We had a great start to the school year in our English Social Studies classes in the Middle School! During the first week of school the students participated in a photo scavenger hunt in teams to learn more about our classroom and the class routines- such as where to find our learning goals or where to find work when one is away. We also started to discuss the 7 Habits that you can read more about in the ‘Classroom Leadership section of our blog.
We also explored the question ‘What is Social Studies?’ on our new classroom whiteboard table.
It is of great importance that students learn about the physical world around them and the diverse communities upon it. This also includes looking at how the past has shaped our present world and cultures, and how each student can play an active role in shaping a positive and kind world for future generations. The students brainstormed answers to this question and these ideas are shown in our Social Studies word cloud below:
Social Studies Word Cloud-2fri2q0
The students also worked in groups to create a blog post around the question ‘What is Social Studies?’. You can find the student paragraphs below:
What is Social Studies, well Social Studies is a class that we learn with our favorite teacher Mrs. Bertrend!!! Let’s start with the Social part of Social Studies. Social studies is the history of people and communities back then. For example the First Nation, Emily Carr and many other like her. Social studies is the study of the past and the present in order to help us shape the future so we can learn from our mistakes. We also learn about Geography to help us learn places are in the world and how they evolved. For example Canada. We also learn about our physical environment. In conclusion, Social Studies is very helpful and fun to learn. We need it for our future lives so we don’t repeat the same mistakes. We all can wait for this year in Social Studies!
In Social Studies you can learn from our history. For example, when the Europeans first made contact with First Nations they were trading with them and took away their language and traditions. That teaches us that we should treat other people fairly and how we would want to be treated. We learn about the map of the world so we have knowledge about where everything is in the world. We also learn what’s going on inside different countries like traditions, news, etc. It is important that we learn about the government so we know what’s going on in our country. We learn about laws, laws will be really helpful when we get older and live on our own and be responsible citizens. In conclusion Social Studies is proven to be very important.
We then turned our attention to the question ‘Why is Social Studies important?’ Below you can find the student responses to this question:
It is important to learn about our history and about other places in the past. It is also important to learn Social Studies so we can learn about the world. We need to be informed and aware of events and issues around us and in our past. It’s important to learn about the world and other cultures. It is critical so we do not repeat the bad things from our past such as any war that has happened. For example, The Holocaust, WWI and WWII. Also if we ever visit the place we will want to know why certain things happen or are different, to learn about different times, lands and diversity.
Social Studies is a mix of History and Geography, and where we learn about different cultures, people, and places using technology in class. During class we research about important events in history. We also do activities that also help us understand. Being social is key to this class as we communicate with each other to get a better understanding about social studies during activities. Most of the activities are in groups and once you progress into the Middle School the students come to a greater understanding of Social Studies. Students must work at a higher level, which means the students must communicate more.
There are a lot of rich and meaningful discussions to come- stay tuned!