Showing posts with label apps. Show all posts
Showing posts with label apps. Show all posts

Friday, July 1, 2016

The Worlds of North and South Pre-Civil War Bundle Review (Under $20 Unit Plan!)

Saving money is nearly more complicated than finding the right lesson plan to settle history squarely in your students' minds. This fantastic unit plan bundle on the pre-civil war society that sparked our country's darkest hour will save you some green and engage your middle graders. This review goes into the details of some of our favorite products within the bundle and offers some other teachers input on it.



Worlds of North and South Activity Bundle Pre-Civil War Lessons 





BY




(More on Mr. and Mrs. P below)


This bundle is brimming with unique primary resources and activities that are student centered and interactive. Games and primary source readings collide with various common core literacy and writing activities, making this bundle the perfect balance of fun and smart. It's a complete unit plan for 6th grade, 7th grade, and 8th grade history lessons on the complicated events of the Westward Expansion and the key figures that lead the political angles of it. In addition, several of the primary resources offer up challenging, thought-provoking activities that will have your middle grade students pondering things long after they leave the classroom. 




This in-depth writing activity is perfect for every classroom. Primary and secondary sources offer students the opportunity to explore the gap between slavery and industrialism via a response guide, analysis of the sources, and providing commentary. Answer keys make grading easy as well.

Another great lesson plan that will have students deep in thought and writing is this common core literacy activity that compares and contrasts the northern factory worker with the slaves. It will give some visual stimulation to engage students, and offer stark realities about the early US history of this time period.



If you're social studies unit is in need of a student centered, atmosphere boost, this activity is a perfect option. Ten (10) graphs and charts give history teachers flexibility to do stations or a "graph walk" around the classroom. This can help get the wiggles out of middle grade students, and get them thinking critically as they fill out their graphic organizers about the differences of north and south in relation to the following pre-civil war big ideas:

 Populations of North and South

Labor Systems

Transportation Systems

Rural/Urban Land

Patents

Immigration
City Growth and Agricultural Growth
Industry
Exports






This writing activity also takes advantage of graphs to make students analyse and critically think like the Graph Walk Investigation above. However, it also adds in the advantage of emgaging students with pre-civil war advertisements for various relavant topics such as steam power boats, locamotives, cotton gin, sewing machine, textile mills, and more. These primary resources will bring US history alive for your students!



This bundle also includes other engaging activities and games, plus some assessment options for a complete unit plan (individually costing $70!). Other items included are:




Here is what teachers are saying about the Worlds of North and South Pre-Civil War Bundle: 









Want to see a complete activities list for this 30 page social studies bundle, as well as more about the creators Mr. and Mrs. P? Click the link below for all the details on their 26 years combined teaching experience and how they were literally student nominated as superheroes!



Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Stop Motion App Engages Students and Incorporates Common Core



I had to share a wonderful new app I found that not only engaged my students, but actually sticks to common core standards. My students loved this project! Even though we used it for Ancient Japan history unit, it can be used for any disciplines and/or grades. Thankfully, YouTube offers instructional videos you can play in classroom before grouping or pairing off your students to get started. The videos are super intuitive, and students can use their own smartphones or iPADs. (If your school has some tucked away for student use, so much the better!). The best part is that it requires every group member to participate, which is sometimes a hard thing to accomplish for these types of projects. I also had them present the video in class. Everyone was enjoying themselves. Check out our finished projects below!



The best part? We’ve bundled together everything you need for this lesson and project. You can get:
1. Teacher instructions with YouTube video links for instruction, easy format choices and tons of examples.
2. Student graphic organizers with main idea and supporting evidence/topic spaces to ensure content is analyzed and supported.
3. Student storyboard graphic organizers.
4. Rubric.