Social Studies for Kids: Homework Help and Lesson Plans

Teaching Children Social Studies

Finding and Creating Lesson Plans

Developing strong social studies lesson plans is key for ensuring that your class masters the necessary material. It's likely that the teacher's manual for your class textbook has lessons you can use or adapt to your needs. There are also many free lessons online that you can print or simply use as a guide.

If you want to create your own social studies lesson plan but are having difficulty getting started, use this template:

1. Begin with a recap of whatever your class learned about in the previous lesson.
2. Next, present the new material to your students.
3. Have them ask questions about the new material.
4. Engage your class with a hands-on activity or exercise.
5. At the end of the class, summarize the main points of the lesson again.

Fun Social Studies Activities

Social studies can be a lot of fun to teach and learn, but it also has the potential to be boring for kids. If your social studies lessons involve a lot of lecturing and note taking, some of your students may begin to lose interest. Fortunately, some social studies topics can be easy to make exciting.

Hands-on activities will help your students become engaged, and they can be included in almost any social studies unit. For example, if your students are studying communities, they could draw maps of the town or even build a three-dimensional model using construction paper and cardboard boxes. During history units, divide your students into groups and ask them to write short skits demonstrating a historical event. Each group can write a skit about a different event and then present the skit to the class.

There's nothing like real-world activities to bring a lesson to life. If there's something or somewhere in your area relevant to a unit you are covering, organize a field trip. For example, if your class is covering U.S. history, take them to a local landmark that you've taught them about, or go to a history museum so that your students can see the actual objects they've read about.

Social Studies Homework Help

When assigning homework, always make sure that it's fair and reflects what you've already covered in the classroom. Always thoroughly explain a new assignment before sending your class home with it, and don't forget to go over assignments with the class when you pass them back. If an individual student is struggling with his or her homework, you may consider providing extra help before school, after school or even during class time.