8 First Week of School Activities for Middle School Students

First Week of School Activities

Before we know it, the first week of school will be upon us! Will you be ready? This blog post will highlight 8 must-do first week of school activities that you can use with your middle school students!

Activities for First Week of School

One of the most important things you can do at the start of a school year is have clear expectations and procedures. How do you want your students to enter your classroom? What are the first things they should do when class starts? Do you have a procedure for when a student is absent or has missing work? What is your device policy? There is certainly a lot to think about! Taking some extra time to brainstorm these procedures and display some visuals in your classroom can make a world of difference, and not having these ready when I first started teaching was one of my biggest regrets! To see examples of the types of procedures I have used, check out our classroom procedures visuals.

Distributing a class syllabus is also a must on the first day of class, and it is also a great handout to give to parents at open house! You can keep your syllabus simple, but be sure to include your contact information, course description, materials, grading policy, expectations, consequences, and a spot for students and parents to sign, if desired! If you’d like to check out our editable syllabus templates, take a look at them here.

Getting to know your students is also a priority during the first week of school, because it can help create a more positive classroom community and build trust with your students. Honestly, we have found it beneficial to spend about 3-4 days dedicated to building community, rather than rushing into course content. A fun game that I like to play on Friday of the first week of school is a variation on Two Truths and a Lie, teacher edition! I start by sharing a total of 10 truths and 10 lies about myself, and the students take turns guessing what is true and what is a lie. Here is the template that I used for this.

Then, I have students come up with three statements about themselves: two truths and one lie. We go around the room and give students a chance to share more about themselves (if they’d like to). You can see that template here.

A get to know you activity that you might not have heard of is the “What’s In My Backpack?” Collage Activity. In this activity, the backpack serves as a metaphor for student identity, and students must identify what they carry with them throughout their lives. This might pertain to their background, their interests, their heritage, their goals, and more! It is a creative assignment for Google Drive that you can learn more about here.

One additional get to know you activity is a student inventory. This is a must to get to know more about your students, along with their interests and learning preferences. We have created a Google Form version that is editable and allows you to go paperless, which makes it easier to refer back to the results of your students! Click here to get a copy of this student inventory.

A bonus teaching idea that will save you a lot of time is using classroom jobs! Many students love to take on a leadership role, and by assigning classroom jobs, you are able to reduce your workload while also helping interested students develop meaningful skills. Here is how we have chosen to use classroom jobs.

Lesson Plans for First Week of School

In addition to all of the activities described above, an often overlooked lesson is teaching your students how to write emails. The ability to write a professional email is arguably one of the most important skills students learn, especially in times of remote or blended learning, but it is rarely taught. However, that doesn’t need to be the case! Here is a walkthrough about how we teach email etiquette and the practice activities we use.

In case you are wondering how all of these different pieces fit together, you are in luck! We have a FREE resource in our TPT store that breaks down these activities, among others, for your first week of school! It also includes an editable Google Slideshow, which can help you and your students stay organized! Get your freebie here.

Of course, while this post has mentioned a lot of different activities to use with your students, the classroom environment matters as well. I love to have a variety of inspirational quotes hung up around my classroom! Here is a set of 20 inspirational posters featuring some quotes that help students be courageous, kind, and develop a growth mindset!

First Week of School Activities for Middle School

If the activities covered in this blog post seem like a good fit for your classroom, consider checking out our bundle of First Week of School Activities for Middle School Students, which contains all 8 of them (plus 2 additional resources)! All of the activities are compatible with Google Drive or even designed exclusively for Google Drive, which makes them a great option no matter what your school year looks like this year! Even better, if you choose to purchase the bundle, you will save 30%! Click here to check it out!

If you want to improve your classroom organization this year, check out this blog post to learn about the 13 types of classroom forms that are must-haves for all middle school teachers!

Are you looking for some new teaching ideas to engage your students in your social studies class? If so, you’ll love our FREE guide: 5 Creative Projects to Ignite Student Engagement in Your Social Studies Class. These activities have both printable and digital options and can work for any social studies subject!

