• Home
  • Shop
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
#RGSTeachersLounge
MENU
  • SHOP
    • Best Sellers
    • What’s New
    • Subscription Box
    • Outlet
  • CLASSROOM
    • Decor/Themes
    • Bulletin Boards
    • Furniture
    • Organization Solutions
    • Flexible Classroom
  • CELEBRATIONS
    • Holidays
    • Games and Activities
    • Birthdays
    • 100th Day
    • Dr. Seuess
    • Graduation
  • CURRICULUM
    • Social Emotional Learning
    • ELA
    • Spanish – ESL
    • Social Studies
    • Math
    • Science/Spangler
    • STEM
    • Cross-Curriculum/Kits
    • Standards Match
  • THE RESOURCE LOUNGE
    • Teacher Resources and Supplies
    • Career Path
    • Home Life
    • Teacher Tips
You are here: Home / CURRICULUM / Everyday Social Studies and Geography Lesson Ideas

Everyday Social Studies and Geography Lesson Ideas

Everyday Social Studies Lesson Ideas

Sneak social studies and geography into your daily classroom routine with some of these teacher-tested ideas.  Whether you teach elementary or middle school, there are some great ways to make these subjects come alive and fit in with curriculum standards.  Plan to integrate a few new ideas and watch your students grow and learn as they become citizens of the world.

Social Studies Comes to Life

Read Into It

Pick up a social studies or geography related book for your morning meeting reading time, transition time, or whenever you read aloud to your class.  Don’t read aloud to them?  Try it!  You will be amazed how even the toughest middle schoolers enjoy a good story being read aloud.  Some series you may want to consider include The Magic Tree House books by Mary Pope Osborne and the Social Studies Connects series by Kane Press.

Virtual Field Trips

Have you ever wanted to show students what The White House looks like?  Take a virtual field trip using their interactive tour. Are you studying China?  Go on a virtual trip to the Great Wall of China to get a feel for what it looks like.  With the 150th Anniversary of the Civil War recently passed, an interactive field trip to Gettysburg may be in order for your middle school students.  And who would not want to see the inside of an Egyptian pyramid?  Now your students can when you explore the pyramids online.  If you are searching for a way to integrate a virtual field trip with a book you are reading, check out Google Lit Trips site that features virtual tours of some of the most popular books’ locations using Google Earth.

Map & Map Reading

Start the week off with a throw of a magnetic dart and see where your class will be headed throughout the next few school days.  Place a world, country, or state map on a magnetic white board and gently toss a dart at it.  Wherever the dart lands is where your class will be studying for the next few days during morning or afternoon meeting.  Students can be tasked with finding out quick facts about the location and adding them to a class journal about “visited” locations.  Other fun map reading activities that require getting out and about include geocaching and letterboxing.  They are also great activities to suggest to families over summer vacation.

Mailer Exchanges

Start a postcard project with your students and collect postcards from all over the country or world.  Use a pushpin to indicate on a map where each postcard came from and set a goal to collect one from all 50 states or a certain number of countries.  You might also want to participate in a Flat Stanley project and have students map the location of their traveling Flat Stanley.

Integrating social studies and geography into your daily curriculum can be challenging, but it is a way to excite and educate your students in subjects that get very little classroom time.  What are some of your favorite social studies and geography lesson ideas?  Share them with us below!

Everyday Social Studies Lesson Ideas - ReallyGoodTeachers.com

Sharing is caring!

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Pin

Comments

  1. Brian says

    December 23, 2011 at 3:18 pm

    I love all these great links! Thanks for sharing. I have posted some on my pinterest and the White House one everyone is loving!!!

  2. Sabrina Truxal says

    January 29, 2012 at 10:21 am

    Thanks for the Google lit trips link! I’m excited to use it in my class!

Join our Community!

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

LIVE ON FACEBOOK!

#RGSTeachersLounge
Join us the first and third Tuesday of every month AT 8PM!

Popular Posts

  • Free Reading Websites for Kids 11 Free Reading Websites for Kids
  • 20 Job Ideas for Teachers 20 Job Ideas for Teachers
  • Free Math Sites for Kids 11 Free Math Sites for Kids: Math Websites for Students
  • 50 Strange Things Teachers Say 50 Strange Things Teachers Say
  • 20 Gift Ideas for Mentor Teachers 20 Gift Ideas for Mentor Teachers
  • Getting Organized from the Start - Tips for Teacher Organization Getting Organized from the Get Go with Lists!
  • Getting Things to Stick to Cinderblock Walls How to Make Things Stick to Cinder Block Walls
  • 12 Community Service Projects for Kids 12 Community Service Projects for Kids
  • 20 Jokes for Kids for the New School Year 20 Kid-Friendly Jokes for the New School Year
  • Preschool Classroom Must Haves 10 Preschool Classroom Must-Haves

#RGSTeachersLounge

Copyright © 2023 #RGSTeachersLounge

Copyright © 2023 · Slush Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in