Contents of My Toolbox – Kara Fidelack

*resource titles in red are physical items inside the toolbox*note: with the online PDF files, sometimes you have to refresh them multiple times before they will actually load – I don’t know why but they all work, I promise!

Unit/Lesson Plans

1. Cultural Diversity with Arthur

Students can explore cultural diversity in their community and around the world in this unit plan that features everyone’s favourite aardvark. A teacher guide for the entire unit, student worksheets, and links to related online activities are all provided. I chose this resource because it addresses a topic that many of my peers voiced concerns about: how to begin to talk about diversity with students. I think that pre-made lessons can help to ease a lot of stress that new teachers will feel over unit planning in many different subject areas at once. This unit can fit into many of the Saskatchewan curriculum outcomes:

Grade 1: IN1.1, IN1.2, IN1.3Grade 2: IN2.1, IN2.2Grade 3: IN3.1, IN3.2http://www.pbs.org/parents/arthur/lesson/world/

2. Community Lesson/Unit Plans

You can find resources in the categories of Myself, Home, Family, Farm, Neighbourhood/Community, and Community Helpers here. Clicking on each of these subheadings takes you to lessons/units in this category. I consider this resource useful because it connects to so many streams within the elementary social studies curriculum. These lessons and units can fit into the Saskatchewan curriculum in a number of places, such as the following:Grade 1: IN1.1, IN1.2, IN1.3, DR1.1Grade 2: IN2.1, IN2.2, DR2.1, DR2.2, PA2.1, PA2.3, RW2.1

Grade 3: IN3.1, IN3.2, IN3.3, PA3.1, RW3.1Grade 4: IN4.3, RW4.3 http://www.proteacher.com/090009.shtml

3. Family Lesson Plans

Many lesson plans, activity ideas, and resources can be found here, ranging in grade level from Pre-Kindergarten to Grade 5. Also included are songs, poems, and arts projects that relate to family. Some of these lessons may also fit into the Health or Mathematics curriculums as well. I really liked this resource because many of the activities are interdisciplinary and can really help students who like to learn through art.Kindergarten: INK.1, INK.2Grade 1: IN1.1, IN1.2, DR1.1, DR1.2, PA1.1

http://themes.atozteacherstuff.com/198/family-lesson-plans-activities-printables-and-ideas/

4. Canadian History Lesson Plans

This website has an abundance of resources that cover topics from fur trade to democracy to community to First Nations content. I really like this one because it is all Canadian material, whereas many of the other sites I found had lots of American resources, which I would most likely never use. Each resource is clearly laid out and includes grade level, instructional outcomes, materials, and evaluations. New teachers will love this resource because they can easily pluck an explicitly explained, ready-to-go lesson

plan on a specific topic. Aside from Elementary age, there are also categories for Middle Years and High School lesson plans. I could never track all of the curriculum objectives these resources satisfy, but thought I would show how diverse and adaptable they are by analyzing where one (“Student Government: Portraying Parliament” http://www.canadashistory.ca/Education/Lesson-Plans/Lesson-Plans/Middle/Student-Government-Portraying-Parliament) lesson would fit in the Saskatchewan Social Studies curriculum:Grade 2: PA2.1, PA2.2Grade 3: PA3.1Grade 4: PA4.1, PA4.2Grade 5: PA5.1, PA5.2http://www.canadashistory.ca/Education/Lesson-Plans/View-All-Elementary-School.aspx

5. Saskatchewan Geography Resources

This page is full of Saskatchewan-themed resources. It includes many printable worksheets that introduce students to the provincial flag, crest, flower, etc. My favourite resource link on this page is the photo tour of Saskatchewan. This could easily be used to spark many new directions for students to take. They could look into potash, agriculture, rural vs. urban communities, etc. Students could take photographs/videos and

create their own digital Saskatchewan tour. These resources would connect wonderfully to the Grade 4 curriculum, which focuses on Saskatchewan. However, these resources could also be used to introduce younger students to the province that we live in as well. This resource could also be used as a springboard for a Where I’m From assignment so students can explore where others’ families come from in Saskatchewan and beyond.http://www.kidzone.ws/geography/saskatchewan/

6. Treaty Education Unit/Lesson Plans

Lessons and unit plans ranging from Grade 1 to 8 can be found on this Treaty 6 Education website by Living Sky School Division. I found this resource helpful because it relates directly to Saskatchewan curriculum outcomes and is teacher made and tested. Many of our discussions during the course of ESST were about Treaty Education and the concerns we, as pre-interns, had regarding this topic. The St. Denis article called for educators who aren’t of First Nations descent to still help to incorporate and teach this content, and these lessons provide a way for teachers to jump-start that process.http://treaty6education.lskysd.ca/teachingunits

