Teaching a 3/4 Split Social Studies Class in Ontario? You Need to Read this Blog Post!

 Teaching a Grade 3/4 split in Ontario can be extra challenging, simply because it is also a division split.  That said, it is actually my favourite split grade (well, except perhaps for the whole EQAO thing).  Since social studies is my favourite subject, I thought it was time to talk about how to approach Strand A:  Heritage and Identity. 

In Ontario the Strand A units are:

• Grade 3:  Communities in Canada, 1780-1850
• Grade 4:  Early Societies to 1500

Students from both grades are being asked to explore life in early communities, albeit from different time periods.  By looking at the big ideas of the social studies curriculum, it quickly becomes clear that there are very similar concepts being explored in both grades.

I took the 3 big ideas of each grade and merged them into three blended big ideas that can serve as overall foci for this unit.  By keeping these ideas in mind at all times, it becomes easier to develop a seamless unit.

When planning my unit, I kept referring back to these ideas:

1. Studying how communities in the past developed helps us understand aspects of our lives today.
2. The environment affected how people worked, played, and lived in early societies.
3. The lives of Indigenous peoples and settlers in early societies were different in many ways.

Why was the Social Studies Curriculum revised in 2018?

• In 2018 the curriculum was revised to meet the recommendations of the 2015 Truth and Reconciliation on residential schools.  Not every grade or strand was affected by the changes.  Grades 4-8, as well as 10, were the focus of the revised curriculum.  This means that Grade 3 had no changes, but Grade 4 did!
• Both grades are expected to explore Indigenous Canadian communities:
• Grade 3:  First Nations and Metis (Metis did not exist before 1780.)
• Grade 4:  First Nations and Inuit (Inuit people have lived in North America prior to 1500.)
• Looking at the time periods for each grade, you'll see that Grade 3s are looking at 1780-1850  (post- European contact), well after the Grade 4 period which looks at life before 1500 (pre-European contact).  The gap between these time periods is not looked at until Grade 5!

What other communities can be explored?

Grade 3 students are focused solely on Canada but can explore the lives of European settlers, black communities, and other smaller groups.

Grade 4 students can expand their studies to look at Ancient Greece, Medieval England, Mesopotamia, and many other historical societies.  

Both grades can look at these communities while keeping in mind the blended big ideas of the strand, making life easier for both teacher and students!  

So How Can I Teach these Units at the Same Time?

• Mapping can be a great starting point for any social studies unit.  I have students look at a variety of maps, globes, and atlases to discuss their distinct features.  Then we move on to locating some of the societies we will be exploring.  In this particular unit, students look at why and how Europeans came to North America, and what life was like for people before and after this contact.
• Using a large timeline on classroom walls is a great way to chart when societies developed over time.  All the communities studied by both grades can be noted on this timeline.
• Teach lessons focused upon the big ideas, and then give each grade separate texts or resources to apply those big ideas to the communities they are studying.  For example, in exploring how the environment affected the types of shelters older societies used, Grade 3s can look at how the Inuit people created shelters in the frozen North, while the Grade 4s look at medieval homes in England.  
• At the end of each lesson, return students' attention to the big ideas.  How did the lesson help them understand that big idea a bit better?
• Use similar tasks, so that the two grades aren't doing something completely different.  For example, in the "Exit Ticket" below, both grades are describing food used by the communities studied.  Grade 3s look at First Nations, Metis, and European settler cuisine, while Grade 4s look at First Nations, Inuit, and Medieval English foods. Just cut the sheet apart to give to your Grade 3s and 4s!

Can I find a ready-made unit to help me teach Strand A in my Grade 3/4 split?

Yes, of course you can!  I've done all the work for you.  This Life in Early Communities unit contains 18 complete lesson plans, with all student texts, tasks, and assessments ready to go.  

Do you have a digital version of this unit?

Again, yes I do!  This version contains movable pieces, editable texts, and clickable links, while also including the same content as the original printable version!  Check it out here!

