Brilliant Social Studies Idea!

Sorry about the posting twice on the same day... I just had this great idea from a pin on Pinterest! This is why Pinterest is so awesome, you can take great ideas and twist them to suit your classroom.

Original Pin Post about Glitter Germs! This is my original inspiration - the glitter germ lesson is the idea of Little Miss Kindergarten.

Germs!

So - this is my idea for Social Studies and my "Older" kids. You can do this same lesson but use it as an idea starter to get kids thinking about how diseases spread through cultures. I'm going to use it as my opener for the Black Plague lesson!

I mean, it's one thing to talk about the Black Plague... but to actually be "infected" - awesome. Maybe by the Principal or something?! Fun!

I would... use the Glitter germs to infect a few people to start the lesson and maybe a few objects. Start the lesson by having the infected kids pass out a those few items, then "trade" them a few times. See if anyone notices the glitter. Make sure you spread it around to a bunch of kids - then drop the Black Plague bomb on them. I would also have them brainstorm ideas for the "infected" versus the "uninfected."

- What do you do if you're not infected? Hide? Move away?
- Discuss how the disease also is with the items being passed around (like the fleas/rats on the ships)

I'm also planning on using the video of Remy from Ratatouille that talks about rats when introducing the plague.

Any other ideas for adapting this lesson for the older kids?