[00:00:00] Kirsten: 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 Kirsten of the Southern Teach, an educator and mom who is passionate about all things social studies.[00:00:30]

[00:00:30] I love sharing ideas and strategies that are low prep and easy to implement, so let's dive in together.

[00:00:48] A common question that I get from many teachers is how to pace out social studies throughout the year, and I'm going to share some quick ways to do it. I know there's a lot of [00:01:00] different ways you could go about it, but I'm gonna share with you my favorite way to break it down throughout each quarter.

[00:01:11] Hi guys. I'm so excited to be here for another episode of the Social Studies Teacher podcast. Please make sure you like and subscribe this video, share it with your teacher friends. If you are watching this on YouTube, that is amazing, but you could also watch it on your podcast platform [00:01:30] of choice or on my blog@thesouthernteach.com slash blog, and I would love your support if you are loving this.

[00:01:37] And you're watching it on YouTube, be hit that, subscribe, that like button, share it. Comment. Do everything you can do to make more social studies teachers. Have the ability to see it. So today, if you are looking for a simple way to map out your social studies for the year, doesn't matter what state you live in, doesn't matter what grade you teach in upper [00:02:00] elementary, then you are in the right place.

[00:02:02] I'm gonna walk you through an easy quarterly pacing guide that incorporates a variety of. Domains, geography, history, culture and society. Government and civics and economics. You can plug and play using this quarterly pacing guide that I'm gonna share with you today. So quarter one is mid August or early September, and you're gonna do this particular part through the end of September or early [00:02:30] October, whichever you choose.

[00:02:31] And my recommendation is to start off the first couple of weeks with routines. And procedures, rules, getting to know your students through classroom community building activities and spinning the rest of that quarter. Focusing on geography. Build those routines for discussions, vocabulary, using interactive notebooks or taking guided notes.

[00:02:53] You're talking about map skills, physical geography, human geography, regions of the United [00:03:00] States. Regions of insert state here, and this is also a great time to use and analyze and create interactive maps. You can do something along the lines of travel brochures or persuading people to go to a specific region or country to, depending on what you're going to be teaching and some additional activities or extensions you could do is to kind of start introducing.

[00:03:27] The history of a [00:03:30] local community or a state just kind of dipping their toes in the historical aspect of that community that you're focusing on for the year. You could also talk about groups that are native to the area. And explorers who explored the specific region or area. So to recap, that would be for quarter one, you're getting them into social studies in general with the routines and rules and procedures, which I might add is kind [00:04:00] of.

[00:04:00] Aligned with government. 'cause in our government, we've got rules. We've got laws that we follow as citizens. So that's government and civics right there. And you're kind of tying it into, well, at our school and in our community, we have rules that we have to follow in our classroom. We have rules that we have to follow, so that can also tie in as well.

[00:04:21] But also just really focusing on geography. In the first few months of school, quarter two is jam packed. It's going to [00:04:30] be from early to mid-October through whenever you start winter break in mid-December, and you're gonna be thinking about history, government, as well as some culture and society with winter.

[00:04:44] Celebrations or ethnic and cultural celebrations. So in this quarter, you're thinking about the early history of the community that you focus on for the year, historical foundations, key government concepts. This is great to introduce representative [00:05:00] government. Tying in what you talked about at the beginning of the year with rules and procedures with.

[00:05:07] What our government does and the structure and function of what our government does, whether that's local government, state government, and national government. And the last three weeks before winter break, you can talk about winter holidays that are commonly celebrated, such as Diwali, Hanukkah. Christmas, Kwanza and Las Posadas.

[00:05:27] Alternatively, if your school [00:05:30] focuses just on Christmas, you could do a Christmas around the world where you're comparing and contrasting different traditions, celebrating Christmas in different countries. So with the December cultural celebrations. Winter holidays, it's really great to incorporate Venn diagrams so students can compare what they celebrate and their family traditions with other traditions in other holidays.

[00:05:54] So this is always a really fun time and it's a way to kind of [00:06:00] quash some of the excitement, but. Of course you kind of wanna let it happen because it's just going to anyway, and there's all kinds of activities you can do. You can do a government research project or a holiday research project where they're finding out information about the holiday and creating a slideshow presentation.

[00:06:20] Timelines are great for this as well as primary source analysis. Can be great as well when you're looking at the different documents like the Declaration of Independence. And something I wanted to [00:06:30] add as an aside is that there is Celebrate Freedom Week that is required to teach in some states. And usually this would be taught in quarter one.

[00:06:39] So sometime in September, you would want to tie in the Celebrate Freedom Week, where you can talk about the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights and different freedoms that we have and why it is important, as well as the Constitution. Next up, I have quarter three for you where you can talk about historical [00:07:00] changes in the community.