Ancient Civilizations Word Wall: How to Use One in Your Class

Ancient Civilizations Word Wall

Have you ever used an Ancient Civilization word wall before? Teaching with a word wall can be a useful strategy to help your students remember and understand vocabulary words that accompany the historical content you are teaching. We briefly mentioned word walls (and some of the challenges that go along with teaching vocabulary) in this past blog post, but we wanted to go more in depth about how to use a word wall in today’s post.

The first important task when preparing a word wall is deciding which words to include and what you want to have on the cards. Some cards just have the word, some have the word and a definition, and some include an image. In our teaching experience, we have found the most helpful versions have the word, the definition, and a picture, which is helpful for our visual learners. We like to include the definitions because it can create a “dictionary wall” of sorts that your students can refer back to throughout the year. You can see examples of this template in our Ancient Civilization Word Wall.

Once you have decided which words you will include, you will then decide how you want to organize them. You can see a few examples in the pictures below.

Vocabulary Word of the Day

To break up your Ancient Civilizations vocabulary words into smaller, more manageable pieces, consider teaching one word per day. Going over the vocabulary at a gradual pace allows you to go into more depth with each word. You could even use this as part of your daily warm-up!

Organize by Theme

You could also organize the words by theme. While elementary teachers or teachers of younger students might organize words by the letter that they start with, consider organizing the words by theme to help students make connections. For example, you might create categories of people, types of government, places, inventions, and more! For your convenience, our Ancient Civilization Word Wall cards are color coded by civilization, so you could use this method but still have a way for students to remember which word belongs to which civilization.

Ancient Civilizations Word Walls for Each Unit

If you have limited wall space or simply want to break up your Ancient Civilizations word wall by unit, display the words for your unit all at once on a bulletin board or a certain portion of your classroom. This is the method we have used, and there is usually a student or two who would love to help you change out the board after they have finished an assignment.

If you are interested in checking out our Ancient Civilizations word wall cards, check out our epic bundle here, or any of our individual sets below.

Prehistory + Early Humans Word Wall

Mesopotamia Word Wall

Ancient Egypt Word Wall

Ancient India Word Wall

Ancient China Word Wall

Ancient Greece Word Wall

Ancient Rome Word Wall

Middle Ages Word Wall

While not every ancient civilizations class teaches these topics, since we published this blog post, we have also added word wall sets for Mesoamerica, Early African Empires, and Ancient Israel!

4 Clever Ways to Use Emergency Sub Plans

Emergency Sub Plans

Emergency sub plans can be a lifesaver for teachers, especially in those last-minute and unexpected situations when you didn’t plan on needing a sub. However, did you know that you can use these plans in other ways? This post will give you suggestions based on how we have used emergency sub plans in our middle school social studies classes!

Do I Need Emergency Sub Plans?

Before we get into the alternative uses of sub plans, why should you have them in the first place? There are several key reasons why they should be a must in your classroom. First, many districts require that you have sub plans prepared in advance. Many even have official substitute folders that are stored in the main office in case you are out unexpectedly. They are also great to have when you or someone in your family is really sick or anytime unexpected challenges come up. Finally, having emergency sub plans ready is helpful whenever you are going to miss a regular day of school, even if you know you will be absent in advance. Writing sub plans is never fun, but if you have something ready to go, it will save a lot of time!

Emergency Sub Plans Social Studies

If you don’t yet have any extra sub plans prepared, check out our epic set of 14 sub plans specifically designed for secondary social studies teachers! Each one contains a PDF and an editable Google Drive version, along with an editable sub note! You can check these out here.

Alternative Uses of Emergency Sub Plans

Early Finishers Activities

These sub plans often make great early finisher activities! Simply keep extra copies of these activities on hand in an area for students to access, and they can keep students engaged even after they have completed your regular assignment. Having these activities ready to go will save you time later on and provide a simple answer to the “what do I do now?” question.

Last Minute Lesson Ideas Or Planning

Have you ever struggled to come up with a lesson idea for the next day, or even a class you were teaching later that day? (This was something I used to struggle with, especially during my first year of teaching when I taught four grade levels!) Keeping extra sub plans on hand is a great way to prepare for these last-minute situations, especially when you can apply them to a variety of units. This is why our emergency sub plans for middle school social studies are all flexible enough to be used with multiple subjects and topics!

