History Webs: A Great Social Studies Project Idea

My 5th graders just finished Civil War History Webs. This little project only takes a few periods of work, and really involves creativity and writing.

I found the idea for History Webs in "Super Social Studies," a Scholastic teacher guide that has served me very well over the years (I HIGHLY recommend this little book, it's amazing).

I don't want to quote directly what they call a history web, to respect their copyright, but as I've changed it up quite a bit from what is discussed in this book, I'll let you know about my version of this great project. BUT, you should go buy this guide, it really is one of the most used resources in my possession.

To make a history web, I recommend the large construction paper (I use the 12" x 18" paper that my school keeps in stock). You want your students to draw a rectangle in the middle of the paper, and from there, divide the paper into however many sections you want them to (I've done 4, 6, and 8). I recommend 6, it's a good number for drawing pictures, they don't come out too small at that size.

However many sections you've divided the paper into is how many different topics you will assign. We just completed these for the Civil War, and their options to choose from included (but were not limited to): Abraham Lincoln, the Battle of Gettysburg, the First Battle of Bull Run, General Lee, General Grant, General Stonewall Jackson, the Emancipation Proclamation, the end of the war, the battle of the Ironclads, Lincoln's Assassination, the Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman, the fall of Richmod, Sojourner Truth, and Nat Turner. You can obviously choose many other things for this.

The assignment for students is to research each of their six topics (or four, or eight, depending). Students will be asked to draw a color picture depicting the topic, and write a paragraph in their own words about that topic, either on the back of the paper or on index cards.

Here are a few examples of exemplary work. Some have the work on index cards, and some have it written on the back:

A Final Day of Classroom Setup

Tomorrow I have a meeting, and on Friday, registration. It's always exciting to look at the room, set up and more clean and organized than it will ever look again this school year. The desks are ready, work for the first few days already run off, and now it's just a matter of time before the first day of school. My classroom set up was pretty straight forward this year. I didn't change anything really, other than getting a few computers out of the way (it was feeling a little cluttered).

My school district is using a new attendance and gradebook software called Synergy. I'm still not trained on it, but I got a good first impression. If you're out there looking for some gradebook software, there are a few options that I like.

First of all, there is the best in my opinion, TeacherEase. This great site offers full grade book software for something like $8 a month, but many schools will purchase a school license because it's great. If you want to make your life A LOT easier, I suggest this great teacher tool.

If you want grade book software, but you need something free, look at Engrade. It's not as intuitive or user friendly as TeacherEase, but it's a good free grade book.

Learnboost is another free grade book option. I like it, again, not as much as TeacherEase, but it works if you want to move to online grading.

If you haven't yet made the move to online grading, you should. It's great because you have complete control. In TeacherEase for example, you can set different categories within your subjects (e.g. tests, daily work, group work), and give each a weight as to how much of the final grade it is worth. The gradebook updates itself, you don't have to average grades. And, the best part is, parents get anytime access through a web browser. Many of these sites are putting out smartphone apps as well. TeacherEase doesn't have an app (although I hope they do), but their website still works great in my Android browser.

Real quickly, I wanted to add in some pictures of my classroom just to show off the hard work.

First is the back corner / sink area of the classroom. I have a science shelf there (my school is old and there isn't a lot of closet space, so we have to make do), along with the famous Aggie wall. GO AGGIES!

This photo is looking at my desk (behind the book cases), and what I refer to as "my office." 

Teachers Pay Teachers: A Good Place To Find Resources Online?

I have a busy morning ahead, with school starting for me (six days of teacher inservice before the kids come back) in six more days, I'm trying to get some work done in my classroom.

What was on my mind this morning was the vast amount of teacher resources that are out there on the internet. Since I've begun running this blog, I've been posting many pages of links to resources, worksheets, and other documents. My focus has been on free resources, because as all of you know, things can start to add up quickly.

My thought is that if you find something that you like, but can't afford it (or, like me, are really frugal and would prefer to not spend anything), just tell yourself that you can find something similar on the internet, for free. This has served me pretty well. Yes, there are those rare occasions where you can't find a resource online, but if you're looking for worksheets, unit plans, videos, or games, there are millions online.

I have been browsing around Teacher Pay Teachers for some time. I like that you can buy things on there from teachers. If I'm going to spend money on a resource, I sure would prefer that money to end up in a teachers pocket as opposed to a publisher.

Not too many teachers have a positive view of the book publishers, and with good reason. $100 for a single social studies book? $400 per kid for the reading series? Yikes. School districts spend millions on these books and resources that ultimately just don't cut it, they're not good, and are just flash with no substance. Of course, sometimes these resources come in handy, and sometimes they are good, but millions of dollars worth of handy and good? I don't think so.

