Historical structures have connected civilization across time as a representation of important events, famous people, or experiences of diverse cultures. The value systems of a society are reflected in these structures and convey political and historical information. Knowledge about historical structures provides understanding of cultures of…

Washington, D.C. is a city widely recognized for its monuments, memorials, and landmarks. Visitors are routinely drawn to the great sites that mark the nation's history such as the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Arlington National Cemetery, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Washington Memorial, among others. One site that is often overlooked is the…

Despite pressures to narrow the curriculum and focus only on testing, there are teachers who continue to work social justice issues into their elementary lessons through the subject of social studies. These teachers speak of education as an instrument for the public good. In this day and age, it can be hard to find teachers with such…

This article features the newest monument, the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial. The memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. will be an engaging landscape experience to convey four fundamental and recurring themes throughout Dr. King's life--democracy, justice, hope, and love. Natural…

What does it mean to teach meaningful and powerful social studies? What curricular frameworks might be useful to this end? What does vibrant social studies look like in the classroom? The purpose of this article is twofold--to propose a curricular and pedagogical framework for teaching powerful social studies and to illustrate outstanding…

Community workers and community services are a typical part of the second grade curriculum in many American schools. However, the content provided in textbooks often lacks depth and the personal connection that students need to make their learning meaningful. How many times have seven year olds already learned about fire fighters and mail…

Working at the sixth grade level, the authors write about their effort to interest students in current events and their historical roots. This article outlines a series of learning experiences and assessments that the authors created for sixth grade students at Lockhart School in Massapequa, New York. These learning experiences culminated in a…

In this article, the author tells how her students researched every aspect of their own beloved stuffed animals, which led to an interview with a labor leader. When students learned that children in other countries played a role in manufacturing their stuffed animals, sometimes in unhealthy conditions, they decided to take action as citizens. As…

For young children to engage and learn in school, they need to feel safe in the classroom and on the playground right from the first day. They also need learning experiences that are active and meaningful--that engage them cognitively, affectively, and operatively. Feeling safe requires knowledge about places, rules, codes of behavior, and the…

Integrating writing into the social studies curriculum ought to be easy. After all, within any rich unit of study, there are endless possibilities for students to record, synthesize, and respond to new content with written words. Learning is enhanced by multiple opportunities to write, and what better way to teach composition than in the vivid…

In an effort to gain greater insights into bilingual and bicultural children's understanding of their cultural and linguistic identities, the authors embarked on a Where I'm From (WIF) multi-media poetry project. The WIF project has great potential and value for developing students' language and communication skills, and for exploring the meaning…

Creating a story quilt is a powerful and alternative way for students to demonstrate understanding of social studies content. This article describes the use of story quilts in elementary school classrooms at three different grade levels (1st, 3rd, and 5th). In each unit of study, the teacher devoted, on average, three to four weeks to guiding…

Display boards and wall maps, created by a teacher or designed by a company, are a common sight in most elementary classrooms, but students usually have a rather limited role in constructing these materials. The main objective of this article is to describe some techniques for encouraging students to create social studies displays that can serve…

Integrating the visual and performing arts is one clear and concrete strategy to engage students in learning social studies content and concepts while making them interactive and relevant to their daily lives. In this article, the authors offer a rationale for teaching integrated arts with social studies, provide a framework for planning, and…

Louisiana's land, coast, and inland waterways are home to many natural resources such as seafood, petroleum, natural gas, and timber--and freshwater crawfish, or "mudbugs" as the locals like to call them. These natural resources are vital to Louisiana's economy. The author describes a unit of study on economics in which a teacher taught and…