Scaffolded Social Studies Units Bundle for Elementary Students

Teach key elementary social studies topics with this Scaffolded Social Studies Units Bundle. This bundle includes five popular resources designed to help students build background knowledge, practice social studies vocabulary, complete research projects, and write about what they learn.

Students will explore life long ago and today, map skills, family history, laws and government, how nations interact, and biography research. Many activities include sentence frames, graphic organizers, writing options, vocabulary cards, and differentiated pages to support a range of learners.

Purchasing this bundle saves 25% compared to purchasing the units individually.

What’s Included

This social studies bundle includes:

• Long Ago & Now
• Location, Location, Location
• Biography Research Reports with QR Codes
• All About Laws and How Nations Get Along
• Biography Report for Any Person

Long Ago & Now

Long Ago & Now helps students understand how their lives connect to people, objects, and events from the past.

This unit includes:

• Compare and contrast artifacts from today and long ago
• Family tree activity
• Grandparent or older relative interview
• Timeline activities
• Scaffolded writing activities
• Parent letters in English and Spanish
• Primary and intermediate line options for most pages

Writing activities are scaffolded in multiple ways, including sentence frames, two-sentence responses, and full paragraph writing. The artifact writing activities help prepare students for similar writing connected to the grandparent interview.

Map Skills: Location, Location, Location

Location, Location, Location is a second grade map skills unit that helps students develop geographic understanding through maps, grids, locations, and communities.

This unit includes:

• Letter and number grid maps for the classroom, school, and neighborhood
• Map of North America for labeling and understanding essential map components
• “Where Did Your Ancestors Live?” heritage activity
• Rural, urban, and suburban community activities
• Compare and contrast activities
• Sentence frames
• Vocabulary cards
• Parent letter in English and Spanish
• Primary and intermediate line options for most pages

The activities are scaffolded to help students move from oral language practice to written responses.

Biography Research Reports with QR Codes

The Biography Research Reports with QR Codes resource helps students access kid-friendly websites and videos while researching famous historical figures.

Each historical figure includes a page with QR codes for:

• Websites
• Videos
• Additional research resources

Website QR codes primarily direct students to kid-friendly sources such as Ducksters, Mr. Nussbaum, and Biography.com. Some QR codes may link to other student-friendly websites when needed.

Video QR codes are mainly from Biography.com and YouTube. YouTube videos are routed through Safeshare when possible. Please note that some Biography.com videos may include advertisements.

All About Laws and How Nations Get Along

All About Laws and How Nations Get Along is a social studies unit designed to supplement instruction about laws, government, and international relationships for second grade students.

This unit includes:

• Lesson plans
• Vocabulary cards
• Original text about how laws are made, carried out, enforced, and used to punish wrongdoers
• Original text about how nations interact with one another
• Activities for each text
• Reflection activities
• Written assessment

Students learn about how nations may help each other, share culture, make treaties, use diplomacy, and, in some cases, use military force. The written assessment helps students synthesize their understanding of laws and relationships between nations.

Biography Report for Any Person

The Biography Report for Any Person resource can be used for a biography project, presentation, genre study, social studies research unit, reading unit, or informational writing unit.

This resource is designed for second through fifth grades and can be differentiated by choosing the graphic organizers, report pages, and project formats that best meet your students’ needs.

Biography Report Includes

• Teacher notes and background information
• Student report selection page
• Editable rubric
• Editable checklist
• Biography genre posters in color and black and white
• Research graphic organizers in multiple formats
• Lined and unlined organizer options
• Full-page report pages
• Half-page report pages
• Biography report poster
• Trifold report pages
• Lap book components
• Interactive notebook components
• Construction paper person project pieces

Report Page Options

The report pages include options for:

• Cover
• Table of contents
• Scaffolded report
• Person portrait
• Early life
• Education or training
• Importance in history
• Facts
• Quote
• Timeline
• Major events
• Death
• Personal reflection
• Character traits
• Books and websites

Project Formats

Students can complete their biography research in several formats, including:

• Full-page report
• Half-page report
• Poster
• Trifold report
• Lap book
• Interactive notebook
• Construction paper person project

This resource pairs well with the QR Codes for Biography Research Reports resource, which helps students access websites and videos when studying a famous person.

Skills Covered

This bundle helps students practice:

• Comparing and contrasting past and present
• Understanding long ago and now
• Completing family history activities
• Reading and creating timelines
• Using maps and grid systems
• Identifying map components
• Comparing rural, urban, and suburban communities
• Building social studies vocabulary
• Understanding laws and government
• Learning how nations interact
• Researching famous people
• Using QR codes for research
• Taking notes
• Organizing information
• Writing reports
• Presenting biography projects

Ways to Use This Bundle

Use this social studies bundle for:

• Second grade social studies units
• Whole-group lessons
• Small group instruction
• Research projects
• Biography units
• Informational writing units
• Map skills lessons
• Past and present units
• Government and laws lessons
• Interactive notebooks
• Social studies writing centers
• Cross-curricular reading and writing practice

Why Teachers Love It

Teachers love this bundle because it combines multiple scaffolded social studies resources in one convenient set. Students receive support through vocabulary cards, sentence frames, graphic organizers, parent letters, writing pages, and differentiated report options.

The included resources make it easier to connect social studies with reading, research, writing, oral language, and classroom presentations.

This Scaffolded Social Studies Units Bundle is a comprehensive elementary resource for teaching long ago and now, map skills, biography research, laws and government, how nations get along, and biography reports. With QR code research pages, vocabulary cards, writing supports, graphic organizers, interactive notebook activities, parent letters, report pages, and project options, this bundle is ideal for second grade social studies instruction and differentiated elementary research projects.