Bri Changela

Social Studies Observation

Grade: 3rd
Curriculum: Social Studies
What I notice

Students have theme study at

least three times a week. They
alternate science and social
studies every two weeks. The two
weeks that I was in the
classroom, they were studying
Charlotte history.
The teacher breaks the students
off into groups. The teacher takes
one group outside to play a game
that Catawba Indian children
played. Other students read
books and articles based on
Catawba Indians.
A small group of students worked
with the teacher to play and
create their own set of a Catawba
Indian game. Students wrote
symbols on popsicle sticks and
played with a partner. The
teacher also did a Venn diagram
comparing the Catawba Indian
children to the students.
The next week students began
working on early settlers in the
Charlotte region. The teacher
read a story on one famous
settler in Charlotte and what he
did. The teacher modeled on a
map where the settler traveled
and the students used markers to
trace their own map. The
students also created a flip book

Date: 10/24/16
Time: 1:30-2:30
Thoughts, questions, comments to
methods courses I do not know how teachers are
able to cram so much science and
social studies info into two weeks
at a time.
Groups work is something I
noticed a lot in my classroom. We
have participated and learned
about group work in our social
studies course. The groups rotate.
It is a good strategy for students
to work on collaboration.
In our methods courses we have
talked about the importance of
diversity in the classroom and
having students put themselves in
others shoes. This game helped
the students reflect on how life
might have been for the Catawba
Indian children and what kinds of
things they did for fun. The kids
got to take home their games.
I thought this activity really made
the student think of how the
settlers of Charlotte would have
reacted to each geographical
area. They had to think outside of
the box and decide what would be
best for their family. We have
discussed similar strategies in our
methods courses.

with different geographical areas

such as the coast, the forest and
the mountains. Students had to
act as an early settler and decide
what the advantages and
disadvantages of each area was.