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There are many different ways to approach teaching a child about their world, but developmentally, it makes sense to start with their little circle and move out from there. When kids are young, they are looking at the world through the lens of ME - what I like, what I want, what I have, etc. This is the time to focus on helping them to know what is going on around them with family, friends, neighbors, and themselves. Here are some fun activities that help them with learning about these things.  All About Me ActivitiesThese activities help kids to focus on their unique identity, interests, and experiences. They encourage them to explore and share information about themselves, including their name, family, hobbies, and favorite things. 1. Name Identity And Recognition - Create personalized name tags using their names and decorative materials like stickers, markers, or colorful paper. - Play name games that involve saying and spelling names 2, Family And Home - Create a family tree collage using photos or drawings of family members. Discuss family roles and relationships. - Draw pictures of their homes, including details like the color, number of windows, and any special features. 3. Hobbies - Create personalized "All About Me" books where they can write or draw about their favorite things, hobbies, and interests. 4. Favorite Things Or Preferences- Create a class chart or graph where they can share their favorite foods, colors, animals, etc. Discuss similarities and differences among classmates. 5. Celebrating Similarities And Differences - Provide magazines, newspapers, and art supplies for them to create collages showcasing diversity in appearance, interests, and abilities.  Some Family Resources To Go FurtherLearning more about family backgrounds and cultures is an area that can be pursued when the children have an understanding of what makes them special or unique. Here are two resources that can help to develop these ideas more. Heritage Project Discovering Our Roots and Flat Family Project.  Neighborhoods And CommunitiesDepending on where children live, their neighborhood and surrounding communities can be very different from other neighborhoods and communities. It's important to be able to recognize different types of communities and also identify which community is most like theirs. The three main types of communities most people are familiar with are urban, suburban, and rural. Here is a booklet that helps to explain some of the features that distinguish the different kinds of communities. Once children are familiar with the different types of communities, they will be able to look around the area where they live and start to identify different characteristics that will determine which kind of community they live in.  Neighborhood And Community Activities1. Start with neighborhood walks. Ask questions that can help to determine noticeable characteristics. What kind of businesses and industries are there? What kind of housing is most common? Are there any landmarks? How much traffic is there? and so on. 2. Take note of some of the community helpers in the area. Who do they see regularly in their neighborhood? What type of community service do they provide? Learn more about their neighbors and community helpers. Perhaps bring in some community members to share what they do. 3. Learn more about the different businesses, services and landmarks or points of interest in their community. How many schools are there? Is there a library? How close is the hospital? What different services are there? Consider taking field trips to the various places such as the fire hall, police station, library, or grocery store to learn first hand how the different members of these places help the community.  Provinces, States, And TerritoriesProvinces, states, and territories are larger areas of land that make up countries. Although they are considered as individual sections, they have a variety of different communities and characteristics, not just across the country, but also within each province, state, or territory. There are many different kinds of activities that can be done based on the areas being studied. Here are a few ideas. 1. Check out how the various areas are similar or different when it comes to climate zones and weather. Keep track of weather patterns by following the weather reports for the region and the country. How are they the same or different? Note: The wide range of climate changes across the larger regions and country may be surprising since children often expect the weather to be the same all around them. 2. Do activities that explore the geography of the country. What are the major cities, landmarks, types of landforms, etc. How do these things impact living in these areas? 3. Choose a couple of areas that are different from each other and research them. Here are some types of questions to ask: How do they vary in services and industries provided? What is the climate like there? What kinds of activities and landmarks are they know for? How is living the same or different?  Some Projects To TryOver the years areas change. It's important for children to understand that life now is very different from what it was like many years ago. Here is a research project that can help them to understand how their community has changed in the past 100 or so years. When studying about different provinces, states, or territories, doing research is a great way for children to get a better understanding of where they live. Here is a research project the focuses on learning about the industries and services of a province, state, or territory. It has different ways to share what has been learned so that children can choose the format that best helps them to share their knowledge.
