barnett
• Bessie Coleman

... and many more!

Not only do the worksheets include reading comprehension skill questions, vocabulary practice, etc. but they also include writing prompts that make extensions easy for each activity.  Thanks to Schoodoodle for providing the resource!

-Veronica

Decorate Your Door for Black History Month

Check out this inspirational Schooltube video from Edwards Middle School.  In it, you see footage of the entire school participating in a door-decorating contest to celebrate Black History Month.  Each class chose a person to highlight, worked together on different components of their door design, and showcased their best efforts for judging.  

I like this project because it provides a good research activity, gets students working actively and cooperatively, and it gets the whole school involved in acknowledging an essential part of American history.  Plus, I bet the kids had some fun!  Another good thing is that the concept could be adapted to fit any other special concept you want students to highlight (for instance, a time period in history or an author study).  

I also found another good link with a door decorated to resemble a book by a Black author.  Could you organize this activity for your school or grade?  How great would it be to have students take a tour of the Black History Month “exhibits” and jot down notes about interesting things they learned, possibly as a springboard for further study?   How will you celebrate Black History Month?

Native American Heritage Month Activities: PBS' "We Shall Remain"

American Experience's "We Shall Remain" special is online for complete viewing in your classroom.

From the site:

From the award-winning PBS series AMERICAN EXPERIENCE comes 

WE SHALL REMAIN, a provocative multi-media project that establishes Native history as an essential part of American history.

The special is divided into 5 parts that begins with the effects of the Thanksgiving celebration with the Europeans.  Each part is about an hour-long and includes a teacher's guide with questions about viewing and related activities, such as having the class compare and contrast the Puritans to the Wampanoag.  Here is the teacher's guide for the first episode.

Teaching Tips of the Week (November 1-7)

source: edheads.org          

1. Many students own and an have an interest in cell phones.  This interactive science activity from Edheads.org applies engineering principles by challenging them to design their own cell phone.  The site presents a problem for students:  senior citizens are dissatisfied by many popular cell phone designs, and your student must come up with a design that addresses the particular needs of that demographic.  The site allows students to research, design, and test their model before it is put on the market for consumers.   The teacher's page for this activity also has tips and extensions, such as designing a cell phone for business people and middle school students.
2. Owl, a great kid's magazine, is having a Story Writing Contest for Canadian students between the ages of 8-14.  Owl supplied the first and last lines of the story, and your students may write any type of story they would like to fill in the substance.  This is a great creative writing project.  Here is the entry form.  The deadline is November 30, 2010.
3. A Maths Dictionary for Kids has definitions for math terms, visual examples, AND plenty of practice problems for students to get a full understanding of concepts.  Students can practice everything here from equivalent fractions to complex geometric skills.  Highly recommended.
4. The Library of Congress' America's Story website provides a ton of information about American history and historical figures.  It's a great resource for students to use for research projects.
5. Here is an interesting video I recently found.  This is from Mrs. Jessica White's classroom blog, where she uses a camera to film a math lesson.  The class is engaged in a cooperative learning activity in which they take "boring school supplies" and make multiplication problems out of them, creating a small book in the process.  It's a good lesson, especially when students need practice with their multiplication, and you have tons of unopened school supplies stored in the room.  What I also noticed was that, while the class did a lot of talking, they were focused on their work and talked in a productive way.  They also switched groups with relative ease and got right to work.  Kudos to Mrs. White's lesson and her classroom management!