Social+Studies

In 4th grade social studies, our big theme is "Regions of the United States". We study each of the 5 regions, learning about the history of the region, the explorers, the economics, and the Native Americans who settled the area. Then at the end of the year, we have two large themed units: The 50 States and Native American Tribes.

Videos about agriculture in the Northeast Region of the U.S. Maple Syrup Production: media type="youtube" key="m5cSqjuTpac" height="315" width="560" Maple syrup production in Vermont at a family business, tapping trees that were planted before the Declaration of Independence was written! media type="youtube" key="xmsuJCQydAk" height="315" width="560"

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__End of the Year Project:__ We have been studying the 50 states of the U.S. Each student has a state that he/she is focusing on, and creating projects about. Each student has created a Keynote presentation with the research about his/her state, a Comic Life about animal adaptations to survive in his/her state, and an advertisement for his/her state's tourism bureau. Some students chose to create glogs (online interactive posters) as the advertisements for their states. The glogs are linked below: [|Louisiana Glog] [|MInnesota Glog] [|Idaho Glog]

Our class usually studies Kansas in January - since Kansas celebrates it's birthday in January, it always seems like the perfect time! We start by studying important items from Kansas history during the time of being settled - covered wagons, buffalo, sod houses, tipis. Then we study groups of people who chose to immigrate to Kansas - groups of people from other countries who founded new cities that still exist. The class researches those groups & cities and creates Keynote presentations about them. Look below to see video of these presentations. The plan is to upload these to School Tube and then link them to Google Earth. The kids are very excited about having such a potentially big audience for their work!

Our class studies the different regions of the United States throughout the year. As part of our studies, we learn about the states in each region, the climate, the landforms, the economy, the explorers, etc, and we really focus on the Native American tribes that originated in each region. Now, in May, we are just finishing up our last region - the West. We have been reading about the Tlingit tribe from this region. The class was fascinated that this tribe originated totem poles, potlatches (potlucks) and animal masks. In class, we decided to use some technology tools to make "masks" - each student chose an animal that they felt they were similar to. Then they took a picture of themselves, found an image of the animal online, and layered the animal over their own face. Then each child wrote a poem about how they are similar to the animal. Check out the slideshow of their examples below! media type="custom" key="6091453"