Ready-To-Use Middle School Social Studies Activities
For your National Hispanic Heritage Month celebrations in your classrooms, we’ve put together activities for your Pre-K-12 students. In this blog, explore Latin American countries with your middle school social studies class and convince people why they would want to travel there. We’ve got you covered with classroom strategies, activities, resources, and graphic organizers.
Looking for different level and subject-area activities? Click the links below:
SOCIAL STUDIES ACTIVITIES: Exploring Hispanic Heritage
Elementary Level Social Studies: Life in Mexico (Grades PreK-2) AND Mayan Exploration (Grades 3-5)
High Level Social Studies: Biographies of Independence
SCIENCE ACTIVITIES: Making STEM Accessible
Elementary Level Science: 1, 2, 3…Erosion! (Grades PreK-2) AND Light, Bright (Grades 3-5)
Middle Level Science: Alternative Sources of Energy
High Level Science: Timeline of the Earth
In each activity, I share suggested resources from Britannica’s newest classroom tool, LaunchPacks: Social Studies. You can get free 30-day access now by taking a Packs: Social Studies free trial, or you can use the activity, questions, and free, downloadable graphic organizer with your own classroom resources.
Grades 6-8 Social Studies Activity: Latin American Travel Agent
Overview: Students will use the articles within the pack to create a travel pamphlet for the Latin American country that they’ve been assigned.
Suggested Resources:
• LaunchPacks Social Studies: Hispanic Americans for Grades 6-8
• Graphic Organizer: Jigsaw Puzzle
• Graphic Organizer: Claim-Reason-Evidence II
Strategy:Â Claim-Reason-Evidence
Activity: Each student will be assigned to research a Latin American country (Use the map that is part of the Hispanic Americans article within the pack to find out which countries are considered Latin American countries).  Students will use Graphic Organizer: Jigsaw Puzzle to collect information from a variety of sources, and then they will compile the facts they’ve gathered into Graphic Organizer: Claim-Reason-Evidence II.  Students will create either a poster or a pamphlet to advertise why people should visit their country.  Finally, students will present their findings / marketing to the class.
Suggested Questions:
• Why should people want to visit this country?
• What is the culture like?  What are the people like?  Food?  Religion?  Sports?  Literature?
• What is the topography like?  Mountains?  Lakes?
• What is the economy like?  Exports?  Farming?  Manufacturing?
• What are some of the important benchmarks of this country’s history, both ancient and recent?
Possible Extension:Â Share some culture! Â Bring food, music, movies, and literature from the country that you are reporting on and share it with your class! Â If you are bringing food, make sure to bring the recipe for the dish that you are highlighting!
