I am never one to get too excited about teaching the cardinal directions. I mean can’t I just teach about North, South, East and West and move on? Good news and bad news – 1. it may be a standard in your grade, 2. it should be a little more in depth. What if we had a week long curriculum that was 15 minutes a day? Now we can teach the skill without stressing about the topic and the length.
I don’t know about you, but I really never have time for teaching history. However, I do have 10-15 minutes a day that I can use to teach social studies.
If I have 15 minutes…what do I teach?
I like themes so every week is a different themed lesson. Each day is based around one skill but using a theme. Here is how I broke the lessons apart:
One of my absolute favorite things to do is use guided notes. I started them in math and now I use them any chance I can. I created some amazing Guided History Notes so that students can follow along during my presentation.
Since I needed the lessons to match the notes, I created a slide show to match what I am teaching. I want to keep them engaged while still making sure they are focusing on the lesson. I matched up the lessons with the notes and it was heaven.
In our district, we have MANY word walls. We have a general one, a reading one, a math one, and a science/history one.
My history one was always empty. I finally started creating my own vocabulary words and cards. I included the words really big, the definition, and an image. I like including an image because it helps my students remember the meaning by just using the image.
Assessing students doesn’t have to be extremely intricate. It doesn’t have to be focused on 10 different topics. I hated having one assessment that ranged across 20 days of lessons. The kids don’t remember one random fact from the lesson.
Instead of worrying about the assessment and did I teach everything that will be on the test, I can now assess on day 5 based on the one topic of the week.
Keep it simple and make it 10 questions. Thats it.
15 Minutes of History is available in our store. We love to help teachers keep these lessons short and effective.
You can check out the different resources available here.
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