But I teach French Immersion - do you have this unit translated?

French Immersion teachers, I haven't forgotten about you!  I have both printable and digital versions of my Strand A unit.  Click here to see the "printable + digital" bundle!

If you have any questions about teaching this strand, whether or not it's specific to my own TPT resource, please feel free to email me at:

coachsteachingcorner@gmail.com!

Have a great week!

Margie

3 Tips for Using Word Walls in Elementary Social Studies

I am a huge fan of word walls in any subject, and have happily created walls for each math unit, science strand, and novel study I undertook.  Social studies is my particular love, though, and I find that students can struggle without concrete strategies being provided to help them master the content vocabulary.  A word wall is a quick and easy tool to make students comfortable with the new words and terms they encounter.  

Here are 3 tips to help make the most of any word wall in Grades 4-7.

1.  Display Strategies

a)  Word/Phrase + Definition + Image = Comprehension

Students do best when they can see an image related to a word or phrase has a short definition.

b)  Arrange by topic.  In the image here, you can see that an upcoming  municipal election is being studied by the class, and images of the candidates are displayed, as well as election terminology.

c)  Consider individual word walls for some students.  Students who struggle to maintain concentration when using a word wall on a bulletin board may do better with some key vocabulary gathered on a ring or in a folder.

2.  Play Games!

A word wall should never be a stagnant display, but a living tool in your classroom.  When you have a few extra minutes before it's time to go home, play one of the following games using the word wall.

a)  Hangman:  the traditional game, but students know ahead of time that each word is one that is already displayed in the room.

b)  5 Clues:  Choose a word card ahead of time, and create five clues that students can use to figure out what word card you have chosen. Read one clue at a time, and have students use each clue to determine what card you've chosen.  They win if they can guess the card before you have given all the clues.  For example, for the word "foothill", for example, the clues could be:

1.  It is one word.

2.  It is a compound word.

3.  It can be found in the environment.

4.  It is a land feature.

5.  It has two sets of double letters.

c)  Bingo with Clues:  Distribute blank 5 x 5 (or 4 x 4 or 3 x 3) bingo cards to your students.  Have them fill in each box with a word or phrase from the word wall.  Without calling out the actual word wall words themselves, give them a clue.  For example, for "elder", you could say "this is a word that describes a wise person in the community".  

Political and Physical Regions of Canada Word Wall
(image courtesy of Sidney McKay)

3.  Have Students Choose Some Words

Sometimes we assume students understand some vocabulary that seems very basic to us, and then find out we were wrong.  Having some blank word wall words available for those moments will allow you to grab that "teachable moment" and have a willing student create the word wall card for such vocabulary.  Having word wall words made by students makes the wall more meaningful and useful to them!

Click on the image here to get your FREE Canadian Government Word Wall Sampler!

Check out my line of Ontario Social Studies Curriculum word wall resources here.

 

 

Create Social Studies Projects that Engage Your Grades 4 to 6 Students!

 

At the end of a social studies units, teachers often find themselves struggling to design a "culminating task" that is engaging for students and provides teachers with an opportunity to assess overall curriculum expectations.

What makes a great culminating project or task?

A culminating task or project should:

• address the overall curriculum expectations for the unit.
• cause students to think deeply about the important issues or questions brought up during the unit.
• be engaging and hold the interest of students over time.
• be shared with students in advance, using physical models 
• have clear timelines and success criteria.

Before even beginning a unit I already know what the final tasks or projects will be, and using the "backward design" model I plan the entire unit, making sure that every lesson will contribute in some way towards that task.  

I show students what that task will look like early in the unit, and have them work on it bit by bit from lesson to lesson.  I precreate physical models of the different project options, so that students can choose the option that works best for them.  

