World War 2 confuses me. There are so many players, and so many battles and strategic moves, that it’s easy to get them all jumbled up. I’m trying new things to help keep all the facts straight. Have your kids fill out this social studies graphic organizer and draw each country’s flag in the box. This might help them visualize the “teams” involved.
It’s official. I love using graphic organizers for teaching social studies. This time, I’m having my students teach each other about the causes of World War 2. Each kid will teach 3 other students. They can use their entire sheet for the first person they teach. When they teach the second person, they have to fold the paper so they can’t see the words, but they can use their drawings. For the final person, they can’t use their paper at all.
Yay for graphic organizers! I’m getting good at them. I’m finding that the key is to make them simple so that the format doesn’t distract kids. Anyway, here’s my newest social studies graphic organizer. It’s about the causes of World War 1. It’s similar to the other social studies graphic organizers I’ve made.
One of my favorite parts of teaching 6th grade is the chance to teach ancient civilizations as part of social studies. Here’s my graphic organizer for summarizing the contributions of ancient civilizations. I’ve been asked why I like to put a blank box on my graphic organizers. Well, I like to let kids draw a picture of the ideas because it seems to help the ideas stick in their brains. You know what they say, a picture’s worth a thousand words!
February 19 marks the anniversary of the Battle of Iwo Jima, Japan, in World War 2 (in 1945). This is an important part of American World War 2 history, which many upper grade students learn about. Here’ s a page I put together to teach my students about this landmark battle. It provides basic information (text from ducksters.com) and asks students to write a 5-6 sentence summary using the information.
Here are some additional interesting facts about the Battle of Iwo Jima:
The famous picture of the US Flag being raised on Iwo Jima was actually not the first flag raised by the US. Another smaller flag pole had been put there earlier.
Although the US had more soldiers wounded on Iwo Jima than the Japanese, the Japanese had many more deaths. This was because the Japanese had decided to fight to the death. Out of 18,000 Japanese soldiers only 216 were taken prisoner. The rest died in the battle.
Around 6,800 American soldiers died in the battle.
The US government awarded 27 soldiers with the Medal of Honor for their bravery during the battle.
There were six men in the famous picture showing the US flag being raised. Three were killed later in the battle. The other three became famous celebrities in the US.
The Japanese dug 11 miles of tunnels within the island of Iwo Jima.
A huge thank you to all the servicemen/women and their families who have and continue to fight for American freedom!
Here’s a timeline that gives the overview of the major events in World War II (text modified from ducksters.com). This is a great review activity for upper grades learning world or American history. It’s got 9 comprehension questions at the end.