[twopetes]

I want to design units this year that will integrate all subjects. I teach 3rd grade. With all the demands put on reading & math, I have to admit that last year social studies & science were left until the end of the day to be squeezed in. My goal this year is to use those curriculums & integrate them into reading, writing, & math. I must say though, it is becoming overwhelming to get my ideas & resources organized. Do any of you have any unit ideas or ways to get me started?

Thanks in advance for any support or ideas you could offer this frustrated teacher.

[luvnjesus]

I teach 2nd, but I had an idea that I thought would work wonderfully when teaching the states (we do states and capitals in 3rd grade)...

It is called a "State Fair"...each student is assigned a state (as a class you could do your home state during whole group instruction). They would research their state, write a paragraph or report about their chosen state, have some sort of artistic component (draw/paint map, symbol, etc), create graphs maybe comparing the population, crops, or industries of your state to the assigned state, and so on....
As a culminating activity you could have a classroom or grade level "State Fair". (If you could get your grade level peers on board you could have the whole country represented!) The students would set up and present their projects either in a gallery format or a "science fair" format.
In 2nd we study continents and do a similar activity with "Christmas Around the World". The students and families love it. I learn something new every year.

[Cheresa]

Too Cute! I would love to do that.

[3grteacher]

In third we do colonial studies. We do an extensive unit that covers early Colonial America. The kids change classrooms and learn different topics from each teacher. They also have to pick a colonial job and research it, write outlines, write index cards for presenting, and they also create projects for display at Colonial Night. (homemade ink, horn book, store front, job advertisment, games, colonial recipe...etc)

The kids learn a lot about research, outline writing, writing for many purposes, cooperative learning, presentations....(but not too much math although it could be added it!)

Our music teacher had a colonial music program that night too , and our art teacher has the kids do a weaving project. We are going to talk to P.E. this year about them teaching the kids some colonial games.

The kids and parents LOVE it and we do too!

[tweet]

We have tried to do just as you described to cover S.S. and sci. objectives. One of the first things we did was sit down with the list of the objectives and our basal readers to see if any of the objectives could be covered when we read particular stories. That was very helpful. In some cases we couldn't make a direct link, but were able to plan better anyway. For example, we have a story called Tornado Alert. We springboard off that to teach weather. We live in an area that has tornadoes often, so we used maps to locate where the majority of tornadoes occur. Through our study of weather, we discovered there are more than 3 states of matter--lightning is plasma! We wrote a story about being home alone during a thunderstorm. Lots of opportunity for cross-curricular learning.

[cheri]

I, also, need to do more integrating. Another area you can integrate is art. Almost all of the art in my classroom is related to what we are studying in math, science, and social studies.

For example, when we studied tornadoes, I assigned each student a number on the fujita scale. They had to create a picture with that level of destruction. They used cotton balls to make the tornadoes and chalk to draw the picture. Then I displayed them as a reference and a cool art project!