Introducing Geography/Social Studies

[fluffycrane]

I am a new 7th grade teacher. We will be studying Africa, Asia, and Australia. Africa will be first. I am having problems deciding what should be covered the first few days/weeks of school in regards to curriculum. What important aspects of geography need to be covered before we go into Africa?

[wig]

I always do a review of the five themes of geography at the beginning of the year, plus some basic map skills.

[fluffycrane]

Thanks, those are great ideas!

[Boxcar]

I agree with those suggestions. Oh, I'd include map-folding too. That is somehting I never matered!

[SS Rocks!]

I am a new 7th grade teacher. We will be studying Africa, Asia, and Australia. Africa will be first. I am having problems deciding what should be covered the first few days/weeks of school in regards to curriculum. What important aspects of geography need to be covered before we go into Africa?

I start off the same way wig does. I teach the Five Themes, discuss landforms (especially ones that will apply to what we learn about throughout the year) and work with map skills (latitude/longitude).

Even though this isn't geography, at the beginning of the year I find it helpful to discuss timelines and chronology, and discuss the differences between facts, beliefs, and opinions (helpful when studying religions and mythology).

[ms.jodi]

check out epals.com for pen-pals. I also got a project going where we got a mascot (a little stuffed animal) and he is travelling to classrooms around the world. One of them is in New Zealand!

[lbuchanan]

Does anyone have any interesting ideas on teaching the conflict of the Israelis and Palestinians? I teach sixth grade social studies and it's that time to teach about the middle east. Any ideas would be helpful

Thanks,

Lbuchanan

[SS Rocks!]

Does anyone have any interesting ideas on teaching the conflict of the Israelis and Palestinians? I teach sixth grade social studies and it's that time to teach about the middle east. Any ideas would be helpful

Thanks,

Lbuchanan

I would recommend creating a new thread so this gets some more exposure and hopefully gets you an answer.

If I think of anything for you, I'll definitely post it for you. Have you already covered Judaism and Islam?