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| Social Studies | |
| Now and Then: | In this unit children begin to develop a sense of the passing of time by learning about the length of a day and what constitutes a week and a month. They also investigate their own personal history. Gathering photographs of their parents as young children and of themselves as infants, toddlers, and kindergartners, they distinguish between the past and the present. Drawing pictures of themselves as adults helps the children to imagine the future. After reading several biographies, they learn to recognize enduring qualities of good character and citizenship exemplified by people of the past. |
| Where Am I? |
This unit uses the idea of a child’s home address as a lens for learning geography. The children learn that each address designates a unique location. First coming to understand that a map is drawn from an aerial perspective, they go on to make and interpret simple maps of local areas. They begin to understand that maps use symbols to indicate location and direction. They contemplate movement between places and begin to measure distance. To culminate the unit, children travel to a nearby city (mapping their journey) and discover that a city is a place where people work, live, and shop. |
| Other Children Near and Far: | In this unit, children compare themselves to other children in their classroom and to children in other places. They create criteria for comparison such as their own physical characteristics, features of the environments in which they live, and their recreational activities (e.g., toys, games, books, and music). They investigate the influence of the natural and human environments on the lives of children. As the children notice similarities and differences, they begin to develop a foundation for building bridges across cultures. |
| What Rules Should We Live By? |
This unit uses the idea of an imaginary school neighborhood to help the
children learn about how communities govern themselves. First, the
children decide how decisions concerning the neighborhood should be made.
Then, they create the rules that citizens in the neighborhood must obey.
When simulated infractions occur, they must decide how to enforce these
rules. They also attempt to resolve problems that surface when freedoms
and neighborhood rules are in conflict. The children investigate real
conflicts in their own neighborhoods and share possible resolutions with
their classmates.
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| What Can I Buy? |
This unit provides the foundation for helping children learn about making economic decisions. First, they are involved with exchanges using barter. Then, having discovered the inadequacy of barter, they investigate why money better facilitates exchanges. Children also generate lists of their wants and decide which goods/services would satisfy their wants. In a simulation they learn about services the government provides and the major source of its revenue. |
| Overview of Social Studies for Kindergarten | |
| The kindergarten social studies curriculum is designed to help children gain an increased awareness of themselves and the world around them. Two of the basic concepts of history and geography, time and space, are emphasized. The children learn to tell time, differentiate among past, present, and future, and trace the chronology of their own lives. To develop a sense of space, they practice finding locations at home and in school, describing the features of the locations, and tracing their movements between these locations. To lay a preliminary foundation for the study of government, the children discuss appropriate rules for personal conduct. As community members they participate in group activities and collective decision making. An awareness of economics is developed by studying the production and consumption of familiar goods and services. Throughout the year they practice collecting, interpreting, organizing, analyzing, and presenting information pertaining to their study of history, geography, civics, and economics | |