Life Long Ago Activities

Hello there! I am writing a blog post about activities you can do to teach your students about life long and today.

I always try to make Social Studies an informative and exciting time in my classroom. My students enjoy learning about new things and they learn so much more when they learn by doing.

Much of what they learn is from videos, photographs, or books. Using informational text is essential to teaching students about the past and I use these resources every day. I also like to give my students an opportunity to explore life long ago by providing them with appropriate hands-on learning opportunities.

Let’s give our primary learners engaging history lessons! These activities will teach students how life has changed from the past to the present by learning through sorting activities, puppet shows, writing, and cooking.

Here are some activities that you can try in the classroom.

Go on a Gallery Walk

Before we started to learn about life long ago, I wanted to see what they already knew about the topic. Instead of just asking them or giving them a pre-test to gauge what they know, we went on a Gallery Walk! I printed out pictures of artifacts from long ago and now and had students write what the object was and how it was used. Some of my students didn’t recognize a telephone (but some did!) It was so interesting to listen to the conversations they were having with each other about what they saw in the photographs as well as what they already knew. After we shared what they wrote, I asked them what they thought we were going to learn about next. They said we were going to learn about life long ago.

Introduce Content-Specific Vocabulary Words

Some of my students didn’t know the meaning of the words “past”, “present” or “inkwell.” When I used those words, I made sure to hold up a picture card so they can see it. These words are essential for students to compare how living in the past is different now so having the picture card displayed as I read about it helped increase their comprehension.

Make a Timeline

We also made a timeline! My kinders (and likely most primary learners) struggled with the concept of past, present, and future. One of the activities we did was we wrote a book about something we did in the past, activity or action that we are doing now and will do in the future.

Sorting Activities

If you follow my blog, you know that I LOVE engaging my students in sorting activities. Sorting is a great way to assess whether students grasp concepts by sorting them into categories.

Make Butter!

My students enjoyed making butter so much that half of my students made butter home with their parents! First, we read a book on Pebble Go about how technology has changed. We learned that people primarily made their food at home in the past and did not go to the grocery store or restaurant that we do now. So, we made butter to learn how people cooked in the past. We watched a video about how to make butter (we found a video on YouTube) and then we read and wrote a cookbook.

While 1 student was shaking the jar, the rest of the students at the table were completing their cookbooks.

My kinders took turns shaking the jar. I purchased 4 jars (1 for each group). They each got a minute to shake it. It takes about 15 – 20 minutes. We had paper towels nearby as the jars leaked a bit (but not a lot).

I purchased raisin bread and the students spread their butter on the bread and ate it! Needless to say, they wanted to make more butter and eat more raisin bread!

How Vehicles Travel

Next, we explored how vehicles traveled long ago and now…by making a puppet show!

First, we discussed how they thought a person that wanted to go overseas got there long ago. They had a lot to say! We learned that long ago it took longer for people to get places and that due to technological advances, people can travel to different places faster than before.

Some of my students needed support with identifying vehicles and how they moved. So we used digital task cards to look at photographs of different vehicles and they shared their experiences with each vehicle. My students shared their experiences and some of the stories were laugh-out-loud hysterical!

When we were done, we made a puppet show about how vehicles moved.

Digital Task Cards

Digital Task Cards are a great way to gauge what your students know about a topic. To explain briefly, task cards are a set of cards that have a question or a task written on them. Students record their answers on a recording sheet. Digital Task Cards are cards that use technology.

I used them for post-assessments.  What I like about these task cards is that you can project them on a Smartboard or Promethean Board) and the questions and answers are visual. I project the question and students use a crayon to answer the question. I love that I can control the pace of the questions and everyone finishes at the same time. I don’t have to have ‘early finisher’ work for those students that complete their work before everyone else.

Honestly, my students enjoyed using digital task cards. It was so simple to use and they were able to complete it independently.

Worksheets

There’s many worksheets and writing booklets you can use! You can do a google search or purchase this resource here.

If you would like to have these resources please click the link to purchase:

There are so many learning opportunities you can provide your students! What are some are your favorite social studies activities? Let me know in the comments section!

Happy teaching,

Tee