Social Studies and Literacy Connections

Pin ItMonday, September 17th, is Constitution Day, and it’s a great time tointegrate social studies into your literacy lessons. I discovered two outstanding informational text books to readand discuss with your students, and I couldn’t resist creating some freebies togo with them! Both books are perfect for upper elementary students, and if youonly have one copy of each book, you can read it aloud and show the pages so your students can follow along. If you don’t have these books now, you can clickthe book covers below to order them from Amazon.com. Then use the activities later inthe year when you are studying the US government or the Constitution.
What's the Truth?The United States Constitution by ChristineTaylor-Butler
The Constitution of the United States is a part of the Scholastic "True Book" series, and it's an excellentinformational text for upper elementary students. What's the Truth? is a hands-on sorting activity to stimulate thinking before you read the book to your students. The activity works best with teams or pairs of students. Duplicate one set of cards per team, and ask team members to cut the cards apart and stack them in the middle of the team. Askthem to take turns picking up a card, reading it aloud, and discussing whetheror not they think the statement is true or false. The cards should be separatedinto two piles accordingly. You may alsowant them to write a T or an F on the back of each card for future reference.As you read and discuss the book together, ask them to try to determine whichstatements are true and which are false. You’ll find an key on second page.
Constitution Discussion QuestionsIf You Were There When They Signed the Constitution byElizabeth Levy
If You Were There When They Signed the Constitution is alonger book and will take several days to read. I've created a set of Constitution Discussion Questions that you can use when you finish reading the book or whereappropriate during the book. Because the questions are quite challenging, Isuggest using the Talking Sticks discussion strategy in small guided readinggroups or as a whole class. The book is most appropriate for upper elementarystudents, but you may be able to use with middle school students as well. You’llneed to preview the book to decide. The discussion questions are fairly genericand can be used with any in-depth discussion or study of the Constitution.After you’ve discussed all of them as a class, you may want to have yourstudents choose one to write about in a journal entry.
You can download these and or other Constitution Dayactivities from the Social Studies page onTeaching Resources. Additionalactivities include a Branches of Government sorting activity, a cooperativelearning lesson to learn the meaning of the Preamble, and a printable you canuse to create your own Classroom Bill of Rights. 
With limited time in the elementary school day, it's important to be able to sneak in a little social studies with your literacy lessons. These activities can be used on Constitution Day or any time when your class is studying U.S. Government or the Constitution. What are some ways that you connect social studies and literature in your classroom?