The WorldContinue to help kids expand their knowledge of how big our world is. The world encompasses countries, oceans, and continents. Do activities that help them to see the vastness of where we live. Here are some ideas. 1. Look at globes and maps and see where the different countries are located. 2. Build puzzles and talk about the different continents and the countries that make them up. 3. Do activities that involve labeling the oceans and continents. 4. Choose some countries and do research activities on them with small groups. Have the groups share their findings with the rest of the class. This way several different countries can be explored and it will enrich the knowledge and understanding of cultures and diversity in the world.  Enjoy sharing these activities with your students. Next time I will share ideas about teaching mapping and creating communities.    Related Posts
There's no better way to capture a child's interest and spark his imagination than to create things to demonstrate learning. This could be a model, a poster, task cards, a game, a diorama, a play, or a podcast just to name a few. When children are engaged and motivated, they tend to learn more deeply and they are more passionate about their project.  There are many different types of projects that can be done based on the subject and concepts that are to be studied. Today, I would like to focus on some projects that work well with the primary social studies topics of families and communities. Community projects and researchAssigning research projects where children investigate different aspects of their community, such as its history, economy, or cultural heritage and present their findings through presentations, posters, or multimedia projects develops research skills, information literacy, and a deeper understanding of the community's development.  Heritage ProjectWe often study about families and look at family trees in the early grades. I wanted to take this further, so I developed a project that studied family heritage. To find out more about it and why it was important to me, check out this post. The goal of the project was to learn more about what make us unique and special. It was a great way to research different cultural aspects of various countries and share them with others. Check out the project here.  Flat Family ProjectMany people are probably familiar with Flat Stanley and the project that began with sending cutouts of Flat Stanley around the world and recording adventures with him. Then people began sending cutouts of themselves to record these adventures. I decided to take this a step further as part of our heritage studies. We created flat families and journals that we mailed to family members in different parts of the world. The families took photos of activities together and made journal entries to share. They returned these journals along with special mementos to the children. It was so exciting to watch the faces of the children when a package arrived and the contents were shared with the class. This Flat Family project has been set up for others to try. You can read more about it here.  Creating A 3D Community ProjectLearning about communities and what they need is important. What better way to make sure that they understand what they have learned than to create a 3D community. This was a fun project that wowed the parents and other classes, not only because of its appearance, but also because of how much the kids could share that they had learned. Check it out here. If you would like to learn more about how we created it, check out this blog post.  These are just 3 different projects that can be done. If you are interested in other projects, check out my social studies category. I hope you find doing projects as successful as I did.  Related Posts
Teachers, do your kids struggle with doing research on Canada because the material is too difficult to read and understand? Would you like to find material that provides information in an easier to read format?  Does this sound like you?• the materials are too difficult for many of your students to understand • the students are constantly asking for help • there aren't enough resources available that are suitable for younger students • you spend hours searching for materials that will help your students • you start wondering if doing research is worth all the frustration  Are you tired of:• kids struggling to read and find information in nonfiction reference books? • kids getting frustrated and always needing help to locate information for their research? • searching for suitable material for younger students that has the information needed for research?  I've been there. I often tried to get my kids to do research for various different topics and I spent most of my time either helping them to find materials or helping them to navigate through the material to find the relevant information needed. I enjoyed doing projects with my students, but it was a lot of prep and energy to do so, especially for social studies. I knew I needed to make some changes.  I created a series of booklets for Canada that were easier to read and full of pictures and maps that helped with the research. I then had a couple of classes try them out. They worked well and the kids felt successful with their research. Finally I had something that younger kids could use.  Research booklets for the 10 provinces and 3 territories There are individual booklets for each of the provinces and territories with an added booklet of the symbols for each.  English and French versions available An English version, Canada My Country, and a French version, Canada mon pays, are available as individual booklets and bundles  Easy to read format with photographs to help Each page features a photograph or map and an easy to read description. If your students are doing research on Canada's provinces and territories and need easy to read material, these bundles are right for you.  Here are some of the features:
• Maps of the province or territory and its location in Canada • Photographs to go along with the research information • Information about industries, services, and interesting facts • A booklet of the symbols for each of the provinces or territories I created these booklets for my class when I saw how difficult the materials in our library were for them to read. It felt so good to see them doing the necessary research and enjoying it because they weren't struggling with the material. Don't take my word for it. Here's what others have to say:English version   French version   Get your Canada Research Bundle now and be ready for your kids to learn about the provinces and territories. Your younger students can do research successfully. Let's recap and you will see why these materials work • All booklets are set up with a similar format • They contain maps and explain where the provinces or territories are located • Capital cities and some well-known landmarks are included • Main industries or services are included • Interesting facts are included • Photographs are clear and visually appealing  Time to feel good about your kids doing research! Related Posts
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About Me Charlene Sequeira
I am a wife, mother of 4, grandmother of 9, and a retired primary and music teacher. I love working with kids and continue to volunteer at school and teach ukulele. 
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