So back to Teachers Pay Teachers. I'm going to lay out some pros and cons of the site, but please, go find out for yourself:

TEACHERS PAY TEACHERS:

THE PROS:

• There are tons of resources, and they're organized by grade, subject, price, and even standards.
• You can download thousands of things there for free.
• If you decide to spend, your money goes to the teacher who posted the item.

THE CONS:

• The vast majority of the free offerings are of very low quality.
• Some of the resources are VERY over priced.

Ultimately, my view on Teachers Pay Teachers is the same as anything else. See if you can find it for free by searching in Google. If you can, good for you, if you can't, go ahead and buy it. You'll have the peace of mind in knowing that your money is going to help other teachers, and not line the already deep pockets of those publishing companies that most of us don't like anyways.

Teaching About Anne Frank: Classroom Resources

I love to teach about Anne Frank every year during my unit on World War II. I just completed a list of teacher resources that I hand picked out of the many that are out there. This page is listed within my Social Studies Unit on World War II, and is titled Anne Frank Classroom Resources. To make it easier and save from all the link clicking, I will also make that unit available in this post. You can click the above link to be taken to that page, but here it is again:

When doing my unit on the World Wars, I like to discuss the Holocaust, but it's a touchy subject with elementary students. My opinion is that a 5th grader is old enough to begin learning about the Holocaust, and showing respect and concern over those events. At this age, one of the best ways to convey the gravity of the events while still making it relate able is by talking about Anne Frank. I don't have the time to read the Diary of Anne Frank in its entirety, so I have to approach it a little differently.

I begin with the reading of Who Was Anne Frank? by Ann Abramson. This book is available in my schools teacher library. I don't normally endorse things you have to pay for on this blog, but if you want to teach about Anne Frank, and don't have tons of time, this book is a good way to go.

• The definitive Anne Frank website comes courtesy of Anne Frank .org. The Secret Annex Online is a fantastic site with a great virtual tour of the secret annex. This is one of the highest quality virtual tours I've ever seen. (trust me, there's a ton of stuff there). The site even comes with a teachers guide with information for elementary, middle, and high school teachers as to how to incorporate the site into lessons.
• The next resource is a teacher guide that is meant to accompany the 2009 mini-series The Diary of Anne Frank. I selected this resource because of its high quality and the usefulness of many pages out of it (even without viewing the movie).
• Up next we have the Teacher Created Resources pdf document meant to supplement Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl. These are a mainstay in many teachers classrooms, and can be found in teacher supply stores all over. This one includes activities, worksheets, vocabulary, and quizzes. Oh and it's free, you can't beat that price tag!
• This next pdf is a study guide provided by Park Square Theater. It contains a good timeline, some high quality activities, and good pictures, and it's print ready. 
• Here is a short reading with questions and an answer key in pdf format.
• Scholastic has a teachers guide website with links to some activities and photo snapshots as well.
• If you're looking for a quick webquest, Scholastic has this one.

Anne Frank is a very popular person for and students across the world learn about her. There are thousands of sites out there, so I could go on all day. I tried to limit this to some resources that will be helpful to me and anyone else looking to teach about Anne Frank. 

VIDEOS:

There are a number of very high quality mini-series, movies, and documentaries about Anne Frank. There obviously won't be time to watch them all, but here are some links to the ones you can view freely on Youtube (they're all big and come in multiple clips).

• Anne Frank: The Whole Story: This 2001 mini-series closely resembles the book I mentioned above, "Who Was Anne Frank?" It stars Ben Kingsley, and is definitely classroom friendly and hits hard. If you wish to view it on Youtube, it comes in 19 parts. I'll start by embedding part one here, the easiest way to continue is to find "Anne Frank: The Whole Story Part 2 on the right sidebar, and continue on from there:

• The Diary of Anne Frank is a 2009 mini-series, and is also very good. The approach is a little different than the above mentioned film. This one was created by the BBC, and is equally as good. I recommend watching them both, and deciding which is right for your class. It's in 8 parts, approach it the same as the one above, I have embedded part 1 here:

• This final clip is a personal favorite, and can hardly be called a clip. The below embedded video is the entire 2 hours, 43 minutes, and 20 seconds of the 1959 classic The Diary of Anne Frank. I show this one to my class every year, and they love it. The music and black and white presentation give it an older feel, but it's very effective for fifth graders. I LOVE this movie. It's also one clip, not a bunch of different parts:

Scholastic Simulations

Most of the posts I make showcase freely available products. There is one product out there that isn't free, and I have yet to find anything online that even comes close. These are the Scholastic Teaching Resources Simulations. There are simulations for the Civil War, Revolutionary War, and Westward Expansion just to name a few. If you're interested in teaching about any of these topics, these simulations are as good as it gets. I bought a few with some colleagues, which we share each year.