Social Studies
Standards
Early Childhood
People in Societies for Early Childhood
Government for Early Childhood
History
is the study of the past—a study of people and the events that influenced
behavior.
Preschool
children focus on the here and now and are developing their understanding of
chronological time that is
essential to understand history. They learn about time in relation to
themselves, including the
sequence and order of their daily routines and schedule, what they did
yesterday and what they will do
tomorrow. Preschool children love to consider what they can do
now that they couldn’t do when they were
“babies”. They enjoy listening to stories of the recent
past as well as of times and
places of long ago – if the topics are relevant to their own
experiences.
Chronology
1. Begin to use the
language of time (e.g., day, night,
yesterday, today, tomorrow).
2. Label days by
function (e.g., school day, stay home day,
swim day, field trip day).
3. Begin to use or
respond to the language of time such as
next, before, soon,
after, now and later as related to daily
schedules and routines.
Daily Life
4. Share episodes of
personal history from birth to present
through personal memorabilia or connected to
stories.
5. Arrange sequences
of personal and shared events
through pictures,
growth charts and other media
Heritage
6. Share personal family stories and traditions (e.g., photo
album put together by family members).
A
social unit can be defined as a group of members who have an ongoing
relationship with one
another. Examples of social units
are the family, school, neighborhood, community, state and
nation. Understanding people and
how they live within a social unit is the component that
includes physical characteristics of
people; similarities and differences in habits, traditions,
homes and work; family structures
and roles. In preschool, exploration of social units should
focus on the family, neighborhood
and community with all learning related to the child’s own
experiences. Supporting children in understanding the
value of diversity requires experiences through a multifaceted, diverse
curriculum. Racial/ethnic awareness starts with the identification of physical
characteristics and ethnic values, customs and language styles, and ends with
respect for others. Through story, art, music and games of diverse cultures,
children come to learn about others who differ from them and respect the
uniqueness of each individual. Culture is expressed daily through story, music,
new foods and sharing of family traditions through the year as the general
curriculum.
Cultures
1. Develop a sense of belonging to different groups (e.g., family, group of friends, preschool class, boys or girls).
2. Demonstrate awareness of different cultures through exploration of family customs and traditions (e.g., exploration of music, food, games, language, dress).
Geography
is the study of characteristics of the place where one lives and the
relationships
between and among places and people.
For preschool children, geography is about the physical
world of their homes, playgrounds,
schools, the homes of friends, and places to shop and visit.
The
materials for teaching this content area are the slides, swings and grassy
areas on the
playground; and the rug, centers
and furniture within the classroom. The strategies are talking
about familiar environments and
demonstrating how to navigate these areas. Mapping can be
addressed by discussing directions –
how to get to the playground, the bathroom, the library
within a school. Children can be
encouraged to recreate their neighborhood in the block area and
draw or paint maps of places they
go. Young learners draw upon immediate personal experiences
as a basis for exploring geographic concepts
and skills.
Location
1. Demonstrate and use terms related to location, direction
and distance (e.g., up, down, over, under, front, back,
here, there).
2. Demonstrate the ways that streets and buildings can be
identified by symbols, such as letters, numbers or logos
(e.g., street signs, addresses).
3. Demonstrate how maps can be useful to finding places
(e.g., streets, homes, places to
visit).
Places and Regions
4. Navigate within familiar environments, such as home,
neighborhood or school, under supervision.
5. Describe and represent the inside and outside of familiar
environments such as home and school (e.g.,
playground).
6. Recognize and name the immediate surroundings of
home (e.g., homes, buildings, bridges, hills, woods,
lakes) following supervised explorations.
Human Environmental
Interaction
7. Explore the ways we use natural resources found in our
environment (e.g., water to drink,
dirt to plant).
Economics
is the study of how people organize for the production, distribution and consumption
of goods and services. For young children,
exploration and understanding of these concepts is
often through authentic or play
experiences. For example, as young learners take on the jobs and
the life of a farmer through dramatic play,
the concepts of growing, harvesting and selling of
crops may be explored. Their
understanding may be deepened with a class field trip to a peer’s
family farm. Also, young children
can begin to differentiate between wants and needs and explore
economic decisions as they learn the
importance of sharing and begin to consider the wider
consequences of their
decision making on peers within the classroom.
Scarcity and Resource
Allocation
1. Recognize that people have many wants within the
context of family and classroom.
2. Understand how sharing classroom materials will meet
everyone’s wants (e.g., turn taking at the water table,
distributing crayons equitably).
Production,
Distribution
3. Demonstrate an understanding of the concepts of
production, distribution and consumption through play
(e.g., food from the farm, to the grocery store) and
concrete experiences (e.g., food purchased from the store
and cooked at home).
4. Obtain things they want (e.g., goods and services) in
socially acceptable ways (e.g., verbalizing,
turn taking).
For
preschoolers, social studies should include experiences that provide for the
study of roles,
responsibilities, principles and
practices in a democratic society. Children are introduced to
democratic ideals and
practices by helping to set and follow classroom expectations, taking on
roles and responsibilities as a
member of the group, accepting leadership and guidance from
familiar adults and demonstrating how
to balance the needs of themselves, their peers and adults
within a group.
Role of Government
1. Interact with and respond to guidance and assistance in
socially accepted ways from familiar adults at school and
home (e.g., responds to redirection, invites others to play).
2. Interact with familiar and appropriate adults for assistance,
when needed (e.g., family member, teacher, police,
firefighter).
3. Demonstrate an understanding of the specific roles and
responsibilities within a group (e.g., picking up own toys).
4. Recognize the flag of the
government.
Rules and Laws
5. Participate in creating and following classroom rules and
routines.
Through
social interactions with peers and adults, young children learn about civics as
they
engage in the practices of
cooperation and the resolving of differences, and begin to accept
responsibility for their
independent choices. It is important that young children be offered many
opportunities to make choices
and to experience the consequences of their choices. It is the
process of choosing and contributing
to the classroom community that counts in the early years,
not the particular choice that children make.
Participation
1. Demonstrate cooperative behaviors, such as helping, turn
taking, sharing, comforting, and compromising.
2. Engage in problem solving behavior with diminishing
support from adults (e.g., negotiating roles in play, turn
taking).
Rights and
Responsibilities
3. Demonstrate increasing ability to make independent
choices and follow through on plans (e.g., putting toys
away, moving from activity to activity).
4. Demonstrate awareness of the outcomes of one’s own
choices (e.g., picking up toys helps create a safe
environment).
Young
children gather information about people and their environments through
multiple sources.
These
sources include observation, questioning, sharing of books and conversation.
They then
make predictions, evaluate
information and draw conclusions. Finally, children use a variety of
methods, such as drawing, dramatic
play, and language to communicate what they have learned
about the social world around
them.
Obtaining Information
1. Gain information through participation in experiences
with objects, media, books and engaging in
conversations with peers.
Thinking and
Organizing
2. Begin to make predictions (e.g., guess whether other
countries around the world celebrate birthdays).
Communicating and
Information
3. Represent ideas through multiple forms of language and
expression (e.g., drawing, dramatic play, conversation,
art media, music, movement, emergent
writing).