Looking for a curriculum for social studies for kindergarten. It's a state required subject. I'm not even entirely sure what falls under the category of social studies. Help, please.
Social Studies would include history, geography, maps, community helpers (jobs), anthropology, archaeology, sociology, holidays, anything that has to do with how children around the world live (whatever categories that would fall under), flags and countries, civics and the constitution -- anything that falls into the "social" category. For K, people usually choose things like holidays (why we have them, how we celebrate them), community helpers, and a little history and civics of our country (or the country they live in), including the flag and other symbols. It does not have to be very deep or highly structured to qualify: read some library books at the child's level for read-aloud time, and color some pictures or have the child draw some pictures that go with the content of the books.
I'm doing our community with my 5 year old right now. We read about a place in our community, guess what it might be from the clues I made, go there, read about it, draw a picture, and add it to our map we are making. Between the library books and our little "field trips" Grace has learned a lot about how things work.
Here's the 'typical course of study' for Kindergarteners for Social studies (from worldbook). From this link: http://www.worldbook.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=114&Itemid=1 I was going to copy/paste, but looks like all rights reserved there, and I'm leery of copywrites. I use that as a guide for my 1st grader, to be honest. Being new, I wasn't sure where to start!
So far we have done our phone number and 911. We are doing the Flat Stella project and maping out where she has been and meeting new friends. We have worked on the holidays. We will be going into address soon and doing a program about 'all about me' and going over family, friends, likes, dislikes, activities, etc etc etc.
I would recommend not buying a curriculum at this age especially. I would just go to the library and find books about different countries or cultures and read them out loud. I also would not do any testing or quizzing or worksheets. When children are this age, they don't need a lot of formal academics, if any. IMO
Chirp Magazine! Last month they did community helpers and rescue hero's. There are often Social Studies themes you can pull out, and some science too. Lots of crafts and activities. Best of all, Grandparents love buying it for us!! We got a list from a local teacher about what they include in K socials. In our area it's about the child, then the family, then the community. Talking about roles, responsibilities and jobs. Recently they've thrown in "technology" on the list - without much explanation. I tend to include it as what technology do people use to do their jobs. There's also a little bit about safety. Most of socials is just discussion. We do it by talking about things we read in books, and making note of what areas I cover. I like having the list, so that I can kind of check off the areas I've covered for myself.
Just checking. What state are you in? Are you sure it's a requirement for the age of your child? Social Studies may be a requirement, but lots of states are don't require anything from 5 year olds. Just wondering.
I am using Christian Light Education (CLE) Social Studies for 1st grade for my 5 yr old daughter. It teaches about communication and familiy. We really like it.
You don't need a curriculum. Topics might include: community helpers, simple mapping skills, learning name, address and phone number, how to respond in an emergency (calling 911, what to do if lost, etc.), stranger danger, holidays (esp. patriotic ones). You can work in a basic United States and World awareness as it comes up (ie: If Grandma lives in Texas and is coming to visit, find Texas on the map and talk about what states she might be flying over or driving through; find a country on a world map where a visiting missionary is from, etc.) I find it interesting that this is "required", since most states don't even require you reporting a child in Kindergarten.
Agree! Books on community helpers like firemen, police officers, farmers and other workers should count too.
When my son did K SS in PS, they just did community helpers and national holidays and American symbols (flag, bald eagle, Statue of Liberty, etc.) and VERY simple maps (identify land vs water, draw a map of his room, etc and know N, S, E, W) That was it.
