When I ask other TPT sellers why they picked their niche or subject, many answered by saying they find a lot of joy and success by creating seasonal worksheets and decor. Others wanted to make more resources for their favorite subject. When they return the question and ask “Why social studies?” I have to provide a little bit of backstory.
Social studies is actually my least favorite subject. As a student, I HATED social studies! I struggled with reading and the social studies and science textbooks were full of hard words and difficult concepts to comprehend. In my high school years, I also noticed a trend where most of my social studies teachers were only teaching so they could coach. I felt frustrated by the side tangents that these teachers would go on about last night’s game. I even had a teacher that would pull up the games or highlight clips on the projector and watch them during class. Of course, the boys loved these teachers, but I remembered thinking what a waste of time these classes were. I would’ve preferred to just get out of school an hour early instead of sitting through boring and unimportant social studies classes.
Even as I became a teacher, I noticed myself and others speak this way about social studies. In the school district I teach in, social studies is the only subject not tested by the state. In a way, this makes social studies seem less important. Why spend a lot of time on social studies when you have to hit certain benchmarks for reading, writing, math, and science? Now in no way am I asking for there to be even more state tests for these young learners. I can just see why social studies tends to take backstage when it comes to everything else we need to teach in a year.
Instead of picking my favorite subject to specialize in for my TPT store, I picked the one that had the most need. Social studies needs a little more love. It is important! And the teachers who are expected to teach social studies on top of everything else need some resources that are actually made for elementary level students.
When the new South Dakota Social Studies Standards came out in April of 2023, I knew I needed to buckle down and help teachers across the state by creating simple, kid-friendly social studies resources. I research long and hard to ensure I’m getting the facts straight. I strive to take difficult concepts and break them down into small manageable chunks (for my inner child and students, like me, who struggle to read and comprehend long chapters in social studies textbooks.)
I create resources for every type of learner. Kinesthetic learners love my crafts and games to bring learning off the page and into their hands. Visual learners love my coloring pages with the little notes to help them remember key information. Auditory learners love hearing my reading passages read out loud and discussing their thoughts about history.
I don’t just have students in mind when creating my resources. I’m also thinking about the teachers who are using my resources. I think about how I can save teachers, like me, time on grading and lesson planning. Teachers have sooooo much to do. We don’t have time to research history, write a four-page reading passage at a fourth grade reading level, and then grade all of the review questions and worksheets for each student. Instead I’m doing that work for all of us. My resources include age appropriate reading passages, games for extra practice, and I link google forms quizzes into every unit so the grading is done instantly. I love how this saves me time and I can just copy/paste the grades straight into my gradebook.
I chose social studies because my focus is primarily on creating lessons to address the South Dakota Social Studies Standards (2023). South Dakota teachers have definitely been loving my units, but what has surprised me is how many teachers from other states are finding my resources useful too! Here’s what some of you guys are saying!
It’s not just small states, like South Dakota, that need more elementary social studies resources. Social studies needs a revamp across the whole US. We’re done with ineffective teaching strategies like popcorn reading from long, boring textbooks. We don’t want our students to just copy down notes into their composition notebooks just to regurgitate facts onto a chapter test and forget everything the moment we move onto the next unit. We want our students to enjoy learning about our history because it is actually very interesting and important.
If you’re ready to revamp the way you teach social studies in your elementary classroom, check out my resources in my TPT store – Social Studies Spotlight. Plus, join my email list to receive a free social studies resource every month!