[00:07:02] And economics. So quarter three would last after winter break from January to spring break or mid-March, or end of March, maybe, depending on how much time you have to cover the topics, because I know, for example, US History, there's a lot of things happening, and so you might spend an extra amount of time from the American Revolution to westward expansion, civil [00:07:30] war.

[00:07:30] Population growth. It's a whole thing. So that is just something to keep in mind. You might go from the beginning of January through the end of March. It might be shorter. And it also ties in with whenever you come back from winter break and whenever you leave for spring break, some things to focus on would be historical turning points such as the Texas Revolution, American Revolution.

[00:07:52] You could also cover economic concepts like supply and demand goods and services, needs and wants. And then in February it's [00:08:00] also great. To tie in Black History Month and the Civil Rights Movement and how that contributed to change in the United States. And something else I will mention is I think that quarter three is a great time to incorporate biographies so you can find a ton of different famous individuals, not only in history, but also in economics with famous entrepreneurs, anybody who has made change in the history of a community.[00:08:30]

[00:08:30] Is always. Really great to focus on. So with this, you would want to make sure you're incorporating biographies, timelines, of course, a variety of primary and secondary sources, and you can do fun projects like classroom economy project, or build a business project, or even maybe a biography lap book. All of these are great.

[00:08:53] I know a lot can be covered depending on what you teach and in which state. Quarter four would be from [00:09:00] April to the end of the year, so May or June, and you're going to think about cultural connections and reviewing, wrapping things up with a fun end of year project. If you're teaching US history, this is a great time to kind of.

[00:09:14] Move into the present day or talking about the 20th and 21st century. Thinking about present day contributions in art, literature, music, and also science. Technology is really [00:09:30] important. You can think about famous inventors, famous artists, famous musicians, and how what they do, what they produce. Benefit society and how it contributes to our culture in society.

[00:09:43] And then with the review, you would want to kind of reinforce what you've been talking about throughout the year and how it connects altogether. You can do student led projects, small group reteaching if needed, and going into. Referring back to your [00:10:00] interactive notebooks, basically ending the year with meaningful hands-on learning.

[00:10:05] This could be really fun. You could always do some type of really big group culture research project, maybe a living history museum. Some type of travel fair use this quarter to spiral skills that you've already taught or revisit under taught, or topics that you didn't really talk about. So to quickly review quarter one, you're focusing on [00:10:30] routines, procedures, getting to know your students, and then you're ending it off.

[00:10:34] With geography, and that includes physical geography and human geography. With the addition of Celebrate Freedom week in between quarter two, you're talking about government and history and the concept of how our government is structured, ending the quarter off with cultural celebrations, particularly winter holidays, but you can do any type of holiday that might be celebrated.

[00:10:59] Quarter [00:11:00] three. Thinking about history. Specifically how history has changed the community and how it's grown. Thinking also about economics, supply and demand. Famous inventors, famous entrepreneurs, and in general famous individuals. So you could really hit home with biographies for quarter three. Quarter four would be ending with cultural connections.

[00:11:24] Famous artists, musicians, and just general science [00:11:30] technology innovations in a specific society and how it's contributed to the better, or maybe for the worse, I don't know. But just thinking about how culture has grown and changed through the different traditions, music, food, et cetera, et cetera. And then ending that off with reviewing and just having a really fun, big.

[00:11:50] End of year project that students can really hit home on. They could create and find their own topics to research and present, or it could be [00:12:00] something that you have with a prompt. Remember, this is a guide, not a rule book. I'm just suggesting a really great pacing calendar, and you can always plug and play however you see fit.

[00:12:10] But in general, this is something that I recommend as far as. How you can pace out the year to make social studies more consistent and meaningful for you, you and your students if you want something already done for you. I have my smart and simple social studies guided curriculum that includes for each unit and [00:12:30] for the full bundle, a daily pacing guide.

[00:12:33] So you do not have to worry about when to teach a certain topic. You can literally just go off of the pacing guide and. Go from there. You could always adjust it to see if it meets the needs of your students and make sure it fits into all the standards that need to be taught for your grade level and your state.

[00:12:51] But in general, you can go off of those pacing guides. A lot of my curriculum will vary depending on the topic because it is mostly tes or Texas [00:13:00] aligned. But for the most part, all of them are going to start with geography. They go into some type of history or government, and then it ends off with a lot of cultural celebrations, arts, technology, science.

[00:13:15] But it really depends on the grade level and it depends on the different topics being taught. But for the most part, I follow this same general sequence. Geography is always gonna be at the beginning and really ending off [00:13:30] with culture in society. Then you'll see. A weave of history and economics and government and citizenship in between.

[00:13:39] Well, thank you so much for watching this episode. I hope it's been valuable to you. Make sure again, you like and subscribe, comment if you have anything you want to share or any. Questions. Thanks so much for watching, and I will talk to you again soon. Thanks for listening to the Social Studies Teacher podcast.

[00:13:58] If you enjoyed listening to this [00:14:00] 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.