Social Studies Curriculum

Elementary (K-6) Skills

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Section Three, Part A - Expanding Geographic Understanding and Comprehension

I. Understand Concepts and Apply the Knowledge, Mechanics: Comprehend Time, Chronology, Seasons and Climate.

1. Perceive and comprehend the mechanics of time and calendar.

   1. Learn to tell time by the (round-face) clock. Develop comprehension of expressions (half past, quarter to.., ten-thirty, twenty-three to.., eighteen after). Read digital clocks.

   2. Name the days of the week in order, the months; identify leap year, the number of days in the week, weeks per year, days per year, days and weeks in each month. Understand leap year.

   3. Identify special calendar dates, special days (July 4th, Thanksgiving, Christmas, winter, solstice, Easter): Calculate time intervals.

   4. Develop, comprehend and expand vocabulary of definite and indefinite time expressions (e.g. soon, later).

      1. Define terms of seconds, minutes, hours as used to read clocks; mathematical and geographic terms for circles, degrees, minutes & seconds. Understand terms of yesterday, tomorrow, century, AD, BC, score, and decade. need to be understood.

      2. Indefinite terms and concepts (past, future long-ago, before, after, meanwhile, etc.) need to be applied and used appropriately.

   5. Learn to translate dates to centuries. Understand how centuries are numbered; Comprehend -zero datelines for centuries.

2. Perceive and comprehend a series of chronological events occurring over a period of time.

   1. Associate seasons with day length and climate.

   2. Relate sun-zenith positions with seasonal weather and climate changes.

   3. Evaluate different climate with different landforms (mountains with/without snow, vegetation, trees) and latitude north and south of equator (tropic to polar area).

   4. Recognize sequence and chronology in personal home-life, school, sports, play, vacation. Understand and recognize factors governing length of various schedules (home, school etc.).

   5. Learn to arrange personal schedule, prioritize matters of importance; learn to set time and date for completing tasks, work, play.

   6. Calculate time between two or more important calendar dates (birthday, holidays, games, Christmas, vacation, field trip). Calculate time intervals.

   7. Comprehend the passage of time; apply personal & historic events to present; relate change and effect upon self, parents, school, environment.

   8. Conceptualize & construct time line. Develop the concept for-time continuum lines.

3. Geography - five themes; define, comprehend and identify the essential aspects of geography and its disciplines.

   1. Location: A specific site; defined by a physical position; identified by coordinates (e.g. latitude & longitude or a street corner) on Earth, and a map; the site can be human-made (city, dam) or a natural feature (river, mountain).

   2. Place: Has both physical (flat, hilly, wet, dry) and human characteristics (cultures, religions, houses, roads, rural, urban). Define and provide examples.

   3. Region: A large area, zone or locale within which a commonalty exists (similar resources, soils, vegetation, crops, landforms, people, rainfall, occupation, habitat). Identify and provide specific examples of a region possessing one or more similarities of a region (climate, soils, ethnic, occupation, etc.).

   4. Human/environment relationship: Define the uniqueness which exists at selected locations, places. Explain various options, causes and effects of human-made places; understand the relationship and balance of the habitat and human kinds steward-ship of the earth.

   5. Movement: Provide examples and define how movement occurs (animals, fish, people, physical). Understand that human (early civilization and modern-day) needs foster communication; transportation of people, resources, and products; development of economic activity.

Section Three, Part B - Geography: The Earth Components

I. Earth - Sun Relationship; Axis Inclination, Orbit and Seasons

1. Identify that the earth's axis tilts and that the path followed by the earth around the sun is called an orbit.

2. Recognize that the earth's orbit around the sun combined with the axis inclination creates seasonal change for much of the earth.

3. Identify that the earth spins on its axis from west to east; the earth turning creates day and night.

4. Explain why earth rotation causes air and water to move (wind, ocean currents clockwise in N. Hemisphere, counterclockwise in Southern hemisphere.

5. Explain how tides are caused by the gravity of the sun and the moon on earth.

6. Recognize that the stars can be used for locational purposes.

II. Earth - Physical Composition; Name, Provide Examples and Apply the Following:

1. Three major components of earth; core, magma, and crust.

2. Internal movement (hot things rise, cool items descend) and centrifical forces; causes the earth's surface (plates) to move.

3. External appearance; the crust (bumpy, level, wet, dry).

4. Chemical elements: Solids (elements, rocks), liquid (water, magma), gases (oxygen, nitrogen) can be combined, in different amounts (rocks, coal, ores, granite) or as single elements (gold, lead, oxygen, helium) to compose parts of the earth.

Section 3, Part C - Geography: The Various Components

I. Comprehend that the study of geography includes all aspects of human activity on Earth. Understand how each is interrelated to the other subjects. Understand how each can be studied separately.

1. Physical geography includes the study of weather and climate, landform, soils, crops and animals, city planning, subsurface conditions (geology), demography (population, distribution).

2. Comprehend that sequence occupancy is the study of human habitation at one site, location or region. Understand why history is a important tool to comprehend the need for resources, the impact for movement, wars, land acquisition, understanding the movement of people, ideas, culture, technology, development and sequence of events.

3. Evaluate the importance of economic geography, in the study of resources, land tenure, development & usage (includes subsistence).

4. Understand that there are differing perspectives of land ownership.

Section 3, Part D - Specific Geography Skills

I. Develop, Illustrate and Explain Relationships

1. Earth, sun, moon
2. Length of day, seasons, year.
3. Growing seasons.

II. Identify and Provide Examples of Major Landforms.

1. Mountains
2. Valleys
3. Plains
4. Mesas
5. Deltas, alluvial plains, fans, piedmont.

III. Comprehend and Illustrate Landforms and Their Causation.

1. Mountains (faulting, folding, uplift, volcanoes).
2. Plains (alluvial, piedmont, coastal etc).
3. Other (canyons, valleys, mesas).

IV. Identify World, Regional and Local Resources.

1. Water (fresh, saline).
2. Minerals (iron, lead, zinc, copper).
3. Agriculture (crops, soils, fishing).
4. Human and education resources.
5. Locate Major Vegetation Regimes.
6. Provide examples of vegetation types.
7. Define zonal limitations of major vegetation types (tropical, desert, temperate, polar).

VI. Define the Difference Between Weather and Climate.

1. Identify climate types (arctic, tropical, desert).
2. Identify global wind pattern, upper air currents.
3. List and locate major arid and moist lands.

VII. Identify and Locate Major Oceanic Currents.

1. Locate on a map and trace oceanic currents in north and south hemisphere.
2. Describe the effect of ocean currents upon the land and how people use the currents to their advantage.

VIII. List and Identify Three Examples of Different Regions.

IX. Identify and Define Human Geography.

1. Sequence occupancy (settlement patterns, e.g. what is the sequence of people/cultures occupying an area over time).
2. Early-man population centers (centers of culture).
3. Historical spread of people, knowledge, information disbursement (oral and written and other methods of disbursement).
4. Planning needs.

X. Describe, Illustrate Proficiency and Knowledge of Geographic Information Sources

1. Written and oral reports.
2. Creation of original drawings, maps, charts, graphs.
3. Use appropriate source material in constructing written/oral reports and resource material (maps, charts, graphs and other media).

XI. Provide personal illustrations and examples of the inter-relationship between people, land, and climate; and, the connections between these three elements.