Key Resources

1. Teaching with Objects and Photographs (TOPS)

This resource is a 60 page PDF document that explains, step-by-step, how teachers can use physical objects and photographs to enhance their curriculum and engage students in tactile and visual experiences. It includes examples of items that may be used and many sample worksheets and appendices

that can be used in the classroom. Here are a few suggested outcomes that could be met using these artifacts. Grade 1: IN1.1, IN1.2Grade 2: DR2.1, DR2.4Grade 3: IN3.2, RW3.3Grade 4: RW4.2, IN4.1, DR4.3Grade 5: IN5.1, IN5.2http://www.indiana.edu/~mathers/Tops.pdf

2. K-5 Social Studies Resources (NESD)

North East School Division is known for the “Curriculum Corner” on its website. You can search for resources that directly connect to outcomes in any grade and subject area. When looking under the Social Studies subject, this came up: 5 pages of resources all linking to social studies (many of them already explain which outcomes they

can help to facilitate). https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vPRlWS9Dqs7yuYcNGmk85zu3A7KQC_GgmiFmnGXXmXc/edit?pli=1

3. Sensory Figures

This resource provides examples of “Sensory Figures” that are used in Social Studies. The student chooses a historical person or figure and then learns to empathize with this figure using their senses. The students draw the person and attaches statements such as “I see brick walls,” “I smell coal dust,” “I feel the sun beating down on me,” etc. I see this strategy as a way for students to understand and explore other perspectives and use their senses to enrich learning. This would be great for visual learners!

http://excellenceinteachingsocialstudies.blogspot.ca/2013/03/welcome-to-my-blog-for-social-studies.html

4. Using Classroom Space to Enhance Social Studies

This online PDF document gives many classroom design ideas that can help to foster an environment that enhances Social Studies learning for elementary students. Topics such as diversity, community, geography, history are highlighted in some of these designs. These resources could also be the foundation for building a classroom theme.http://www.socialstudies.org/files/images/210220.pdf

5. Books to Teach Social Justice

ETFO (Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario) has a full program kit that educators can order that centres on a new social justice topic each month. The following resource is a PDF document that outlines the theme within each month of the school year, as well as age-appropriate books that can help to address these themes to our students. This resource has connections to two of the readings in this course: Social Studies for Social Justice (Wade) and Building Relationships of Solidarity in a First Grade Classroom (Epstein). This booklist can help to ease new teachers’ minds about addressing controversial issues; here is a great starting point for them that is engaging for students and easy to implement. http://www.etfo.ca/Resources/SocialJustice/Documents/SJBWMBooklist.PDF

Instructional Strategies

1. Student Discussions

This online document gives tips on how to teach

students to have meaningful conversations about class content that are not forced. There are links to additional resources that can help in this aspect as well. I think that, in Social Studies especially, student discussion is paramount to the reinforcement and meaningful understanding of the diverse content.

http://corkboardconnections.blogspot.ca/2014/08/teaching-kids-how-to-have-real.html

2. Accommodate Multiple Intelligences

The link below features 15 engaging strategies that can be used to teach Social Studies. Although this resource wasn’t specifically made with Multiple Intelligences in mind, there are connections to each of the 8 strength areas within the listed activities. There is also a strategy that targets gifted learners. Preceding these strategies is a pep talk for educators who may feel anxious about teaching Social Studies due to their own experiences. Teachers should always be focusing on how to most effectively reach their students and

using Multiple Intelligences and student strengths is a huge part of that; this is differentiated instruction for equity. http://thecornerstoneforteachers.com/free-resources/content-areas/social-studies

3. Group Work (Coloured Binder Clips)Learning how to work together in groups is an essential skill for elementary aged students. Group work and small discussions can be a wonderful strategy within Social Studies. Julie Machnaik gave me this idea in ECS 210 when she used it in our seminar. You have differently coloured items in a container and each student draws one out. You have instantly formed colour-coded groups (students are in a group with others who drew an item of the same colour). Grouping students randomly allows them the opportunity to work with others that they normally would not.

4. Circle Talks (Bear Stone, Mini Volleyball, Stuffed Dog)I used a circle talk during my pre-internship and found it to be a great strategy to encourage input from each and every student. With a talkative class, we had to go over rules for the circle talks (only talk when it is your turn and don’t interrupt when someone else is speaking) and I found that having a speaking item to pass around was a more concrete way for the students to realize that they can only speak during their turn. Different speaking items can be substituted in at different points during the year (the object may even relate to what is being taught in class). I have included three speaking item options in my toolbox. This strategy connects directly to our reading in this class about how to facilitate circle talks; class discussions can be used to address academic content, check in at the beginning or end of the day, solve conflicts, and build a safe classroom climate where all opinions are valued.

