4th Grade Social Studies Curriculum – Customs, Symbols, & Celebrations in Texas

Are you an upper elementary teacher looking to find a quality TEKS-aligned resource that covers customs, symbols, and celebrations in Texas? Looking for minimal-prep and engaging lessons and activities to teach social studies concepts to your 4th-grade students? Look no further!

Unit 12 of the Smart and Simple Social Studies Texas History Guided Curriculum is about the Customs, Symbols, and Celebrations in Texas. This 3-week unit is designed to help 4th grade students explore the importance of key customs, symbols, and celebrations in Texas. Students will learn about patriotic symbols and landmarks in Texas, the significance of the Texas State Anthem and Pledge to the Texas State Flag, as well as important celebrations that represent and appreciate the diversity of Texas.

This 3-week unit includes lesson plans, guided notes, practice activities, exit tickets, a project, unit assessment, and more. Each lesson includes slideshows in both PowerPoint and Google Slides, as well as student digital activities of the notes, practice activities, exit tickets, project, and unit assessment.

This unit primarily correlates to the current TEKS 4th Grade Social Studies standards (adopted in 2024). It includes EVERYTHING you need to teach Customs, Symbols, and Celebrations in Texas – just print & go!

This unit covers the following topics:

• Lesson 1: Introduction to Customs, Symbols, and Celebrations
• Lesson 2: Patriotic Symbols and Landmarks in Texas
• Lesson 3: Texas State Anthem
• Lesson 4: Pledge to the Texas Flag
• Lesson 5: Texas Independence Day
• Lesson 6: Juneteenth
• Lesson 7: Cinco de Mayo
• Lesson 8: Oktoberfest
• Lesson 9: Fiesta San Antonio
• Lesson 10: Customs, Symbols, and Celebrations in Texas Review

What’s included in this resource?

• 3-week pacing guide and overview
• Scope and Sequence
• 10 teacher lesson plan guides
• 9 non-editable slideshows (Google Drive & PPT versions)
• 1 editable slideshow review game with student recording sheet and QR code
• Guided notes for Lessons 1-9 (2 versions: fill-in-the-blank and highlighted words) – 2 size options – full-page size for binder and smaller size for notebooks
• 9 practice activities
• 10 exit tickets
• Digital and full-color versions of student activities
• Unit Project
• Unit Assessment
• Answer keys for all student activities

What makes this Guided Social Studies Curriculum Smart and Simple?

✅ The social studies daily lessons and activities are bite-sized and can easily be implemented in 30-45 minutes.

✅ The social studies curriculum is TEKS-aligned (for Texas) but is still flexible enough to use in any order.

✅ Each social studies unit has everything you need to simply teach social studies – easy-to-follow lesson plans, guided notes, practice activities, exit tickets, and more!

It’s everything you need to implement engaging social studies lessons that students love and teachers enjoy (because it’s comprehensive and easy to prep)!