Types of Projects

Some of my favourite culminating projects or tasks are:

1.  Brochures

2.  Project Cubes

3.  Posters

4.  Debates

5.  Report Cards

6.  Event

The image to the right show a "project cube" that I created for my Grade 4/5 class.  We were exploring Strand B of the Ontario Social Studies Curriculum, which focused on:

Grade 4:  Physical and Political Regions of Canada               

Grade 5:  The Role of Government and Responsible Citizenship

As a final task I wanted the Grade 4s to show how industry and the environment affect each other, and to describe how actions taken by citizens and industries can protect the environment while still meeting human needs.

The Grade 5s would describe and assess any government action has been taken to address an environmental issue, to show different perspectives on that issue, and to describe how Indigenous Peoples have been affected by the issue.

Students could choose to show their learning through a:

* project cube

* poster

* brochure

* scrapbook

* report

I gave physical models of each option, using the issue of invasive species in the Great Lakes.  I also shared clear criteria for each type of project.  (***For your own copy of these project criteria, click here OR on the image to the left!***)

If you are an Ontario Grade 4/5 teach who would like to check out the full unit, click here.

  

Scrapbook Page

              Report Card on Government Action (Grade 5)

Note:  A Grade 5 teacher recently contacted me to let me know that after creating a report card about how governments addressed food insecurity, her class took the "action plan" to another level by creating a huge fundraiser for a local food bank.  Students had been exploring inequities in food availability, and worked through the steps in my Grade 5 government unit to take action themselves!  Amazing!!

Reminder:  Click here or on the clipboard below to download your FREE editable social studies project criteria!

What are YOUR favourite types of culminating tasks or projects?  Let me know below!

Margie

The Ultimate Classroom Debate Guide

Engaging students in their learning can be a challenge in any classroom, but there is one tried-and-true strategy to rev up their interest:  a classroom debate!  I was first introduced to this activity back when I was in Grade 11, as Mr. Deery, our English teacher, scheduled a class debate every Friday.  No one ever wanted to be absent on a Friday, because those classes were the best of the week!  When I became an elementary school teacher I knew that with careful planning, younger students could successfully participate in debates.

How do debates address curriculum expectations or academic standards?

I live in Ontario, Canada, where our provincial Ministry of Education provides a curriculum guide for each subject.  Teachers plan activities that address the expectations in these documents.  At a quick glance, debates can be planned that meet expectations in the following subject areas for Grade 6:

• Language Arts: 
• Oral Communication:  1.2 - Demonstrate active listening strategies
• Reading:  1.4 - Demonstrate understanding (by summarizing & explaining important ideas and citing relevant supporting details)
• Writing:  1.3  Research (gather information to support ideas)

• Social Studies:
• Strand B:  Canada's Interactions with the Global Community
• B1.2:  analyse responses of Canadian governments and NGOs to an economic, environmental, political and/or social issue of international significance.
• Science:
• Understanding Life Systems - Biodiversity
• Analyse a local issue related to biodiversity, taking different points of view into consideration.

If you teach in other areas of the country or world, you most likely have very similar standards which can be met through the use of class debates.

What are the rules of a debate?

Debates offer a specific structure that make lesson planning quite easy.  (Click here or on the image to the right to download a FREE debate schedule!)

• Students are placed in teams of 3.
• Two teams are involved in each debate:  three students each on the affirmative and negative teams.
• A debate topic is assigned or chosen for each debate.   For a unit on government, for example, the debate topic statement could be presented as "All citizens should be required to vote."  The affirmative team supports this statement, and the negative team would dispute it.
• Each team member is given a specific responsibility:
• Student 1:  Give initial statement AND summary statement.
• Student 2:  Give a rebuttal to the other teams initial statement.
• Student 3:  Gives a rebuttal to the other team's rebuttal. 
• I have all students not actively participating in a specific debate complete an evaluation form after each part of the debate.  At the end, each students vote for the team they felt presented the best argument.

What are some debate ideas?

