Social Studies was added!

I experienced my first field trip with the fourth graders. We went to a local park that employed naturalists. The naturalists divided the group into three smaller groups, and we went through team building activities and survival skills. The highlight for the students was when they got to build a fire, and they were even allowed to light the match. We had great weather even through it was suppose to rain, and the students really worked together throughout the day.

In the classroom, the highlight would have been teaching social studies. Since social studies only happens once or twice a week. I really tried to find interesting activities for the students to help with the engagement of the subject. We did a kinesthetic activity to start, and the students loved getting out of their seats. I want to sneak in more geography throughout the day, so my read aloud are going to include some information about other areas of the world. If we don't have time during the day for social studies, we are going to make time by being interdisciplinary.

Now I would like to share, some websites that I think are useful to have as resources.

The website that I use on a daily basis is Super Kids (http://www.superkids.com/aweb/tools/words/middle/ ). This website has a section with a word of the day for fourth through eighth graders. It tells the viewers the definition, gives an example sentence, and synonyms of the word. I print and display this word daily, and during morning meeting, we talk about the word with examples. This is one way to help them build their vocabulary.

In the area of math, I like to give them challenge problems to get the students thinking. Many times these problems comes right from their textbook, but in the future, I plan to use the website Figure This! (http://www.figurethis.org) At this website, you can find math challenge problems that can be displayed on the Smartboard. They even give hints and a page description with a few solutions. Some of the more advanced students may appreciate the challenge.

The other website that I have used is called Braingle. This website has many different brainteasers to get the students thinking in a problem solving manner. These activities are good when the students arrive in the morning, and they need an activity to keep themselves busy. These activities would also be good when the students have a few minutes between subjects.

At this point, these are the only websites I use on a regular basis. I might have other resources towards the end of student teaching. Right now, I am managing and teaching morning meeting, math, and social studies, so my resources are related to those subjects. Social studies was only taught once last week so there is not an abundance of resources in that area. Next week I will be exploring Matter and Energy with the students, so I move on to one more subject.