Peek at my Week Link Up

I have never done one of these link ups yet, so I thought I would give it a shot. This week I am going to introduce Sketchnotes to the students. This is something we are going to be adding to our Interactive Notebooks. I am really excited about these!

the fundamentals from the PowerPoint I created when introducing these

Some awesome examples to show my students

These are the examples I created for my students to see how easy these are even if they aren't artistic

I am also going to continue with my Political Cartoon Friday. I have done these the past two Fridays and the students seem to really enjoy them. We have had some great discussions about these so far. I am looking forward to doing these again soon!

I hope everyone has an awesome week!!!!

Sketchnotes: Incorporating this new idea in my classroom

I was looking around on Pinterest the other day and came across a pin for Sketchnotes. I have never heard of it and it looked awesome. So, I did some research. What I found out was that this is being done a lot at the corporate level, quite a bit at the college level, but not really in the lower grades. So, I thought, how cool would this be to incorporate into my class and our interactive notebooks.

During my research I created a "How to" PowerPoint that I will go over with my students. I also included a basic rubric. I may end up changing it once I see how the students do, but thought I really wanted to give this a try.

So, the next thing I did was take the next chapter we are doing and create two Sketchnotes of my own. I am really proud of how they turned out and it was a lot of fun!!!!!

I'm not very artistic, but I wanted to show my students that you didn't have to know how to draw to make these exciting and be involved in it. I think this will be a great way for students to remember what they learned in a given lesson and a great place for them to go back and study from.

Here is a snapshot of the PowerPoint I made.

After creating my own two, I cannot wait to introduce this to my students once we start our next chapter on the Constitution. I think they are really going to love it and I think it will help bring out some of their creative sides. Can't hurt to try, right?

Would you ever try sketchnotes in your class??

Teachers pay Teachers Store Update

I've been working hard on my Teacher pay Teacher site. Going through all of my old files and revamping them to be current. I have some new things posted that work really well in the middle school social studies classroom. A lot of it could be adapted to work in the elementary classrooms as well. First I have my regions book. It has blank maps of the regions for students to label and color. It also gives them a word bank.

I have also added some Jeopardy games. Who doesn't love a game for review???

And of course I added some clip art. I've had a lot of fun making these and I am willing to make some for anyone who wants me to. I just need to know what you want :)

Fun huh??? So, stop by my store and see all that I have. I have lots of stuff and I am willing to make things for people. All you have to do is ask :)

Any suggestions on what you would like to see on Teachers pay Teachers???

Citizenship Jeopardy Game

We just finished up our chapter on Citizenship and to review I did a Citizenship Jeopardy game. The students really seemed to like it. I divided the kids up into groups of 4, gave each group a white board and a dry erase marker. I rotated through the groups on which category we went to, each team would answer the question. If they got the question correct they got the points, if it was wrong, they lost the points. It took up the entire period and we didn't get the entire game done. I will use this again. You can find the actual jeopardy game in my Teacher pay Teacher store.

How do you review for upcoming tests?

Interactive Notebook-Getting it set up

Last year I started using an interactive notebook with my students. I think it was one of the best ideas I've had. It took a lot of research and playing with things, but I think I have a pretty good foundation for our interactive notebook.
I start off by asking the students to purchase a 5 subject notebook. It's important for the notebook to be larger than a 1 subject due to how much information and other stuff we put into our notebooks. I generally allow the students the first week of school to purchase these notebooks, this gives parents/guardians time to get the materials.
The second Monday of school, we set up our notebook. I start off by showing a PowerPoint to the class. It goes over the basics of the notebook and why we are creating one. It also goes step by step in setting it up. It also explains that the left side is important information given to them by me. This is where they will find notes, vocabulary and other important information that could show up on a test. The right side is where they are allowed to be creative. They will be creating cover pages, foldables, summaries, etc. They are given less strict guidelines on these pages and can add their own creative stamp to these pages.
I learned last year I didn't want to create a
 Table of Contents this year. We never used it, it was up to me to keep it updated and it just took up too many pages. So, this year, we aren't doing one.
They have to start off with the cover. Just a basic Civics Interactive Notebook with their name on the front. I allow them to use Sharpies if necessary.

Then I have the students start numbering pages from 1-50, just to get started. I have them write the numbers in pen in the upper right hand corner of the pages. Numbering pages is essential for everyone staying on the same page.
Then on page one we create an About the Author page. This is where they write their name in the middle of the page, then use drawings or pictures to show what their interests are, what they like and what is important to them.

On page two we start with our first cover page.

I also created a Notebook Check page that they glue into the back of their notebooks. This is the place I mark their grades for each notebook check and write any comments I need to add.

That is the basic set up. Check back later for grading and other ways I use the notebook.

Thanks for stopping by!

Check out my Teachers pay Teachers store for the PowerPoint to set up Interactive notebooks and the grading rubric. :)

Welcome!!!

Welcome to Saving Social Studies! I started this blog to share resources that I have created and continue to create to supplement our Civics/Social Studies curriculum.

I'm a 7th grade civics teacher in Florida. This is my 7th year teaching. I started out teaching 4th grade, then switched to 7th grade science, then 6-8th grade Social Studies and finally landed in 7th grade Civics. I create a lot of materials to supplement my classroom. I love sharing those materials. I've always been a big believer in sharing resources, no one should have to re-invent the wheel. :)

You can stop by my store on Teachers pay Teachers and see the items I have posted on there.

Please stop by and say hello! :)