If you were going to do American History in a co-op setting

[Michelle My Bell]

If you were going to do American History in a co-op setting for 4-6th graders and you wanted it to include...

 

A Spine - Nothing too intense. You would be reading (or watching... DVD's?) from it once a week at the co-op and it should only take about 15 minutes max to cover.

 

Literature - Assign Historical Fiction for the kids to read at home to make the lessons come alive. Something they can possibly do projects and reports on.

 

Hands On - Some sort of fun projects, games or activities they can do in class. Should not take more than 1/2 hour.

 

Special Events - Every so often you would want to do something extra fun or extra big to finish up a unit. Something that could involve drama or food, special guests in historical costume. I don't know, I am just throwing out ideas.

 

Weekly Segment for the kids to share at home projects they worked on. Book Reports maybe??? Art Projects related??? Any ideas???

 

What resources (free or not) would you use to make this happen? I would love as many suggestions (no matter how crazy or simple) you may have. Help me brainstorm!

[shukriyya]

For a spine you could use 'The Complete Book of US History'.

Edited September 8, 2012 by shukriyya
fix title

[DianeW88]

Konos....Volume 2. It will give you all of the above and more.

[Michelle My Bell]

Thanks, I'll look into those ideas. Any more?

[Bassoonaroo]

I am in a co-op and we're starting our sixth year, with me leading the co-op five of those years (stepping back now). When we discuss classes, the main concern we get when we discuss elementary/middle sch history is "we're doing history at home." Moms are not wanting to mess up their four-year plan (or whatever...) by adding a different history at co-op. So, I recommend not trying to cover a chunk of history "home style" at the co-op. Moms simply don't want to be covering medieval history at home and modern USA at co-op.

 

What has worked for us is for us to take a snapshot of a piece of history and dive in deep and have fun. This year (as I did in 2008) I'm teaching an elections class. I guess this is more civics than history.

 

In the past, we've had successful classes on Lewis and Clark and Egyptian culture. Neither of these classes covered a lot of time but instead took an interesting look at a slice of history. In Egyptian culture, the kids made pyramids, mummified a mouse caught in the teacher's garage (squeamish kids mummified apples), etc. In the Lewis and Clark class, the kids learned about the historical characters, medicines, diets, politics, and nature encountered on this trip. They wrapped up the class with a play and a poem performed before parents. Oh, another study we did was a study on Presidents. Each kid did a presentation during class and the students learned a lot of interesting facts about the presidents.

 

So, I would suggest that you find an aspect of history that you can dive in deeper with. Just brainstorming here... How about:

 

Philadelphia

Life on the Mayflower

Life of a 10 year old child at different times in USA history (what would a 10 year old Pilgrim do, a 10 year old slave, a 10 year old sweat shop child, a 10 year old in 1920)

Landmarks

Explorers

Founding Fathers

USA Symbols (Uncle Sam, etc.)

USA Documents

Jamestown

California Missions

National Parks

Farming in America

Transportation in America

Dust Bowl

Inventions in America

Pioneers

Biomes in America

Cowboys (I want to do this one some day!)

 

So, I recommend, instead of doing a chunk of history just like it would probably be done at home, pick something interesting and jump in.

[Michelle My Bell]

I am in a co-op and we're starting our sixth year, with me leading the co-op five of those years (stepping back now). When we discuss classes, the main concern we get when we discuss elementary/middle sch history is "we're doing history at home." Moms are not wanting to mess up their four-year plan (or whatever...) by adding a different history at co-op. So, I recommend not trying to cover a chunk of history "home style" at the co-op. Moms simply don't want to be covering medieval history at home and modern USA at co-op.

 

What has worked for us is for us to take a snapshot of a piece of history and dive in deep and have fun. This year (as I did in 2008) I'm teaching an elections class. I guess this is more civics than history.

 

In the past, we've had successful classes on Lewis and Clark and Egyptian culture. Neither of these classes covered a lot of time but instead took an interesting look at a slice of history. In Egyptian culture, the kids made pyramids, mummified a mouse caught in the teacher's garage (squeamish kids mummified apples), etc. In the Lewis and Clark class, the kids learned about the historical characters, medicines, diets, politics, and nature encountered on this trip. They wrapped up the class with a play and a poem performed before parents. Oh, another study we did was a study on Presidents. Each kid did a presentation during class and the students learned a lot of interesting facts about the presidents.

 

So, I would suggest that you find an aspect of history that you can dive in deeper with. Just brainstorming here... How about:

 

Philadelphia

Life on the Mayflower

Life of a 10 year old child at different times in USA history (what would a 10 year old Pilgrim do, a 10 year old slave, a 10 year old sweat shop child, a 10 year old in 1920)

Landmarks

Explorers

Founding Fathers

USA Symbols (Uncle Sam, etc.)

USA Documents

Jamestown

California Missions

National Parks

Farming in America

Transportation in America

Dust Bowl

Inventions in America

Pioneers

Biomes in America

Cowboys (I want to do this one some day!)

 

So, I recommend, instead of doing a chunk of history just like it would probably be done at home, pick something interesting and jump in.

 

These are some great ideas! I am in the process of reworking a class that is not going to happen. I need to get this pulled together this week. I have experience running History Nights once a year and this sort of sounds like it. I agree with everything you've said. We are doing a completely different program at home and I wasn't too excited about adding in a whole another program from co-op.

 

So how would you run the class. Could you break it down for me? What I mean is, is there a lecture time where I would be teaching them? Would I be reading to them? Doing activities? Having presentations? I would appreciate some insight into how you would do this.

[Michelle My Bell]

I have been working on this all morning and I really like the idea of units of study versus a whole curricula. I really need help breaking the units down into about 8-10 studies for the whole year. Each would cover about 3-5 weeks.

 

I brainstormed and looked at some websites and I came up with this format. I would love additional or different ideas to this model...

 

Week 1 - Introductory Week

Summarize the topic that is going to be covered. Get the kids excited about what is to come. Assign a History Reader they are to read for the next 4 weeks. Assign a research topic to each child and give them book suggestions to study up on the topic more. Tell them to write a topical report to share in class next week. (Use book report ideas booklets from Scholastic)

 

Week 2 - Report Week

Spend part of the class sharing reports. Spend later part of class doing mapwork, timelines, etc... Assign Biography Reports. Encourage creativity here. Ideas include: Child dressing up as character and dramatically presenting report, Art Projects such as Dioramas, Cooking etc.. anything that represents the person they are reporting on.

 

Week 3 - Hands on Week - Do crafts, or learn skills that relate to the unit. For instance... Weaving as in colonial America. Another idea is to introduce a dramatic element. Give the kids a play and assign parts. It could be done readers theater style.

 

Week 4 Presentation Week - ???

 

I don't know, as I am typing this I feel like this is too much work or not organized enough. I need help.