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Social Studies Lesson Plans
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Subject Area |
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| A Trip Through the Panama Canal |
Social Studies |
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| This activity will provide students the opportunity to learn about the Panama Canal. They will study its history, location, reasons for being built, ownership, and so forth. The class will be divided into small groups to research specific activities and learn how ships travel through the Canal by viewing a java animation clip. Students will create presentations using word-processing or presentation software that demonstrates what the students learned through their research activities. Their final products will be displayed in the classroom or hallway.
- South Delta Middle School |
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| A Trip to the Caribbean |
Social Studies |
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| This will be the culminating activity for a class unit on Caribbean island countries. Students will use the World Wide Web to research information about the culture of these countries including the religion, types of food, climate, business and industry, and typical clothing of the people in the area. They will take imaginary trips to the island of their choice, gather data and images about those countries from the World Wide Web, and create photo albums using the photo album template in Microsoft PowerPoint. The albums will be presented to the class and put on display for all students to review.
- South Delta Middle School |
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| Across Five Aprils—Civil War Virtual Field Trips |
Social Studies |
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| Students will explore the Civil War by reading Irene Hunt’s novel, Across Five Aprils. Students will improve their reading skills by reading the novel silently in class while listening to audiotapes of the book. After reading about some of the battles that are discussed in the book, students will take virtual field trips to these battle sites and answer questions that will guide them in their study of the Civil War. This lesson will take two weeks to read the novel and two more days to complete the virtual field trips to three Civil War battlefields. Students will visit Fort Donelson, Fort Henry, and Shiloh battlefields and answer questions related to each of these tours.
- Tupelo Middle School |
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| African-American Christian Denominations: History in the United States |
Social Studies |
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| Using World Wide Web and text resources, the students will research the origins of African-American Christian denominations in the United States focusing on important historical leaders in the fight for religious freedom as well as the reasons for the founding of these religious organizations and their significance to the culture of African Americans in the United States. Students will discuss their research findings as a class, comparing and contrasting the beliefs of the different groups. In groups of two, students will then create word-processing or presentation software documents reporting the similarities and differences between two African-American Christian religious denominations of the students’ choice, including in their reports facts about the history and leaders of the two groups, other important historical facts, and information about present-day memberships.
- Chambers Middle School |
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| American Revolution in Literature: My Brother Sam is Dead |
Social Studies |
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| This is an interdisciplinary activity that allows students to become familiar with the American Revolution while they enjoy reading an historical novel. Students will read the book My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier in class. Students will improve their reading and listening skills while listening to an audiotape of the novel, answering questions from their reading and completing several technology and writing activities on the American Revolution.
- Tupelo Middle School |
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| American Revolution Newspaper |
Social Studies |
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| Students will create a publication detailing events relating to the American Revolution from different perspectives. - Tupelo Middle School |
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| American Revolutionary War Time Line |
Social Studies |
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| The students will search the Web by groups to find events that happened in history and create a time line of these events. - Houlka Attendance Center |
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| Americana Research |
Social Studies |
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| Students will research an American symbol, icon, or monument. They will take the information collected and complete Microsoft PowerPoint presentations. Students will complete six slides, using the questions from their research as titles for these slides. Students will present their work to another class. - West Lauderdale Middle School |
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| Analyzing Political Cartoons |
Social Studies |
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| Students will identify and write paragraphs about current political issues using political cartoons as the basis for their writing. - Chambers Middle School |
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| Blazing the Western Trails |
Social Studies |
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| This activity will capture students’ attention and transport them in their imaginations to the cowboy way of life. While reading the book Justin and the Best Biscuits in the World students will explore the ways of the old West. They will use various types of software packages such as Microsoft Power Point and Microsoft Office XP Excel, to complete fun and educational activities. - Hunter Middle School |
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| Chat with the Nations |
Social Studies |
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| Students will compare cultural similarities and differences with e-pals from a classroom of students in another community, state, or country. They will communicate through the World Wide Web using the chat feature on a password-protected Web site established by their teachers. Students will begin the unit of study by reading a young adult novel set in the city, state, or country being studied. For example, when studying Canada, the young adult novel Hatchet by Gary Paulsen can serve as background material for the chat discussions among students. Students will brainstorm questions to ask their e-pal partners and share the information they learn through the chat sessions with their classmates. The students will conclude the unit by writing reflective essays on what they learned through these e-mail chat sessions about their e-pal’s city, state, or country. - Central School |
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| Civil War Adventures |
Social Studies |
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| This lesson is part of an integrated unit on the Civil War involving all four core subject areas. The students will research causes of the Civil War, casualties, medical practices, major and minor battles, destruction of the South, personnel involved in the decision-making that affected the battles, soldiers, important dates, outcomes of battles and events, and other aspects of the war that might interest the students. The students will create Microsoft PowerPoint presentations on several topics related to the Civil War in the Social Studies classroom.
- Booneville Middle School |
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| Conquistadors |
Social Studies |
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| This is a group activity that allows students to become familiar with Spanish conquistadors as well as the dates and results of their expeditions. Students will work in cooperative groups and use their textbooks as well as other resources to help them complete Microsoft Excel spreadsheets on ten or more Spanish explorers during the time period of the first permanent contacts between Europeans and Native Americans. Additional research on the conquistadors may also be done using the World Wide Web if desired. - Tupelo Middle School |
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| Contribution of Greeks to Civilization |
Social Studies |
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| This activity allows students to research four elements of Ancient Greek culture and then develop a Web page which will be evaluated by their peers as well as by the teacher using a simple rubric. - Winona Jr. High School |
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| Cruising Latin America |
Social Studies |
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| The students will access and research information found on teacher-selected Web sites concerning Latin American products, populations, resources, and geography. The students will then create travel brochures using the information found through their research, WordArt, and clip art found in Microsoft Word’s clip art gallery or the World Wide Web. - William J. Berry Elementary |
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