Because I love to teach with a cross-curricular approach, I look to science, social studies and health for debate topics.  Here are some ideas to consider:

• The voting age should be lowered.
• All restaurants should eliminate the use of plastic straws and cutlery.
• Children under 14 years old should not be allowed on any social media site.
• Companies should be allowed to use animals to test their products on.
• Virtual learning is as effective as in-class learning.

There are many websites that have hundreds of great debate topics for you to consider!

What else should I consider when planning a debate unit?

• Allow students to watch some online debates by students their own age!
• Invite a high school debate team to your classroom to conduct a mini-debate and answer your students' questions.
• Allow the "audience" to become "stakeholders".  Stakeholders are individuals who have a specific reason for being interested in the topic.  If one of your topics involves the use of plastics in restaurants, for example, some of your students could watch the debate from the perspectives of restaurant owners or staff.

Where can I learn more?

I'm glad you asked!  Check out my 4-day complete debate unit for Grades 4-7, which has complete lesson plans, organizers, and assessment tools to help make your class debate a highlight of the school year!

Ontario Grade 4/5 Blended Social Studies: Strand B

Teaching a split grade always has its challenges, but it can be done less painfully than some people think!  Let's take a look at the 2018 Ontario Social Studies Curriculum Strand B foci for Grades 4 and 5!  

Strand B is the People and Environments strand.  This strand asks students to explore the "geographic, social, political, economic, and environmental issues in the context of local, regional, national and global communities" with a goal to "develop an understanding of the social and environmental responsibilities of citizens and of various levels of government."

The two separate units are:

Grade 4:  Political and Physical Regions of Canada

Grade 5:  The Role of Government and Responsible Citizenship

What are the big ideas?

By looking at the Strand B "big ideas" for each grade, we can find commonalities to create blended big ideas.  Check out this chart:

By focusing on these big ideas, teachers can help  students:

• explore environmental issues that affect Canadian regions and provinces.
• look at how governments, groups, and citizens respond to these issues

Taking this approach allowed me to create a unit where both grades looked at:

• a variety of environmental issues in Canada's regions, provinces and territories.
• how humans actions (by individuals, industries and governments) affect the environment.
• how the environment affects humans, organizations and governments. 
• different perspectives on the issue.
• how Indigenous groups have been affected by these issues.
• future governmental actions that may address these issues in a positive manner.

Each student examines an environmental issue from one province or territory (I provide three issues per territory). and as a culminating activity creates a poster, scrapbook, report, brochure or cube detailing what they have learned.  Students include images and recommendations for the future.  

By using the big ideas in the curriculum in this way, it becomes easy to see how alike the two grade level expectations are, and to create a plan that allows both grades to look at the same issues with slightly different foci:

Grade 4:  What ARE the issues, and how have the environment and humans interacted with each other?

Grade 5:  How have levels of government affected these issues either positively or negatively, and what can be done in the future?

If this sounds like a direction you can see you and your students embracing, check out my Strand B unit.  (Good news:  I created both printable and digital versions, which can be purchased separately or as a bundle!) 

This printable version has complete lesson plans and examples of completed student work!

The digital version contains the same student texts and tasks in full colour with movable pieces and interactive texts, perfect for distance learning or meeting IEP accommodations.

The best of both worlds is the bundle, which makes it possible to have some students working with printable materials while others cover the same texts and tasks in digital form:

Teaching Canadian Government in Elementary School

 

Looking for some new ideas to teach Canadian government in your Grade 4-6 social studies class?  Believe it or not, it can be engaging for both you and your students!  

Check out these 3 ideas for bringing Canadian government alive in your classroom!

Newspaper Article Sort 

Find newspapers, magazines, pamphlets, and any other current print resources that have information relevant to any level of government.  (If it's an election year, you will have more than enough material delivered by the candidates and their campaign teams right to your door!)  Check with your local newspaper, and see if they would be willing to donate (or sell at a steep discount) copies of their papers for your government unit.

