Children are born into social studies. From birth, they begin exploring their world. At each stage of early development—infant, toddler, preschool, and primary children look around and try to make sense of their social and physical environments.
Develop an appreciation of his/her role as a member of the family, the classroom, & Community
Understand family structures and roles
Participate in class jobs & contributes to the class
Become aware of family/community celebrations & events
Become aware of the roles, responsibilities, & services provided by community workers
Develop a respect for differences in people
Identify similarities and differences among people
Demonstrate an awareness & respect for culture & ethnicity
Demonstrate awareness and respect for abilities
Express beginning geographic thinking
Identify common features in the home & school environment
Create representations of home, school, or community
Develop awareness of the community, city, & state
Recognize characteristics of other regions & cultures
Ways to support instruction at home
Create and "All About My Family" Book. Let the child bring to class to share.
Invite parents to the classroom to share information about their jobs.
Encourage families to identify "jobs" children can help with at home (soring silverware, folding laundry, cleaning up toys, feeding pets, with siblings).
Talk about how everyone in the family should help maek the home a comfortable place to live.
Provide families with lists of community landmarks (library, local historical sites, parks) to visit.
Encourage children to look for community helpers such as mail carriers, police officers, bus drivers, teachers, doctors, nurses, cashiers, custodians, etc.
Go through old magazines and cut our "people pictures". Point our differencxtes in hair color, length, style and texture, skin color, age, genders, and abilities.
Produce and distribute a class cookbook of favorite family recipes (from children in the classroom).
Create self-portraits; suggest using mirrors to examine individual differences.
Draw the outline of the home. Point our the windows & doors. Have them draw in beds and other furnishings.
Visit the local library and choose books relating to various cultures, genders, and diabilities.
