What is a   Community?

Children learn that a community is a place where people live, work, play, and solve problems together. In a Problem Solving Groupwork activity, they design a community that includes places to live, work, and play.

 How Are Communities Different?

Children learn about three types of communities. In a Visual Discovery activity, they learn about the features, advantages, and disadvantages of urban, suburban, and rural communities.

What Does a Map Show?

Children discover what a map is and learn to use its basic features. In a Social Studies Skill Builder, they discover the purpose of maps as they read and answer questions about them.

What is Geography?

Children learn that communities have different geographic features and that physical maps show these features. Singing and reading reinforce their understanding of eight geographic features. Then, in a Social Studies Skill Builder, they practice identifying geographic features and locating them on a physical map.

How Do People Use the Environment?

Children explore how people use (and misuse) the environment. In a Response Group activity, they explore how people use natural resources in various environments, and discover the effects of pollution caused by misuse of the environment.

How Are Goods Made and Brought to Us?

Children learn how goods are produced and distributed. In an Experiential Exercise, children make a simple toy using assembly-line techniques. They then participate in a relay race to learn more about the ways goods are transported to stores. 

Who Provides Services in a Community?

Children learn about service occupations in the community. First, they read descriptions of different occupations and perform pantomimes. Then, in a Writing for Understanding activity, they create stick puppets representing service workers.

How Can I Be a Good Shopper?

Children learn what it means to be a good consumer. In an Experiential Exercise, children make choices about what to buy, and learn to distinguish between economic needs and wants. They read about some basic economic principles and practices that help consumers spend wisely.

How Do Communities Change?

Children learn how communities change. In a Problem Solving Groupwork activity, children create a plane to make a neighborhood better.

How Did One Community Change?

Children learn how San Francisco changed from a small seaport into a large urban area. In a Visual Discovery activity, they analyze images of San Francisco in 1846 and 1852, and then create act-it-outs to explore what life was like during those two time periods.

How Can One Person Make a Difference in a Community?

Children learn how four people from the past made a difference in their communities. In a Response Group activity, children speculate about possible solutions to given community problems and compare their solutions with how people actually solved these problems.

How Do Leaders Help Their Communities?

Children learn about community leaders. In an Experiential Exercise, they elect imaginary people to act as class leaders and learn that a similar procedure is used to elect community leaders. They then participate in a mock demonstration urging community leaders to take certain actions to fix a playground.

What Does a Good Citizen Do?

Children learn what they can do to be good citizens in their community. They play a game to reinforce the concepts. Then, in a Writing for Understanding activity, children create a “Good Citizen” book to record the good-citizen actions they will perform.

What Do Communities Share?

Children learn about some of the things shared by communities in the United States. In an Experiential Exercise, they discover the economic interdependence of communities by exchanging product cards. They then complete a map illustrating social connections among U.S. communities.