Magnetic Review

It's almost Friday! Just one more day..I think I can...I think I can! I thought I'd share another quick idea we've been using for Social Studies review these past few weeks. 

As we are reviewing I like to make sure students have a grasp on the sequence of events in social studies and which century events happened in. Our state standards don't require kids to memorize a lot of dates, but they are often asked to put events in chronological order. Over the years I've discovered that is easier said than done! The kids really seem to get the Revolutionary War and Civil War all mixed up so this year I decided to try something new.

I typed up people and events from all our studies of Virginia, laminated them, and added a magnet to the back. Then I showed the kiddos how to use it and turned them loose in groups of 3-4. 

We used the front of two filling cabinets to begin with because Wal Mart was out of 9x13 cookie sheets. This also caused me to go into a panic and frantically search every store I went in for cheap cookie sheets. Luckily, a few weeks ago they came back in stock at Wal Mart and I bought some a lot. The check out lady gave me funny looks....oh well...I was just happy they were back! 

After the groups discuss the people and events and decide where they go they can check their answers with a key. Then they partner up, switch up a few cards, and try to trick the other group members. They love playing that game! 

This is a pretty simple concept and didn't take very long to put together, but I feel like it has helped my students get a better understanding of when events happened in relation to each other.