social studies and technology grade 4

Hello,
I'm a grade 4 teacher in BC, Canada, and I'm enrolled in a post-grad. program in integrating technology in teaching. I am looking for ideas to integrate technology into social studies lessons (starting with mapping,) in order to better engage students in the lessons and increase their understanding of these concepts. Any ideas for sites, free programs, or lessons themselves will be appreciated. Thank you!

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Permalink Reply by Christopher Casal on September 14, 2010 at 10:01am

Google Earth is a great tool to illustrate things like country borders, where in real life there are no lines like there are on a map.

I do a history research project with my 4th graders every year. We spend a few months covering Google searching, learning to identify reputable sites, verifying information through various sources, and then move on to note taking, citing sources, etc. Once all that is done we take the notes and turn them in to PowerPoint or Keynote presentations with downloaded pictures, animations, etc. At the end we watch everyone's presentation.

As for mapping, you could use software already on your machines (Appleworks, Keynote, PowerPoint, Word, Paint, etc) to create maps of the classroom, school, neighborhood, etc. All the programs I mentioned have the ability to drop in/draw lines, shapes, etc. It would be easy to use existing software to create maps the their environments.

Permalink Reply by Carol Mosley on October 16, 2010 at 12:46pm

Hi - I actually went to boarding school in Vancouver for 3 fabulous years! I work with students in grades 1 - 5 as the Technology Coordinator...but I cross curriculum areas all the time. I've been working with 5th graders in social studies for 2 years on great projects. In the US, the 5th grade is the US History year - and students traditionally choose one state and spend the year making state reports. Instead of having each student go in depth on one state, I've had them create a class wiki - using PBWorks - and each student creates a state report page. On the cover page, I embed a google map, a timeline of history, a Voiki to welcome students, a reference link to navigate and an introductory movie. Then the kids take over. I have links for them to research on a tab to the right so that they are not exploring all over the internet. The kids create a page, hyperlink it to the front, add photos, state flags, birds etc. Then they create an acrostic poem and a Travel Agent voiki. Lastly, they write 3 solid paragraphs about their state.
When done, they visit the USA by going to each others' pages and commenting. It's a blast. The kids work on it all the time - as "extra" homework.

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