Disney & Social Studies???

Since I've been away for awhile, I wanted to rewind a bit and share some of my lessons that I meant to blog about but never quite got around to during the school year.

In the mix of testing we also started our Colonial Times Unit. (One of my favs!) We spent a lot of time talking about Jamestown (partially because I visited Jamestown last summer and had some fun resources that I brought home with me!)

Let me first preface this in saying that I completely understand that Disney's Pocahontas

  is NOT an accurate depiction of the life of Pocahontas. I discussed this with my students and they had completed an accurate study of the life of Pocahontas during our Native Americans unit. 

To start of the discussion about Jamestown I started off by using this movie clip form Disney's Pocahontas

 (Yes, again, I know this movie is NOT historically accurate, but it was a great hook!): 

The clip is only about two minutes long so we actually watched it several times. 

Round 1: 

The first time we watched just to watch it no expectations. The students then pair-shared with there neighbors and discussed what the video clip was about. Lost of students recognized the clip.  "I've seen this before!" 

Round 2: 

Before playing the video for a second time I asked the kids to focus on making OBSERVATIONS. I was clear that these should be observations and NOT inferences. The students were supposed to look for the who and what when and where and why of the video. Some observations: "They're are getting on a boat", "I see mostly men", "They are in a city". 

After discussing the observations they could make inferences: "I think they are leaving England because of the flag on the ship and also because of their accents." Some students also made predictions:  "It looks like the mean are the only ones going because they are kissing the women and children goodbye. I think they might be going to work for the Virginia Company." 

Round 3: 

This time  as we played the movie they were given the lyrics and told to highlight anything that was repeated. From this they gathered lots of information: gold, Virginia Company, New World. Again, they had time to discuss this with their neighbors.                                                               

After 3 rounds of the video clip and discussions (all of which took about 15 minutes) we were ready to dive into our social studies books. My students were deeply engaged (which is not usually the case when we open up our textbooks). 

As we read the information about Jamestown, the students filled out a graphic organizer. They did an excellent job comprehending the information in the textbook and were quick to point out the historical inaccuracies in Disney's version. 

Round 4: 

After the reading, I had them watch the video one final time, this time looking for specifics like the date of the voyage. 

After this initial lesson, the students completed this reading comprehension sheet from Redworks.org. I love double dipping with reading comprehension in the content areas and this site is great for that! 

We also spent time working on some of the Jamestown computer lab activities I blogged about <HERE>. 

We completed Jamestown back in Mid March and April but the students were still talking about it as we wrapped up the year last week. I will call that a success!

Hope you are all on summer break and enjoying yourselves! If your still in school I hope you can see the light at the end of the tunnel! :) 

Jamestown Resources

We're learning about Jamestown and I found this super fun, quick game. Its similar to Oregon Trail (so of course my inner 90's child loves it!). The good news is that my kiddos loved it too!

It's super simple and can be played in about 10 minutes but it is also full of lots of info. 

Today we played as a class. I projected the game onto the board and pulled sticks every time we had to make a decision. My kids loved having the power! 

They are super excited to play by themselves tomorrow and make all of the decisions.

Super fun resource (just don't forget to disable your pop up blocker).   

UPDATE:
Here is another fun resource that Donna from Hokie Teach shared.

My kids loved this one too! It has lots of info-- especially about John Smith. :)

What resources to you use when you teach Jamestown/Colonial Times?

And a little funny before I go...

Have you seen this flow chart floating around facebook?!?!? It's too funny! 

A Lazy Sunday and a Columbus Day Resource

Whew! Another busy week has come and gone! 

We had our annual back to school night this past Thursday. I spent the week cleaning my room and frantically finishing up some last minute projects.  Besides the fact that the cupcakes I brought to share with the families were swarmed with ants by lunchtime and that my classroom bookshelf decided to collapse about 30 minutes before the parents arrived, the night was a success!

It is always interesting to spend time with the parents and learn a little more about our students. I had a pretty good turn out and I was so happy to share my students hard work with their families. All in all it was a good night! 

I spent yesterday busy with my side job and now, my weekly Sunday planning ritual is here...it seems like I was sitting in this same spot planning a minute ago...how can it be that another week has already come and gone?!?! 

Anyway, as I sit here  blogging, surfing the web, watching TV,  planning I am looking forward to October. While searching through all of my October stuff I found one of my favorite  Columbus Day resources and wanted to share. 

I found this song a couple of years ago and I really love the way that it acknowledges and honors both the diverse Native Americans cultures, as well as  the contributions of Christopher Columbus. It usually leads to some good discussion in fifth grade... 

   You can listen to the song *here*. 

Here are the lyrics: 

Words and music © 1991 by Nancy Schimmel

In fourteen hundred ninety-two
Columbus sailed the ocean blue,
It was a courageous thing to do
But someone was already here.
Columbus knew the world was round
So he looked for the East while westward bound,
But he didn't find what he thought he found
And someone was already here.

Chorus:

The Innuit and Cherokee,
The Aztec and Menominee,
The Onadaga and the Cree;
Columbus sailed across the sea,
But someone was already here.

It isn't like it was empty space,
Caribs met him face to face.
Could anyone discover the place
When someone was already here?

Chorus

So tell me, who discover what?
He thought he was in a different spot.
Columbus was lost, the Caribs were not;
They were already here.

Columbus Day actually acts as a great segway for my curriculum because we shift from our unit on Native Americans in Pre-Columbian North America and begin our unit on the Age of Exploration.

Here are some great books I also use when discussing Christopher Columbus with my students: 

 Kids love this book! Lots of great facts not only about Columbus' voyages but also sailing during the time period in general. Engaging read!

This story of Columbus' landing is told from the point of view of a Taino child.  This book lends itself  nicely to teaching perspective and looking at both sides of a story. Wonderful illustrations!

And since my kiddos are such comic book fanatics I just picked up this guy on Amazon today. I've seen other books from the series and I am hoping that this one is a great as the others I have seen. 

How do you teach about Columbus? Leave a comment and let me know! 

Enjoy the rest of your weekend! 

As for me  I'll be here diligently planning...or maybe I'll go for a walk or head down to the bookstore ...or.....