After spending some time teaching about the 3 levels of government and their responsibilities, explain that all forms of media spend much of their time investigating and reporting upon issues that are important to all Canadians, all people in a province or territory, and/or citizens of a municipality.  Create a chart with three columns:  Federal/Provincial (or Territorial)/Municipal.

Distribute the print resources you have to students, and ask them to cut out and sort any articles in which a level of government might be involved. Once completed, take one level and discuss the various issues students found that might be handled by that government. Repeat with the other two levels of government. If you wanted to take the learning further, you could proceed with the next strategy, which is.....Community Mapping.

Community Mapping

The Ontario Social Studies Curriculum for Grade 5, Strand B states that students "will develop plans of action to address significant social and environmental issues".  The easiest way to approach this is by having your students IDENTIFY social and environmental issues within their immediate community, whether that be the school catchment area, the small town they live in, or the rural area that surrounds the school.

Here is a short summary of what I have done in my own class:

1. Community Features: Class makes a chart of buildings, features and services that people might expect when moving to a new community.
2. Community Walk:Class takes a walk through the community, looking for the buildings services, and features from their chart, as well as identifying issues in the community.
3. Community Mapping:  Students return to class.  Each student or pair of students creates a "bird-eye" view map of the community.  
4. Community Issues:  Students discuss and chart the community features they noticed, using their maps as a reference tool.  They then create a 2nd "Issues" chart, noting where the community could benefit from some improvements.
5. Choosing Community Action Focus:  Have students form groups.  Each group chooses ONE "issue" from the community for which they will create an action plan to address. For example, in the "Issues" chart below, one group might decide to take on the lack of a municipal pool, and create their plan to approach the municipal country to address the lack of a splash pad or pool.
6. Community Action Plan:  Students make a plan for doing further research, contacting local officials, planning a publicity session.....the options are endless!

Chat Stations

If you're looking for a quick introduction to Canadian government, try introducing some "chat stations" into your classroom.  Collect anywhere between 6 and 12 government-related issues or images, and post each in different spot in your classroom, along with a prompt or question for students to consider as they rotate in small groups from station to station.  (You may want each group to record their thoughts on a clipboard as they rotate through the stations.)  After everyone has had a chance to visit each station, bring them back together to discuss each station.  

I hope at least one of these ideas inspires you to try something new with your class this year!  If you're looking for more ideas and activities to support you in teaching Canadian government, consider these resources from my Coach's Corner TPT store:

3 Facts about the 2018 Ontario Social Studies Curriculum

In 2018 the Ontario Social Studies Curriculum was revised, but do you know the reasons behind this revision?  Check out this blog post to learn why Strand A:  Heritage and Identity was the focus of the revision, and why some grade levels had no changes made to the Ontario Social Studies Curriculum at all!  Find out what role the 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Residential Schools played in the revised curriculum. 

In 2018 the Ontario Ministry of Education revised the Social Studies Curriculum, but not all grades or strands were affected.  Here are 3 important facts to know!

1.  The Curriculum was Revised as a Direct Response to the 2015 Truth & Reconciliation Commission's Recommendations

In  2015, the TRC published 94 "Calls to Action", after spending six years hearing from more than 6500 witnesses concerning the residential school system. The Ontario Ministry of Education revised the curriculum in 2018 to include the recommendations of the TRC, so that students now learn about treaty issues, residential schools, and the contributions of First Nations, Metis, and Inuit peoples to our country.

Call to Action 62:   Make age-appropriate curriculum on residential schools, Treaties, and Aboriginal peoples’ historical and contemporary contributions to Canada a mandatory education requirement for Kindergarten to Grade Twelve students

Call to Action 63: 

 i. Developing and implementing Kindergarten to Grade Twelve curriculum and learning resources on Aboriginal peoples in Canadian history, and the history and legacy of residential schools. 

ii. Sharing information and best practices on teaching curriculum related to residential schools and Aboriginal history. 

iii. Building student capacity for intercultural understanding, empathy, and mutual respect.

 iv. Identifying teacher-training needs relating to the above.  

