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Hey there amazing educators. Before we dive into today's episode, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on something truly special Black History Month. It's more than just a month on the calendar. It's a celebration of the remarkable contributions, resilience and achievements of African Americans throughout history. For me, I believe teaching Black History Month isn't just about checking off a box on the curriculum. It's about acknowledging the diverse voices and stories that have shaped our nation. That's why I've created a special unit in the Smart and Simple Social Studies guided curriculum, all about the important events and figures in black history, just in time for Black History Month. Imagine having engaging lessons and activities that require minimal prep, but leave a lasting impression on your students. You don't have to imagine anymore. This three week unit dives into the origin and meaning of Black History Month, the Underground Railroad, the civil rights movement, and it showcases famous figures who have shaped American culture. But here's the kicker, it's not a bunch of lesson plans and passages. This resource includes everything you need, from Teacher Guides, guided notes to practice activities, exit tickets, a project and even a unit assessment. Talk about a one stop shop for your black history month curriculum needs. And I made sure that it aligns seamlessly with both the Common Core State Standards and the current TEKS social studies standards. It's like hitting two birds with one stone. This resource is researched for accuracy and cultural relevance because I believe in showcasing all sides of history in a way that's just right for upper elementary students. Don't stress about Black History Month lessons. Let's make it fun, engaging and educational with the smarten Simple Social Studies guided curriculum. The link is in the description and my name is the Southern teach.
This is the social studies teacher podcast, a show for busy elementary teachers looking for fun and engaging ways to easily add social studies into their classroom schedule without feeling overwhelmed or pressed for time. I'm curious to know if you southern teach an educator and mom who is passionate about all things social studies, I love sharing ideas and strategies that are low prep and easy to implement. So let's dive in together.
Hello, hello, welcome to another episode of the social studies teacher podcast. This episode is super short and sweet. And it's all about teaching current events in five minutes. This is something that you can easily implement in, of course, five minutes, basically a short amount of time. And it can be really for any social studies topic that you have. So that is kind of the main thing is I'm going to teach you the steps and how you can implement it. And hopefully by the end of this episode, you are kind of inspired to take action and try this out on your own.
This is just called current events in five. So I'm going to share with you kind of what you need. So the first thing you need is a kid friendly source. Use a platform geared for kids such as Time for Kids, or news ELA or Nearpod. Epic. A lot of the time we for this activity, we used my own news, it was a subscription that our district had, and it was a really great way to show current events.
The second step is to find an article relevant to a current event. It's a bonus if there are photos and slideshows and you can click and the audio will be read aloud to you. And there's video components in there as well. So as much multimedia as possible.
the presidential election of:
The fourth thing to do is to pick four points to go over in the current event. This can be done in the moment. As your you know, you pick out that article All and you're like, Okay, we're gonna go with this article, we're going to read about it. And as you are reading it or having the read aloud audio read to you, or the students, then you can do that. Or you can also plan it in advance by reading the article ahead if that's something you would prefer to do as well. But the main thing is to pick for points to discuss, and to have students take note of this could be maybe the actual event, some information and key details about this event, or series of events, and maybe some inferences or predictions of what might what might happen, or what the effect might be consequences might be.
The fifth thing is for students to share, allow students to share three facts learned two things they want to learn more about. And one question they still have, and each person can do one. So you would have five students raising their hand and responding in total, three students. So each of those three students share a fact. And then there's two students you pick one of them will each say a thing they want to learn more about, and then you have one more student share question they still have. But depending on if it's you know, you still have some time to go, it's not quite the five minutes, then you can also add some students.
So in total, you've got five minutes. This includes four key points, three students sharing facts, to students sharing what they want to learn more about, and one student who shares a question they still have, it's a very, very easy way to easily put in current events in your social studies blog. And it could be really any topic, anything goes anything that's happening around the world, anything that's happening in your community, maybe you have an event, a local event that's really big that's coming up. I know in San Antonio. And this is, of course, not quite the time yet. But I'm thinking in a couple months, Battle of the flowers parade, all that fun stuff in San Antonio was going to be happening in April. That's a really great current event that's specific to a local community, but you can do as local or as global as you want.
So to recap, the five steps into implementing this activity is number one, use a kid friendly source. Number two, find an article, any current event article number three projected on your screen for reading as a whole group. Step four, pick four points to discuss after reading. And then step five, five students are sharing.
Hopefully, this is a quick win for you and you're able to implement this, let me know if you do, you can DM me on Instagram at the southern teach. Or you can hop into my Facebook group, upper elementary, social studies, teachers, you can type that in and you can join. So I hope you have a wonderful rest of your week. And I'll talk to you again next week. Thanks for listening to the social studies teacher podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, hit that subscribe button and leave a review. I would love to hear your thoughts. You can also find me on Instagram at the southern teach. I can't wait for you to join me in the next episode for more teacher tips and strategies.
