Grade 5 - Summer Social Studies Project
June 21, 2007
Dear Future 5th Grader,
I hope you and your family have a healthy and fun summer. As promised, I have enclosed our social studies project to do over the break. Don’t worry! It’s not that bad! I am asking you to find out about a decade in American history. A decade is a ten-year span, i.e., the 30s went from the beginning of 1930 to the end of 1939. This is not a research paper. If you need a sample project to help you get started, please call the school and we will mail you a copy.
Please get information for 7 out of the 14 topics listed below. These questions are a guide. You do not have to answer each question, just 7. You might even come up with some questions and answers of your own! Find out what interests you about your decade and address your curiosity concerning those particular topics.
1. President(s) during the decade – What was his personality like? What family members lived with him in the White House? What impact did his decisions have on the people living in that decade?
2. Politics – What important events were going on between America and other countries?
3. Fads of the time – What silly things were people doing? What were people wearing? What were the hairstyles?
4. Popular children’s games and activities – What did children do to have fun?
5. Social customs – How did “everyday” people behave when they wanted to be polite?
6. Housing – What did your average house look like? What was it made of?
7. Male and female roles – Were the roles of men and women different in the decade you are researching? How?
8. Roles of children – What was life like for children in your decade?
9. Literature of the time – Who were the famous writers of your decade of study? What did they write about? Did they write novels, plays, or poetry?
10. Entertainment – How did people entertain themselves?
11. Everyday tools and/or appliances – What machines did people use to make their lives easier?
12. Music – Maybe you could play and record a sample on your instrument. Maybe you could collect bits of music off the Internet (legally, of course). Perhaps you could make copies of sheet music and sing it for us.
13. Transportation – How did people get around?
14. Miscellaneous - Find out what interests you about your decade and create your own questions and answers. You could even interview people who lived in that decade (write it out or record it).
Please Read the Following Information Carefully
- Please use the enclosed Summer Social Studies Project Rubric sheet to make sure you are handing in quality work.
- I don’t expect you to write seven pages of information.
- I am looking for a collection of primary documents with a brief explanation under each (like a scrapbook). A primary document can be a map, graph, newspaper article, newspaper or magazine advertisement, diary entry, political cartoon, song from that decade, or photograph.
- You may store your information between the pages of a binder or a photo album under protective plastic.
- If one or more of the topics really interests you and you would like to collect more than one page of information on it, please do!
- Remember that a minimum of seven “sections” should be handed in.
These projects are due the first day of school and they will count as a social studies test grade. They will be kept in the classroom all year long so they may be used to make our social studies classes even more exciting.
I also recommend getting an assortment of workbooks or visiting educational web sites, i.e., funbrain.com, so that you can practice basic skills in reading, writing, grammar, and math. Ariel’s Child in New Windsor has some terrific workbooks. This reinforcement will help prepare you for fifth grade. Please visit my web page at www.bdms.org for additional sites to visit.
I look forward to seeing you in September and hope you have a great summer.
Mrs. Perk
Please remember this is not a research paper. However, if you would like to see how to cite your sources (books, internet sites, etc.) correctly, please visit the MLA Research Paper Information at the OWL University web site @
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/557/01/.
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