Social Studies

Wolf Island

By: Celia Godkin

Social studies may be hard to teach young students.  This is why teachers have to incorporate what their students may be interested in.  This is why I chose the book Wolf Island.  Students always seem to be interested in animals.  Wolf Island is about a family of wolves who leave their home, the island.  Before they leave the island, the island is very clean and healthy, but when they come back they realize that the environment they used to live in is not the same.  When they get back, their food is gone and the island is all around less healthy than it was before.  

This is a great book to teach students because they not only get to learn more about wolves, they get to learn about their prey, what they eat.  Students will learn the balance on the food chain, and how animals depend on each other on the food chain.  This is a good and true science/social studies turn on activities. 

Also, after reading this book, teachers can give students activities such as a map of the island in which students can draw where the wolves traveled.  They can make up their own names of places (this incorporates most of the social studies aspects).  They also learned about different food chains.  They can draw a food chain that shows what their wolves will be eating (science aspect).  This needs to stay simple for early learners so they may not fully understand the food chain, but they can use their imaginations to play around with these activities.