5. Learning Centres

Math centres and Daily Five are becoming ever popular. Centres are no longer only used in Pre-K and Kindergarten classrooms. I would really like to try implementing learning centres in my future classroom and this resource is the perfect starter guide. It includes links to several different articles that explicitly explain what learning centres are, how to implement, display, and store them, how to teach students cooperative skills and self

regulation while using the centres, etc. http://k6educators.about.com/od/LearningCenters/

6. Questioning Techniques

I just happened to stumble across this resource and I love it! It has numerous entries from teachers who all explain how they question students. The ideas are so creative and engaging. Questioning is a hard area for new teachers to master, especially targeting higher levels of thinking, and this resource can provide a good place to start.http://www.teach-nology.com/ideas/questions/

Classroom Management Strategies

1. Whisper-BlowThis is a strategy that I used during my pre-internship to facilitate an English Language Arts lesson (however, it could be used in each and every subject, including Social Studies). It is a quick and simple way for all students to give their input while still keeping a controlled and calm class. Rather than answering out loud, the students whisper their answer into a fist and then release their fingers from the fist as they blow their answer out. This is a great method for high-energy students to reduce out-of-turn talking. As teachers, we want all of our students (especially those who are too shy to speak out loud) to have an equal opportunity to give their input. After

the students whisper-blow their answers, the teacher can reinforce, out loud, the correct answer. As a note, this strategy works better to manage a talkative class (and reinforce topics that have already been explicitly taught) than to assess if students are grasping the material.

2. Timer/Hourglass I have seen my co-op teacher use a timer to get the students to quiet down. This can be used multiple ways: students may have to stay quiet for however long that the timer ran, or can have early dismissal with the extra time that was still on the clock. These tools can also be used during transitions (ex. everyone has to have their materials out and be in their groups waiting quietly before the sand runs out of the hourglass) or activities (you have until the timer beeps to finish what you are working on). I like this strategy because it gives students something tangible to look at that gets them motivated. Some students need that little added push to get themselves in the right mindset to finish work effectively.

3. Procedures (paper document)After seeing a Harry Wong video in ECS 301 class, it is evident that having clear procedures for the many happenings within daily classroom life is essential to smooth classroom management. If students know what they are supposed to be doing and how they are expected to do that task, this will significantly cut down on behaviour problems or off-task students. I have included in this toolbox a document that outlines suggestions for procedures you will need to have in place in order for your classroom to operate effectively.

4. Attention Grabbers

This online resources gives 20 quick attention grabbers, as well as some more detailed strategies for keeping students’ attention. There are also links to non-verbal attention grabbers and other activities to try. http://k6educators.about.com/od/classroommanagement/a/Tips-And-Tricks- To-Getting-Students-Attention.htm

5. Fidgets/Brain Breaks (purple ice/hot pack, CD, guitar pick)

Students who are paying attention are easier to handle than those who are distracted and interrupting class time. The purple hot/cold pack in my toolbox would be an example of a great fidget for students to use that wouldn’t distract the entire class. The CD and guitar pick both relate to using music and dancing as a brain break. Music is very

important to me, and I think it can also be a wonderful tool to build a relationship with your students and develop a fun, caring classroom atmosphere. It also allows teachers to tie Arts Education outcomes and indicators into Social Studies and other subjects.

BooksI have included books from my own growing collection. For each, I have included a short synopsis and one outcome/indicator that this book could be connected to within the Social Studies curriculum.

1. Families grow in different ways.Jamie’s mom is having a baby and Sara’s mom is adopting a baby. Even though families are very different, they have one thing in common: love.IN1.2 d. Identify ways in which families are similar and ways in which families are different.

2. The Legend of the Buffalo StoneHanata and her people rely on the buffalo for all of their needs… until all of the buffalo disappear. Will Hanata be able to bring back the buffalo?DR4.2 b. Research traditional lifestyles of First Nations communities and peoples prior to European contact (e.g., hunting, gathering, movement of people to follow food sources).

3. December HolidaysThis non-fiction book describes different traditions that people may have when celebrating in December.IN2.2 c. Identify the significance of a variety of cultural traditions, festivals, and celebrations in the school and local communities.

4. My Sister’s Wedding Wangari, the narrator’s sister, is about to get married. This book explains Kenya’s unique wedding traditions. IN3.2 a. Hypothesize about the interactions students may have with people and communities elsewhere in the world.

5. Mom and Dad GlueThe protagonist thinks that he needs glue to fix his parents’ relationship, which is ‘broken.’ Even though his parents are getting divorced, they still love him just the same.IN1.1 c. Gather information regarding traditions, celebrations, or stories of others by identifying and accessing various resources (e.g., family members, Elders, teachers, neighbours, library books, video clips).