What+is+Social+Studies?

This lesson gives an overview of the five main sections of 6th grade Social Studies. Included are: culture, history, economics, geography and government.

http://lenkedu514.weebly.com/learning-unit-3.html

== Welcome to 6th Grade Social Studies!!! ==  Wait a minute... What is Social Studies????  Ladies and Gentlemen,

Welcome to your first week of middle school!!! If you have managed to open your lockers and find the correct classroom by now, you are doing a fine job. It will only get easier, trust me. Pretty soon you will not even have to think at all about where you are going or what period it is or where your locker is located.

If you would please, take a minute to look at the image above with all of the magnificent structures. Now, ask yourself, "What in the world does this have to do with Social Studies, Mr. Lenk?" Well, the answer this, all of these great buildings were built on one thing... a very solid foundation. And, that is what we are going to be doing this year, building a solid foundation. What you learn this year will be used in one way or another for the rest of your "social studies" academic careers. What would happen to all of these buildings if they were not built on a great foundation? That's right, they would fall down. I will not let you fall down, I promise. So let us begin this journey.

__Task #1: What is Social Studies?__

No, "social" studies is not the study of facebook or twitter or instagram or whatever else is out there for "social" media. You are now entering your seventh year of social studies, so, what is it? I would like you to reflect for a minute about that question. I am going to share a Google Doc with you and you are going to answer the question as a class. Just begin listing topics or words or phrases that you feel would answer the question. It is perfectly fine if someone has already added the word that you were thinking of, add it again. When completed, we are going to make a **Wordle.** Don't worry if you've never heard of it, look at my example below and you will see what I mean. __Task #2: Create an infographic design__

Now that we know what the five main subjects are of Social Studies, your job is to create an informational piece by using **Piktochart**explaining and illustrating the five parts of Social Studies. I have fun using this tool and you should too. Be informative and creative including a detailed explanation of each of the five parts of social studies. Click the link below to see an example of a **Piktochart** that I created.

Social Studies Is...

__Task #3: Animate an informational presentation__

Using the five subjects of Social Studies and **PowToon**, I would like for you to design an animated slideshow, using **PowToon**, detailing all of the information that we have covered. Here is the one that I created as an example:

KaPow!!

__​__ __Task #4: Teach me about Social Studies__

In your groups, you are going to produce a **Soundcloud**, and no, I am not referring to thunder. In your groups, no more than five, you are going to take turns teaching about the five parts of SS and include three examples for each. Here is an example for you:

SOUNDCLOUD

__Task #5: Be "social"!__

Publish one of your pieces of awesomeness to your **Weebly** under the heading: Social Studies Is: Here is the link to mine.

​ Weebly

Rubric