Use activities that demonstrate the significance of historical events to contemporary times. The "Imagine If" activity encourage students to think about what life would be like if history had turned out differently. Break students into groups. Give each group a prompt, such as: "Imagine if women never earned the right to vote?" or "Imagine if colonists had never settled in North America." Have students create individual or group stories based on the assigned prompt. Dramatize the past by putting on a class play. Let students create masks and act out important historical events such as the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Help students develop a sense of where they stand in the larger scheme of things with geography lessons that introduce critical thinking and cartography. One creative geography activity is the Food Globe. Give each student a blank globe or map to fill in with five of his favorite foods. The map must clearly identify the source of each food, the trade routes that introduced Americans to that food and the route it travels today to get from the point of origin to an American supermarket. Map out the interior of the school or classroom, and assign longitude and latitude to the teacher's desk, blackboard and door. These activities emphasize the importance of location in social interaction.
Fifth-grade students have the reasoning and language skills necessary to learn about concepts like law and democracy. Organize field trips to county courts or other local government offices. Giving students an opportunity to observe government in action will help lessons about the legislative, executive and judicial branches stick. Run a debate using parliamentary procedure. Promote critical thinking by assigning tasks that ask students to examine both the benefits and the challenges of democracy in practice.
Most fifth-grade social studies curricula cover Ancient Near Eastern societies like Egypt and Mesopotamia. Build a time capsule as a class by having each student choose one culturally relevant artifact to include in a box to be buried underground. Discuss what you think people 100 years from now might think of contemporary society upon opening the box. This activity draws attention to the difficulties of ascertaining historical facts. Discuss similarities and differences between contemporary culture and ancient cultures.