First Grade - History/Social Studies

• Geography
• History
• Civics
• Economics

Do This First: Launching Unit for first 2 weeks

Compelling Question:

How can we come together as unique (diverse) people to build a better community?

This should lead to investigative questions from the students. Here is a possible way to elicit those questions:

Think, Puzzle, Explore
 

• Distinguish the difference between rights, laws and responsibilities and how they affect a community
  • Teaching Laws, Rights, and Responsibilities to Kids | Freedom of Speech | Kids Academy
• Discuss what it means to be “fair” and why it is important as both individuals and in a group
• Explore how we as unique and diverse people have different opinions and views of “fairness”
  • Option revisit this video from K units
    • Sesame Street: Showing Fairness with Brett Goldstein | #ComingTogether Word of the Day
• Distinguish the differences between equal and equitable through read alouds and class discussions
  • That’s Not Fair by Courtney Butorac
  • Fair is Fair, Isn’t it? By Lindsey L. Wilson
• Identify the correlation/differences between classroom agreements and community rules.
• Take a walking field trip or school walk and take notes about where we see agreements/rules or laws in action.In class, discuss our findings.
• Read about ways people can change their communities when they feel something is unfair
  • Sesame Street: How to be an Upstander to Racism Song | #ComingTogether
  • One by Kathryn Otoshi I Read Aloud I
• Watch videos that show different ways that students have made their community better
• Generate a list of agreements/norms to use in the classroom and/or greater school community when conflicts arise and determine 3-5 that the class agrees are the most important

• Video a PSA for the school community that reminds students of community agreements in common areas.
• Create a set of classroom norms/agreements that everyone will follow when conflicts/disagreements arise
• Make posters that reflect what students would like to see changed in their community to make it a better place for all
• Create posters of each students “worldview” of community Link to 2nd grade examples

Compelling Question:

How do people from different (diverse) cultural backgrounds build communities that change over time?

This should lead to investigative questions from the students. Here is a possible way to elicit those questions:
Get some images of people in neighborhoods/schools and do a See Think Wonder

• Look at photographs of their school/neighborhood from today and in the past to notice what has changed 
• Use a community calendar to note important community events, cultural holidays and celebrations and plot them on a timeline
• Have different community members come into the class and share their cultural identities and allow time for a Q & A session
• Have students investigate their own cultural identity by participating a family cultural scavenger hunt where they uncover what is important to their family about their home culture and personal history
• Look at photos from schools in the past and schools today and have a class discussion noticing what is the same and what is different.
  •  
• Read about people/characters from various racial/cultural backgrounds where cultural identity is highlighted
  • The Skin You Live In by Michael Tyler
• Read books about people who make changes in their local communities.
• Take a field trip(s) to different cultural centers throughout the community.
• Look at artwork, symbols and icons that represent different cultures within our community and discuss the messages they convey.
• Students ask their family what the word culture means and share during class discussion.
• Investigate different aspects of culture

• Create individual posters that express their ideas of personal cultural identity to share with the school at large
• Co-create a class working definition of the word culture that will be used for the rest of the year
• Small groups work together to create posters of what culture means to them 
• Work with cultural community centers to create projects that help build solidarity. 
• Create a class slideshow by using student drawings with captions about different events in their local community
• Use what they have learned about community actions to create a timeline of events in their community
• Create posters that “advertise” the different cultural centers in their city

Compelling Question:

How can we help others locate important places in our community, where to get what we need and find out what makes it special?

This should lead to investigative questions from the students. Here is a possible way to elicit those questions:
Instead of sharing ideas, have them come up with questions and stop and jot as a class between mingle sessions
Mingle Pair Share | Inquiry Lesson Plan Strategy
 

• Look at some neighborhood maps and investigate how map keys function
• Locate your place in space on different kinds of maps
• Read different books that include mapping skills and different ways of creating maps
• Take a field trip to go on a neighborhood walk and locate different landmarks, street names and places that serve the community (libraries, fire stations, hospitals, Golden Gate Park, Bay Bridge, etc….)
• Find the location of different community cultural centers on a city map
• Read Me on the Map and use as a model for possible map making
• Research how goods and services are provided to the community in neighborhoods (grocery stores vs. dentist office) and locate those places on a map
• Play games that use play money to go “shopping” using a map of of where to find the “stores” in a classroom
• **Participate in an ongoing “fake monetary system” in class that gives “payment” for work/positive behavior and allows students to “purchase” goods from a prize box. (This could be as simple or complex as the teacher decides)

• **some of these activities and actions can be done earlier in the year as an integrated part of your classroom routines and math routines; such as classroom jobs and a play monetary systems that can be integrated throughout the year

• Create a model of your school’s neighborhood
• Each student writes their own Me on the Map Book to include in the classroom library
• Create a digital Me on the Map Book through a series of Seesaw Lessons
• Create a neighborhood travel guide to help others find important places, goods and services in the neighborhood
• **Co-create a classroom jobs list where each student is given classroom responsibilities