[Featured Teachers] [Instructional Resources]
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Featured Teachers
The Social Studies team highlights Mario Vasquez and his 3rd grade bilingual class at Palm Elementary School.
Mr. Vasquez has developed a hands-on “Communities” project for his students to enhance and integrate learning in social studies and the other academic areas of math, language arts, and science developing academic vocabulary and real world knowledge of their environment. This project is an on going activity progressing throughout the school year. The students read and discuss books on communities, write book reports based on social studies readings and books read.
They record new information learned in their social studies notebooks. Students create representations of the people that live in a community and the various buildings modeling businesses and services that make up a town. These objects are 3-D made from recyclable materials, which students measure and weigh. Students write biographies and stories about their characters.
Parents are involved by using the model made by the students to create a large quilt with hand-sewn representations of government, places and buildings, and people which hangs behind the model in the grade level open area. As the year passes, students add to their community and parents add to the quilt resulting in a finished project at the end of the year.
Social Studies highlights Elizabeth Tutor,
a third grade teacher at Rodriguez Elementary.
Ms Tutor
developed an integrated social studies project for her students that included the
curriculum areas of social studies, language arts, and science.
Students wrote letters to people in the 50 states asking for soil samples.
So far 16 states have responded.
Students used their geography and mapping skills to label and glue soil samples from the states
that responded to their letter onto a United States map.
The students learned about three types of soil: sand, clay, and silt.
They were able to determine which type of soil each state had based on the state’s geographic location and the properties of the soil.
Ms Tutor further integrated the project into science by having the students develop a hypothesis and test the soil samples for plant growth using bell pepper seeds. After planting the seeds, from the states that responded with soil samples, the students learned that Massachusetts has the best soil for growing the plants. They learned that the type of soil a state has may determine its ability for agriculture.
Instructional Resources
USS Constitution Museum
With the start of the school year, we are seeing the return of children of all ages coming to learn the story of "Old Ironsides" through hands-on, minds-on programs run by our Education Department. From Community and Courage Aboard 'Old Ironsides' designed for grades K-2 to Discovery Port for grades 2-5 and more, there is a program designed to help students of all ages access Constitution's history in a unique and engaging way. For more information about these and other school programs go to the USS Constitution Museum website or call 617-426-1812, ext. *186.
If your class can't come to us, let us come to you through our award winning theme unit All Hands on Deck: Learning Adventures Aboard 'Old Ironsides'. This interdisciplinary curriculum uses the story of USS Constitution to teach students K-12 subjects ranging from language arts to mathematics, and is designed to meet most current state standards. Teachers can log onto www.allhandsondeck.org to receive their free copy.
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