Exploring the World Beyond Maps: Discover! Social Studies for 5th Grade Geography

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Knowing how to find something on the map is only helpful when you know the people and the land of that place.

A few years ago for geography one of my kids spent time learning to draw the world and label the features and cities from memory.  It was impressive, to say the least, but something was missing from this activity.  My student wasn’t learning the cultures and lives of the people.

This year when my 5th grader was going to study geography I looked for something different that would help them both learn their map locations, as well as care about the people in each of the places we studied, and we found the perfect solution from Discover! Social Studies.  

Using Worktexts for Independent Learning

Thanks to Timberdoodle, we learned about the Discover! Social Studies books which was exactly what I needed for my 5th grader this year.  The Discover! Social Studies series is a worktext curriculum available for grades 1-6.  I love using the worktext format because the instructional materials and the worksheets are all in one book which makes it easy for my 5th grader to work independently.  

I like to use living books and hands-on materials when I can, but I also like to include some workbooks in their homeschool as they get older because there is value in the problem-solving and writing skills that the workbooks provide.  It also means that they can work independently while I am helping their siblings.  

Using 5th Grade Discover! Social Studies in our Homeschool

The Discover! Social Studies Curriculum comes in 3 soft cover books.  There is an Instructors Guide and 2 Worktexts for the student labeled, A and B.  Timberdoodle suggests doing two lessons a week for a full year of Social Studies.  We are using it 3 days a week to give us more flexibility to skip weeks when we want a lighter load.  

The lessons are broken into 7 chapters for each continent of the world.  Each chapter has a similar set of lessons explaining both the physical geography of the continent as well as the culture, natural history, and some history.  The books spend time talking about the way each part of the world influences on the global scale as well.  

The Instructor’s Guide has information to support each lesson including the objectives and extension activity ideas so you can dive deeper where your 5th grader is interested.  Finally, the answers for each lesson are included, as well.  

My favorite part of the Instructor’s Guide is the suggestions for different learning styles included in each lesson.  I have not seen this in any other curriculum we have used.  Each lesson has ideas for auditory, visual, and kinesthetic learners to help your students the way they learn best.  

Other Skills We are Building Through our Geography Worktext

Alongside learning about Geography in our Discover! Social Studies program, my child is building softer skills that they will need later in life.  Each lesson starts with vocabulary words and terms that are used in the lesson. 

While my 5th grader is an avid reader, intentionally growing their vocabulary is not something we have done.  It is integrated into this program so they can learn new words in the proper context which will also help their brains retain the information better.  

In the activities for each lesson, there are a variety of activities for 5th graders to use to engage with the information they are learning.  Many of the questions ask students to infer knowledge and draw conclusions from what they read and not merely to find the answer in the text.  This is a skill I have wanted to see my 5th grader work on, so I’m glad it is part of this curriculum.  

As I look ahead to skills my 5th grader will need in the future like standardized tests I am glad to have a way for my 5th grader to start seeing multiple choice questions and using diagrams in how they record the information they are taking in.  Both of these are important skills but don’t fit neatly into any one subject area to be taught.  

Great for Independent Learning

Discover! Social Studies 5th grade is a great fit for my independent 5th grader.  They are learning about world geography and also building critical thinking skills as they complete the activities in each worktext.  They can work on their own through the material while I am helping a sibling.  
You can find Discover! Social Studies 5th grade in the Timberdoodle 5th grade Non-Religious Package.  Grades 1-6 are all available from Timberdoodle.