Jessica Strickland Social Studies Portfolio Paragraph

Two of my favorite lessons that I used for my portfolio were one lesson on voting in a first grade classroom, and the second was on visiting a one room school house. Both lessons were geared toward first grade classrooms. I really liked the lesson on a visiting a one room school house because it had lots of great activities to do with the students before they actually went on the trip. One activity I liked was having the students interview their grandparents and learning how school was for them because some of them may have attended a one room school house. I think that gives the students a different perspective on the concept and gives them a chance to share what they learned with the class.

The voting lesson I did was one of my favorite lessons because it fit perfectly with the recent election. For my creative project I made a class voting box and a sample ballot. I thought that this would be a great way to start teaching younger students about voting. For my lesson we went over what voting was and how it helped us make the fairest decision possible. I then explained that we were going to have an ice cream party. In order to be fair we would have to vote on our favorite flavor and which ever one had the most votes would win. I then had the students go to a desk one at a time vote and place their vote in the class voting box. They really enjoyed this activity and it was a lot of fun.

1 comment November 18, 2008