Differentiation

Having extra sub plans on hand can actually make it easier to differentiate. Since they are activities students can work on independently, you could assign these activities to some of your more advanced students, giving them the chance to have fun with a creative challenge while you spend extra time with students who require more one-on-one attention and support.

Distance Learning

It’s no secret that distance learning is difficult. By now, you’ve probably realized that most (or at least many) of your lessons don’t work the same way when remote teaching. Some ideas are too difficult to explain or have students do completely independently, while others, like debate or whole-class discussion, aren’t as meaningful when done remotely. However, since emergency sub plans are designed to be simple enough that any substitute can facilitate them, they are easy enough for students to understand and complete on their own. For more distance learning ideas, check out this recent blog post!

Emergency Sub Plans Middle School

Once again, if there are any middle school social studies teachers out there in need of emergency sub plans, you’ll love our set! This version contains 14 activities, each available for Google Drive and in PDF form! Check out this resource here.

8 Social Studies Vocabulary Activities You Must Do with Your Students

Social Studies Vocabulary Activities

Do you ever feel like you do the same vocabulary activities over and over again and want to try something new? Or do you feel like you don’t really have the time in the school day to prioritize social studies vocabulary activities? This blog post will give you 8 social studies vocabulary strategies to help you succeed! Even better, many of these activities are perfect to use digitally!

Social Studies Vocabulary: The Struggle

Before we get into the activities, there is some surprising but important information to share that can change our perspective about how we teach vocabulary. While we were doing some research about the best vocabulary strategies to use in social studies, we found this 2018 study from Hannah Chai and V. Lee Welz from Wright State University. This article featured a chart that demonstrated how social studies textbooks expose students to approximately five times the number of words as each of the other core subject areas. For specific examples, take a look at the chart below.

In our teaching experience, we have found trying to do too much or teach too much content, and in this case, too many vocabulary words, does not yield lasting results. Instead of trying to teach all of the vocabulary words shared in a unit or in a textbook, select the most important 20-25 or so words to emphasize more. This is especially important as it takes at least 10 exposures to a word for students to understand it well enough to use it, as cited by Aimee Alexander-Shea in this study.

Social Studies Vocabulary Strategies

Quizlet

Quizlet is an amazing free resource to help students with social studies vocabulary… simply create a set with your vocabulary words or find a set that already exists and duplicate it. Quizlet is also a great tool to help students practice vocabulary independently. We especially recommend using the flashcards and playing the Match game or Quizlet Live with your students for engaging practice.

Frayer Model

The Frayer Model is a popular graphic organizer tool that can help students build their vocabulary. This vocabulary chart works great on a handout or for Google Slides. Traditionally, the Frayer Model has students incorporate the definition of a word, an image or picture of it, and both examples and non-examples of the word. In our own teaching, we have found that a variation with the official definition, a definition in the student’s own words, an example sentence, and an image or picture are a better fit. You can take a closer look here for a sample version on Google Slides.

Semantic Mapping

Semantic mapping, or a word sort, is a wonderful way for students to make connections between different vocabulary words, especially with social studies vocabulary. In this activity, students can sort words into a chart with some basic categories, such as people, places, inventions, religions, or any other categories that make sense. For a more advanced option, students can decide which categories they would like to create. You can do this on a Google Doc or handout, but our favorite method is using a Google Slideshow with moveable tiles that students can drag into the correct column!

Synonyms + Antonyms

One way to improve our understanding of vocabulary is with synonyms and antonyms. We create self-grading Google Forms with a variety of synonyms and antonyms of different vocabulary words. This helps students make connections between different words, as well as helps them understand the nuance between certain terms.

Related Words

One of our favorite social studies vocabulary activities is using related words. In this type of activity, students look at three sample words that are somewhat related to one of their vocabulary words and must figure out which vocabulary word they are referring to. It is a fun mystery challenge for students and makes for a great game or board race, in addition to a simple activity on Google Forms.

