Entry 9

Another way to successfully teach social studies is by having the children do historical investigations themselves. In the article, First Graders Investigate the First Thanksgiving, the author talks about students doing research on the First Thanksgiving and relating it to the modern-day Thanksgiving. It was astounding to see what the children found and the conclusions they came up with. Keep in mind that this is only first graders—young children are fully capable of making sense of historical text when it is relevant to their lives. Teachers have the power to plant the seed for inquiry in the youngest of minds. For this entry, I drew a picture of a child detective. Reading this article reminds me of one of the readings we’ve done in class about junior detectives. Having students discover their own learning and making judgements for themselves opens doors for them to become more active and thoughtful. After all, students are curious little beings so why deny them of that by making them read textbooks? Allow them to be little detectives and have them explore.