The following are the pieces that comprise my social studies portfolio. Feel free to use them in any way you see fit and adapt them to your needs. In order to download the pieces, click on the link following each description. I hope you find something that sparks your interest!
1.) Where in the World Are We?: A Thematic Unit for Second Grade
This piece revolves around geography. Students will learn about maps and their uses. They will use maps to aid in understanding other places. They will also participate in a pen-pal activity. The ideas in this piece serve as a starting point for fully designing the lessons.
2.) How Do We Get From Here to There? A Lesson Plan for Second Grade
This piece was adapted from a lesson plan found on the National Geographic website. Students will learn about different forms of transportation and make judgments on the best way to get a package across the country.
Link to original lesson: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/lessons/11/gk2/
3.) Curriculum Unit: Understanding the President’s Roles (for second grade)
This written piece includes the modifications I made to the original unit found on the Edsitement website. Students will learn about the different roles a president performs and how the president communicates with the nation.
Letter to Parents for President Unit
Original units found on these websites:
http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=383
http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=385
4.) Curriculum Unit: Primary Sources (for fifth grade)
This written piece includes modifications to the original unit I found on the Library of Congress website. The unit introduces students to the importance of using primary documents in research and culminates in a project on immigration using primary documents to complete the assignment.
Parent Letter for Primary Source Unit
Original unit found on this website:
http://memory.loc.gov/learn/lessons/97/firsthand/main.html
5.) Curriculum Unit: Carriage Hill (for second graders)
This unit was designed by me to complement a field trip to Carriage Hill MetroPark. The unit includes a discussion of diversity, a reading lesson from the late 19th/early 20th century, the field trip, a comparison of schools from the 1800s to today, the use of photos to examine children’s lives in the 1800s, and a economics lesson using farm products.
6.) Mini-unit: Washington and Lincoln
This mini-unit was developed based around a lesson my cooperating teacher did on the Washington Monument and Lincoln memorial. I expanded her lesson into a three day unit, adding more information about both presidents lives and ending the unit with a compare/contrast writing prompt.
7.) Children’s Book Rubric
This piece is a rubric teachers can use to evaluate a children’s book for use in their classes. It also includes a description of the qualities in a book I used my rubric with, If I Were President. The end of the piece gives an activity that could be used to assess student learning after reading the book I used.
8.) Creative Project: A Celebration of Love (for second grade)
A Celebration of Love is two days worth of lessons involving weddings and love. The creative portion is a bulletin board that is used to facilitate learning throughout the lesson. Students will use the bulletin board to further their understanding on these subjects and also will include work they develop throughout the lessons. I came up with this idea because during the month of December, my cooperating teacher wants me to teach about different kinds of celebrations. One of my friends, Dustin (or, as my sister jokingly says, my only male friend 
), is getting married during this time, so I thought that since a wedding is a celebration, it would be a perfect connection to make since I could discuss with the students the experience of attending this wedding.
Photos of the bulletin board I created for the project
Full shot of bulletin board
Love is...when all of you is with another. At this moment, their worries, hurts, and concerns become your own and yours cease to exist. ~ Mr. Webb
23 years ago on December 7, 1985
These are some example shots. I’ve thought of many more things I could include since constructing the board you see here. If you’d like to see more pictures, let me know
I hope you find these pieces useful. Many hours of hard work and labor, and lots of love went into creating what I’ve posted. If you’d like more information on anything seen here, please leave a comment or let me know and I will do my best to answer any questions you have.
Greg
Greg,
You have developed lessons that, on one hand, add depth to the content of the early childhood social studies curriculum and, on the other hand, take learning in creative directions that enhance emotional development and understanding.