Fill in the Blank

You probably have already used fill in the blank vocabulary activities, as these are commonly provided by textbooks. This type of activity usually contains sentences with a word missing, and students must decide which vocabulary word makes the most sense to fill in the blank. This is a simple activity to set-up (we use self-grading Google Forms) and can help students with context.

Historical Fiction Journal

A fun writing assignment that showcases student creativity is a historical fiction journal! We love using these as impromptu activities in many units, and they also work great for vocabulary. In a historical fiction journal, students take on the role of a historical figure that lived during the time period they are studying. You can have students incorporate as many vocabulary words as they can in their response. This is one of the most advanced strategies listed here as students must see if they can fit the word in the context of what they are writing about.

Vocabulary Bingo

While it is pretty simple, one of our favorite social studies vocabulary activities is some good old-fashioned bingo! This can also be a perfect activity for a Friday or on a transition day between larger activities. Simply have students fill in their vocabulary words onto a bingo grid (5X5 chart with a free space in the middle). Then, read aloud the definitions, and students must figure out which vocabulary word you are referring to.

Social Studies Vocabulary Word Wall

A list of social studies vocabulary activities would not be complete without including a word wall! Displaying a word wall in your classroom can be a great visual reminder of the vocabulary you are studying. While word walls take many forms, we prefer using a version with the word, the definition, and an image.

Next Steps

Now that we have shared all about how we teach vocabulary to our students, we encourage you to give these activities a try! You can either create your own activities following the framework we have described or check out the versions we already have created here! We currently have versions for our Ancient Civilizations curriculum, early American history, modern U.S. history, and more!

We also wrote this blog post about more vocabulary activities that can work for any subject, including any aspect of social studies!

5 Teaching Ideas for Social Studies Distance Learning

Social Studies Distance Learning

For many social studies teachers, in addition to other subjects, shifting to remote teaching or distance learning has been a big jump, and quite frankly, one that many are not prepared for. There are several new challenges that arise when one switches to remote teaching, and in most cases, the way we’ve taught needs to change. To help with these challenges, this post will share social studies distance learning teaching ideas that you can use in your social studies class!

Social Studies Distance Learning Resources

These social studies distance learning activities are all designed for Google Drive, such as this Country Research Project!

Vocabulary Activities

Distance learning is a great opportunity to incorporate more vocabulary activities into your teaching. While we go into more depth about these activities in this dedicated blog post, one of my personal favorite tools to teach vocabulary is Quizlet. On Quizlet, you can create a set of vocabulary flashcards that is specific to the words your students are learning, and students can practice the words using flashcards, games, practice tests, and more! The Frayer Method is another proven vocabulary strategy which helps students think of words in multiple ways. Using the traditional Frayer Model, students come up with a definition of each vocabulary word, an image or picture that relates to the word, and examples and non-examples of the word. We created a ready-to-use editable template for Google Slides that you can check out here if you are interested! If you are looking for more vocabulary activities and you teach Ancient Civilizations, you might also enjoy these distance learning vocabulary activities!

Distance Learning Choice Board

Another great distance learning option is to incorporate student choice into your teaching. A choice board is probably one of the easiest ways to do this, as it gives students a variety of possible options of activities they can do, so they can choose something that is more interesting and relevant to them. Some of our favorite websites to use as part of a choice board are Ted-Ed, Duolingo, IXL, CNN 10, and Khan Academy, among others! You can view a sample of a choice board we created for middle school students here.

This distance learning choice board is a great option for middle school students!

Country Research Project

Another favorite activity of ours has been having our students analyze data about different countries using the CIA World Factbook. There is so much to learn about each country from this data. You could have students look up key details about countries you studied earlier this year. While there are many different ways you can implement CIA World Factbook data into your teaching, we put together a simple country comparison chart for Google Drive that takes out any guesswork. We even included an overview slideshow that explains data-related concepts that your students might not know about!

This Country Research project is a perfect social studies distance learning activity!

Historical Resume Project

Just because schools are not in session doesn’t mean that we can’t help our students with 21st-century skills! We love to incorporate job-related skills in the classroom, and there can be great connections within social studies. One creative lesson idea is for students to create a resume for a historical figure. Writing a resume is a challenging task all students must do in the future, but it’s not something that is typically taught, at least at the middle school level. A historical resume gives students the chance to research a historical figure and try to understand who they were before applying that information in a resume. To save time, we created this Google Drive template of all of the related files you might want!

