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 Is your to-do list for the upcoming year starting to stress you out? Or, are you nauseous over how much you spend to create a warm, welcoming classroom with updated materials? Don’t worry, you are not alone! Teachers are trying to accomplish so much with limited budgets. Additionally, they are working hard to find FUN, engaging, worthwhile social studies lessons for students. Thankfully, the upcoming Social Studies Bundle Sale has incredible resources at a HUGE discount. However, these bundles are so amazing that they won’t be available forever. The Social Studies Super Bundles are only available from August 7-14th. The bundles are so amazing that you want to set your calendar reminder now! Benefits of Available Bundles Sometimes, people hesitate to purchase bundles due to the higher upfront cost. There is often concern over the quality of the resources and whether this justifies the price. Thankfully, the Social Studies Super Bundles contain TONS of high-quality printable and digital resources. Best of all, the bundles are only $20 during this exclusive sale! The Social Studies Bundle Sale provides incredible benefits! First, the bundles contain excellent social studies lessons. Teachers will save HOURS of time planning and designing with all of the ready-to-go resources. Second, all of the bundles offer updated and innovative teaching strategies. Students will love how these lessons move beyond boring worksheets. Third, these bundles will significantly build your teacher library. There are over 200 resources that students will love to use year after year. Thankfully, your wallet will receive a much-needed break from buying additional materials. Secondary American History Bundle For only $20, teachers will receive dozens of resources! This bundle contains fun, engaging, hands-on social studies lessons. For instance, students will complete stations about WWII, analyze primary resources, and study the Articles of Confederation. Furthermore, they will complete a Genius Hour project and learn about landmarks in the USA and worldwide. There is even a digital escape room to start the year in a fun and exciting way. Students will genuinely love American History with this bundle! Secondary World History and Geography Bundle Students will learn all about the world for only $20 with these social studies lessons. For example, there are lessons on Ancient Chinese philosophies, revolutions, and Greek Mythology. Likewise, students will learn about landforms, maps and globes, and Alexander the Great. There are so many incredible activities packed into this bundle. Students will be excited to learn about the world with these creative lessons. Secondary Government and Civics Bundle Due to the different branches and legal components, the Government can be challenging to understand. There is just so much to learn! Hence, this $20 bundle has tons of activities that will break down complex topics. For instance, students will learn about presidential roles, modern federalism, and the three branches of government. There is even a classroom economy simulation!. Just like above, all of the activities are high-quality and filled with updated teaching methods. Secondary Super Bundle Like many secondary social studies teachers, you have multiple preps. While you want to give each class your absolute best, it can be hard when planning so many lessons! Thankfully, there is a SUPER bundle that contains 3 bundles! This includes American History, World History, and Government! While each bundle is $20, this product comes with an even bigger discount during the Social Studies Bundle Sale. So, all 3 bundles can be yours for only $50! Every single prep will have social studies lessons students love! Elementary Social Studies Bundle (Grades 3-5) As students get older, they are ready to learn more complex topics. However, elementary students still need support and guidance. Here, students will learn about so many amazing topics through interactive lessons! This includes national parks, branches of government, and medieval knights. Furthermore, students will plan how to open and run a business and design a summer vacation. Honestly, there is an entire year's worth of social studies lessons to ensure students learn about many topics. Even better, everything included only costs $20 during the Social Studies Bundle Sale! After buying the Social Studies Super Bundles for a HUGE discount, teachers will feel the stress melt away. Importantly, this incredible offer will not be around for long. You can save hundreds of dollars if you grab these social studies lessons from August 7-14. The Social Studies Bundle Sale is a one-time opportunity, so be sure not to miss out! If you do not want to miss out on the Social Studies Bundle Sale, join my email list to ensure you do not forget! Teachers are so busy preparing for back-to-school, and you do not want to let this opportunity slip away! All the best, Matt @ Surviving Social Studies  With Memorial Day right around the corner (and also the time of year when kids are getting a little squirrely) you might find yourself looking for an activity your students can be engaged in that allows them to also honor the members of the military for Memorial Day in your social studies class. Give this a try HERE! All you need to do is print a classroom set of packets, get paper for students to trace on, and watch them have fun!  Check out the video below to see how these come together...  All the best,
Matt @ Surviving Social Studies Hello! Let me guess, now that we're in August you're having some of those "teacher dreams" that only a teacher knows about. Or you're looking at the calendar and counting down how many days until you go back and are realizing how much you don't have planned. The anxiety. The stress. The endless list in your mind. I get it. I'm a full-time middle school classroom teacher who will be entering my 23rd first day of school very soon. I am fully aware that I will have the night before school butterflies like I do every year. Then, 10 seconds after that final bell rings to start the first class, I'll think, "Oh yeah... I remember how to do this!" So, whether you're a veteran teacher or someone just starting your career here are some things I wish I would have known, done, or believed when I first started teaching:  1. How cute your classroom is does not equate to how much your students are learning or how good of a teacher you are. Some of the teachers who meant the most to me when I was growing up - I remember how they treated me, not what their classrooms looked like.  2. Keep a small notebook that is specifically for you to write the date and an attainable goal for the day. If your goal for the day is to greet students at the door, then make sure you do that on that day. If your goal is to connect with 3 students you hadn’t connected with yet, then connect with those 3 students regardless of how your day is going. At the end of the day, dozens of things may have gone wrong, but at least you'll have done that one thing that was your goal for the day. That’s important.  3. It is OK to say, "No." Especially if you are a new teacher, you might feel like you are obligated to take on EVERYTHING! You're not. If adding something else will take away your serenity, which will take away from how available you are for your students, then by saying, "No" to that thing, you are actually saying, "Yes" to yourself, and therefore your students.  4. Pick one night every week that is your night, and you will not do ANYTHING school related after a certain time on that night. If that happens to be Wednesday at 5:00, then be true to that. If 5:00 on Wednesday is your time to do what you want then you will get in the habit of scheduling everything else around that time. You will look forward to that night as much as the weekend!  5. Be at peace knowing that it is 100% OK to take a "mental health" day. During the emergency announcement before a flight, they always tell you that if the oxygen masks drop down, you need to put your own mask on before assisting others. There's a reason for that - just like there's a reason for taking a mental health day. You need to take care of yourself before you can take care of others. I promise, you will feel SO much better for doing so! So, there's my quick list for you! I wish I would have done these things when I first started, but I do these things now, and I share these ideas with my student teachers and new teachers I work with. I'll have a bi-weekly email that will be coming your way on Sundays and Thursdays this year filled with tips, freebies at times, and resources I'm featuring or currently using in my own classroom. All the best! Matt @ Surviving Social Studies 
I also have tournaments set up for those of you who teach world history and have one that focuses on scientists and inventors, too. These could be a great way to use as an interdisciplinary unit between social studies and science or ELA.
