A social studies project that you can do in your classroom includes helping your students to understand the history behind immigration in America. As you teach about immigration, allow your students to present an item connected to their ethnic heritage before the class. Then allow the student to scrutinize the object to figure out what heritage his item belongs to. Your third grade students can also wear costumes related to their ethnic background or present ethnic food to the class. You can also have your students write a riddle with specific clues about their heritage. After you've collected all of the riddles, read each riddle to the classroom to see if the other students can figure out the ethnic heritage of their fellow students.
Implement short skits as a part of your learning history assignments. Assign small groups to demonstrate a particular time in history, such as the signing of the Declaration of Independence, a particular time of war or imitate a historic person. This will help them remember important events in history while having a fun being creative. You can also invite parents to see their children perform in the classroom.
For Black History Month, create a Harlem Renaissance theme for your classroom art exhibit. The theme should be focused on artists such as Jacob Lawrence, Charles Alston and Henry Bannarn. If there is a local museum of African American history in your town, schedule a day to go to the museum or allow students to view artworks during the Harlem Renaissance using a popular museum website such as the Whitney Museum of American Art website. Have the student choose his favorite artwork, remake the artwork and then write a short description about the artist and the artwork. Allow other students of all grades to view your students' artwork.
Field trips to museums and art galleries give the students the opportunity to learn about history with tangible resources. Students can view exhibits of artwork by renowned artists and learn about artifacts recovered from various historical eras of the past. You can also create a theme and worksheets for the students to complete while at the museum.