Current Event Analysis Chart

A list of social studies distance learning activities would not be complete without incorporating current events, which is something students might be consuming more of these days anyway. One of our favorite activities to do with current events is an analysis activity. Students will select two articles or videos about a similar topic from two different news networks and have to identify the similarities and differences between them. This helps our students understand bias and develop media literacy skills. You can check out this assignment template here.

Social Studies Distance Learning Activities

Get more social studies distance learning activities with this free resource!

If you are looking for some additional Social Studies activities for distance learning, check out our FREE guide, 5 Creative Projects to Ignite Student Engagement in Your Social Studies Class! This epic resource contains five different projects and activities to do with your students…and all of them have Google Drive components and resources! This makes them a great option for distance learning! Get access here.

Distance Learning Teaching Ideas

For more general tips and ideas related to distance learning or remote teaching, check out the recent video I made featuring 10 Tips for Distance Learning or Remote Teaching. While a lot of what we do here pertains to secondary social studies, the tips in this video can apply to any subject!

We hope you enjoyed this post! To learn more about Mr and Mrs Social Studies and our work, check out this page.

Who are Mr. and Mrs. Social Studies?

Welcome to Mr and Mrs Social Studies! We are Jake and Sarah Settanni, and we are passionate about creating engaging and meaningful Social Studies lessons at the secondary level! Although Mr and Mrs Social Studies was first established back in 2015, we have just started our blog and website, so we look forward to building things up over the upcoming months! In the meantime, we thought it made sense to share our story and give some background about us.

Jake Settanni is currently in his sixth year of teaching 6th grade Ancient Civilizations, which he has taught at two different schools, including his own former junior high! During this time, he has created some of our most engaging Ancient Civilizations resources, and he continues to look for new ways to bring history to life in his classroom! He is also passionate about educational technology and rethinking the way and order in which we teach history. So far in his teaching, he has also served as the director of the theater program, moderator of scholastic bowl meets, and a cross country coach. Jake received his teaching degree in 2014 from the University of Illinois, with a major in History and a minor in Secondary Education, and has nearly completed his master’s degree in Learning Design and Leadership, which will certify him to become a technology specialist. In his free time, Jake enjoys playing piano, reading, watching anything related to Star Wars, and spending time with friends and family.

Sarah Settanni has taught Social Studies and Spanish over the past five years. During her first three years of teaching, she taught 6th grade World Geography, 7th + 8th grade U.S. History, and Spanish 1 (HS) in a rural community. She spent the next two school years teaching 8th grade U.S. History and Spanish in an urban environment, where she also served on the Social Studies District Leadership Team. In terms of extracurriculars, Sarah has coached middle school track, taught cooking and nutrition classes, and served as the school representative for the 8th grade Washington DC trip and National Geographic Geography Bee. In addition to graduating from the University of Illinois in 2014 with a major in History and minors in Secondary Education and Spanish, she received her master’s degree in 2018 in Global Studies in Education. This school year, Sarah decided to take a break from teaching to prioritize work on both Mr. and Mrs. Social Studies and Abundantly Minimal, her other business and YouTube channel that prioritizes decluttering and intentional living. In her free time, she loves traveling or planning upcoming trips (20 countries and counting), cooking, creating new resources, going for walks, and watching movies!

What’s with the name?

We first met as part of our history teacher certification program at the University of Illinois, back in 2012. We were paired up for the first set of observations, and we bonded while working on the lesson plans we needed to teach together. As we spent more time with one another, it was clear that we were meant to be together, so we got married in 2014 after college graduation and have been creating lesson plans ever since!

Putting all of the sappy stuff aside, it has been such a privilege to both teach Social Studies and be able to support each other, especially through the times when we were the only one teaching our subject in the district. While some couples might drive each other crazy if they both had the same job, it has allowed us to push each other to be better teachers and we have grown so much (while still setting boundaries, of course). We are now excited to be sharing teaching tips and resources with you here on our blog! There is a lot in store, so stay tuned!