How I conduct my American History Tournament of Champions is by first presenting this information to students during March Madness even though we won’t have out tournament until the end of the year. This gives students plenty of time to conduct their research so there isn’t so much pressure. It also gives them something to look forward to and allows you to have something for them to work on if you have a lesson that left you with some time at the end of class. Students typically work in pairs and choose a person/group/invention/event from the list provided, conduct research, and then write speeches to try and advance their topic to the next round. Everything is laid out in the instructions! I sweeten the tournament by showing students the following prizes for making it through the different levels of the bracket: 
This year, I'll explain to my students how I normally would run the tournament pre-COVID and see if I can get some student-helpers to figure out how we can do this with some students virtual and some students in person. Plus, they are usually way better with technology strategies than I am! I hope you enjoy one of these tournaments with your own students, too All the best, Matt @ Surviving Social Studies TpT Store
You can find this activity for free in my TpT store by clicking HERE
Enjoy! Matt @ Surviving Social Studies TpT Store  I just wanted to let everyone know that my entire store will be 20% off today (9/7/2020) in celebration of Labor Day. Lots of digital resources to choose from as seen below. Enjoy the day (and the sale)! Best, Matt @ Surviving Social Studies
 So, how does Murder, She Wrote fit into a history class? The answer is – perfectly! We start with the basics in my history class… fact, opinion, inference, and corroboration. We could go through a boring PowerPoint in that first week defining all of those terms, do a formative assessment where I can see if they understand the difference, blah, blah, blah… that’s not my style. I want these kids to get into the mindset of history, have fun while they’re at school, and do activities that will trick them into learning. Angela Lansbury comes through with Murder, She Wrote and never lets me down. So, many years ago I thought, how can I make this… not boring. It just so happened my daughters were little… watching Beauty and the Beast… and I heard the voice of Mrs. Potts. I was like, “Oh my gosh… I know that voice, but how? It’s the Murder, She Wrote lady!” This was way before Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and YouTube. I went to the public library… sure enough… they had the whole series. I knew I needed to give it a try. I went to work that Saturday and put the video in… took pictures of all the characters… and the rest, as they say, is history. It honestly wouldn’t matter which episode you use. If you want to use the one from this example.... it is called Coal Miner's Slaughter. I've used many different ones over the years, but this is a surefire hit. Murder, She Wrote is available on Amazon Prime. I, of course, recommend viewing the episode before you use it so you know when to stop. If you use Coal Miner's Slaughter... I stop at 16.51 for Inference #1 (then you can burn through the advertisements with the projector and sound off). This is where you'll ask students to share their facts, opinions, and inferences. I then stop again at 33.04 for Inference #2... and ask for facts, opinions, and inferences. Finally, I stop again at 41:35 (this is critical! When the phone line is cut...STOP!) This is where students make inference #3 and I ask questions using the same tactics as before. It's fun to say, "OK, well...let's finish this tomorrow" and you'll hear a "NOOOOOO!!!" in unison, which is always fun. Once they learn who did it there's a lot of fun conversations in class. I promise you, no matter what you do for the rest of the year... you can always refer back to this lesson and the terms fact, opinion, inference, and corroboration. This is the sheet I give students. You can make the same for yourself by just playing whichever episode you'd like to use and take pictures of each character. It really is a lot of fun and a great way to get the kids involved right away! Enjoy! Matt @ Surviving Social Studies   
 Don't forget to keep your students safe by having them come up one at a time for help this year! Works like a charm! Just click on the image.
It's nice having resources that I can use as an extension to what we are learning about in class. For example, right now we are learning about Manifest Destiny in our history class and students were introduced to President James K. Polk. They don't hear that name much when it comes to presidents because they've usually only heard of the "big names" such as Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln, and Kennedy. The other day I saw a student flipping open the cards until they found James K. Polk and then read the information on the cover. Then they flipped open the next two president cards to see who came after. That's exactly what I wanted to have happen with these!
This Presidents of the United States Bulletin Board is available in my TpT store along with the Election Word Wall that will come in handy this fall during election season! Here's some more interactive social studies bulletin boards I use throughout the year as well as Word Walls I include for the different units I teach. One of the best things is when my student helpers ask if they can take down bulletin boards and put up new ones. That saves me a ton of time and they enjoy the task... or the candy they get for helping :)
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May 2022
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