2.  Not All Grades were Revised

The Ontario Ministry of Education only made changes to the curriculum expectations for Grades 4 to 10.  Grades 1 to 3 remained the same as they had been in the 2013 curriculum.  Any resources you may have had for those primary grades are still relevant!!

3.  Not All Strands Were Affected

Because the Ontario Social Studies Curriculum was revised in response to the TRC, the Ministry of Education worked only on the strands that were most relevant in terms of Indigenous content.  Their intent was to strengthen learning around treaty education, the impacts of the residential school system, and the Indian Act.  

For the junior grades, this meant that Strand A:  Heritage and Identity was the focus of the 2018 revisions.  For Grades 7 through 10, the History strands were affected; in Grades 9 and 10 changes were made to the Canadian History Since World War I (CHC2D and CHC2P).

As Strand B:  People and Environment for Grades 4-6 were not affected by the 2018 revisions, teachers can continue to use resources they had in place for the 2013 curriculum for that strand.

I have been updating my Strand A resources in my Coach's Corner TPT store.  Check out my revised Grade 5 unit for Strand A:  Interactions of Indigenous Peoples and Europeans Prior to 1713 by clicking on the image below!

Making Connections in the Ontario Grade 4/5 Split Grade Social Studies Class

It's that time of year again when split-grade teachers face the challenge of organizing their social studies programs in a way that doesn't overwhelm either themselves or their students.  I've written about how Grade 5/6 social studies can be approached, and today I'm hoping to help Grade 4/5 teachers look at Strand A
of the Ontario Social Studies with a positive outlook!  
A quick reminder:  the two units are:

• Grade 4:  Early Societies, 3000 BCE - 1500 CE
• Grade 5:  First Nations and Europeans in New France and Early Canada

Looking at the Big Ideas in Strand A

The Heritage and Identity strand of the Ontario Social Studies Curriculum asks students to explore a variety of communities, focusing upon:

a)  connections between the past and the present
b)  interactions within and between different communities

Looking at the "big ideas" of the curriculum can help teachers focus on the most important concepts we want students to think about, even long after the actual unit is finished.  I've spent some time thinking about the big ideas for Strand A, and organized them in this chart:

Looking at the big ideas this way makes planning just a bit easier!  Basically, I want students to:

a)  understand that we learn from historical ideas and viewpoints that help us make better sense of things occurring in the world around them
b)  early societies were created through the conflict and cooperation between groups of people, and between people and their environments

I am not worried that my students will remember the exact date that Samuel de Champlain arrived in North America for the first time.  Instead, I want them to explore and think about WHY Champlain wanted to create a settlement there HOW he and other Europeans treated the First Nations groups already living there, and WHAT conflicts and instances of cooperation occurred as early Canada developed.  While that particular group is more the focus for Grade 5s, the Grade 4s can also explore the same concepts with the Early Aztecs in Mexico, or with the feudal society in Medieval England.

These big ideas also invite students to contemplate and explore the overarching question in a Grade 4/5 class:  How Do Societies Survive and Grow?

Looking carefully at the "Big Ideas" and "Concepts of Social Studies Thinking" at the front of the Ontario Social Studies Curriculum always helps me clarify what my students should really be thinking about, and saves me from panicking at dealing with two sets of expectations at the same time.

By looking at the curriculum in this way, I can create a unit that let me teach one lesson to both grades, without having to run back and forth between the two groups. After a frontloading lesson about how environmental features affect where societies or cultures establish themselves, the Grade 4s can look at the way the Aztecs of Mexico and the Inuit of Canada were influenced by the land around them, while the Grade 5s can do the same with various Indigenous groups and early European settlers.  

In fact, I create two units for my Coach's Corner TPT store, one in PDF format while the other one contains the same lessons and tasks only in digital form using Google Slides.  You can check them out by clicking the links below!

How do YOU approach dealing with social studies in your split-grade classroom?  I'd love to hear from you!

Margie