2^nd Quarter Upper Elementary Social Studies Newsletter  
Nov. 7 2011 – Jan. 19 2012

3^rd Grade Michigan Geography and History

Objectives

1. Use maps to identify physical and human characteristics of Michigan.
2. Describe major kinds of economic activity (agriculture, manufacturing, services, research).
3. Describe diverse groups in that come into Michigan and reasons why they came.  Why did your ancestors come to Michigan? 
4. Use information about American Indians living in Michigan today and describe their way of life.
5. Read traditional stories of the Anishinaabeg Indians.
6. Describe interactions between Indians and early European explorers of Michigan.
7. Sequence historical events that happened in Michigan

Quizzes

• Michigan Map  - Mid Nov.

• Michigan People Quiz – What do they do for work?

Assignments/Projects

• Paddle to the Sea Project – late Nov.

• Legend of the Sleeping Bear Project – Early Dec

• Family Folklore Project – December/January

Literature Read Aloud in Class

• Native American Legends – Walk in Peace

• Paddle to the Sea – Holling Clancy Holling

• The Legend of the Sleeping Bear

• The Legend of the Lady Slipper

• The Legend of Leelanau

• The Legend of Mackinac Island

 Films

• Paddle to the Sea                          

4^th Grade Michigan History and Economics

Objectives

1. Describe the development of Michigan’s major economic activities.
2. Construct a narrative about the beginnings of the automobile industry and the labor movement in Michigan.
3. Create timelines to sequence and describe important events in Michigan’s  history during the 20^th and early 21^st century.
4. Compare major Michigan economic activity today with the same or a related activity in the past.
5. Use photos, stories, and artifacts  to compare the life of people during each decade of the 20^th century.
6. Explain how immigration affected the growth of Michigan.

Quizzes

• Early Nov.  – Michigan Transportation Quiz

• Late Nov – The Progressive Era and the Labor Movement

• Dec – Automobile Era

• Jan – The Great Depression

• Jan- Segregation and Discrimination

Literature

• The Real McCoy – The Life of an African-American Inventor (AR)

• Biographies of Henry Ford, Thomas Alva Edison, Ransome E. Olds, Joe Louis,  Walter Reuther, Caroline Barlett Crane, Anna Howard Shaw

• The Day the Women got the Vote – George Sullivan – (AR)

• The New Colossus – Emma Lazarus

Films

• White House and the Civil Rights

• Freedom – A History of the U.S.

• White Socks Only

• Rosa Parks

Songs

• Joe Hill- Alfred Hayes and Earl Robinson

• If I had a Hammer – Lee Hays and Pete Seeger

• 1913 – Woody Guthrie

• When I First Came to this land – Oscar Brand

5^th Grade History and Geography

Objectives

1. Use maps to locate places in specific regions that were being settled in North America.
2. Describe the convergence of Europeans, American Indians, and Africans in North American from the perspective of each of these groups.
3. Describe and compare the developments of the Southern, New England, and Middle Colonies. 
4. Describe the life of the African peoples prior to the 16^th century
5. Describe the slave system in America and its impact upon the life of Africans

Text – Harcourt Brace Social Studies

• Unit 3 Our Colonial Heritage -  pages 167-  218

Literature

• Tapenum’s Day- Kate Waters

• Samual Eaton’s Day – Kate Waters

Projects -

• Plan and build a model of an early European settlement in North America – Late Nov.

• Make a Collage of texts and pictures depicting our early colonial heritage – January

Quizzes

• Encounters in Americas Quiz – Nov. 11

• European Settlement Quiz – Early Dec

• British Colony Quiz – mid-Dec

Films

• Tall Tales and Legends – Pochohantas

• Colonial Settlements