Using the Kindergarten Social Studies Frameworks:

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• Using the Kindergarten Social Studies Frameworks
  
• How do I Get Started?

Sarah Blascovich Brown Teacher on Assignment
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Out with the old. In with the NEW!!!

• Day 1 QCC

• Day 1 GPS

• I teach whatever Ive been teaching, because Ive
  always done it that way.
• Day 1Chapter 1page 1
• We dont have time to teach it anyway, so why
  worry about it?

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Out with the old. In with the NEW!!!

• Day 1 QCC

• Day 1 GPS

• Start with introducing concepts so students can
  build important schema
• Design an authentic activity/task that will
  demonstrate student understanding
• Think about trade books that will enrich the
  content being taught.

• I teach whatever Ive been teaching, because Ive
  always done it that way.
• Day 1Chapter 1page 1
• We dont have time to teach it anyway, so why
  worry about it?

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What to expect in a curriculum map
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What to expect in a framework
Activities Mods
EUs and EQs
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K-5 Suggested Enduring Understandings
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Teaching Unit One

• Think about all you do to teach routines and
  procedures at the beginning of the yearthis is
  unit one!
• Lasts about two weeks
• Introduces all the Enduring Understandings that
  will be used in Social Studies
• Accesses students prior knowledge
• Builds the scaffolding needed to understand
  historical, geographic, government, and economic
  concepts.
• A great way to integrate reading strategies and
  good literature in this unit and beyond!

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How do I know what concepts to teach?

• Use your curriculum map!
• The concepts are listed for each unit of the map.
• Every piece of content is listed under a relevant
  concept
• These are suggestions make them work for your
  class!
• Since you have already introduced the concepts
  during Unit One, you can refer to them during the
  course of the unit!

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What if I didnt teach Unit One?

• Do mini-lessons/activities to introduce the
  concepts as you get to them.
• Stop and do a Unit One in the middle of the year!
  This really CAN be done!
• Find ways to incorporate the concepts so that
  students can buildtheir schema.

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The Concept Wall
Photo courtesy of Yvette Welch, Gilmer County
Schools
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Using the Next Units

• Now that you have helped students understand the
  themes of Social Studies, now it is time to teach
  the content!
• Add to your concept wall!
• Essential questions to guide student learning
• Standards/elements (if necessary/required)
• Include important content vocabulary for the
  unit.
• Visual clues portraits, photographs, book
  covers
• Look ACROSS the curriculum to guide you make
  things match!

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Using the Next Units

• Continue the work you started in Unit One link
  the content students are learning BACK to their
  own lives, experiences, and prior learning.
• Incorporate meaningful integration whenever
  possible!
• Take some time to plan the activities you want to
  do before you begin, particularly if you are
  using a culminating performance task.
• Re-introduce the concepts to students as
  necessary there are NO rules about this!

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Heres an example
Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney Connecting Theme
Location Enduring Understanding The student will
understand that where people live matters.

1. Introduce the story the story to students and
   incorporate all the reading strategies you use
   when you do a read-a-loud.
2. Using a map or a globe, help students identify
   some of the places where Miss Rumphius might have
   traveled.
3. Talk about the landforms, physical features, etc.
   of those places, and how they appear in the
   story.
4. Discuss why Miss Rumphius chose to return to the
   seaside ask students where they would live if
   they had the choice, and graph the results!
5. If youre beginning Unit Two soon, use this book
   to discuss different kinds of work that people
   can do! Think about how Miss Rumphius and her
   grandfather both worked to make the world a more
   beautiful place.

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Heres another
The Honest-to-Goodness Truth by Patricia
McKissack Illustrated by Giselle
Potter Connecting Theme Individuals, Groups, and
Institutions Enduring Understanding The student
will understand that people, groups, and
institutions say and do can help or harm others
whether they mean to or not.

1. Before reading the story, have students imagine a
   situation where it is VERY important to tell the
   truth. Chart this list. Tell students that they
   are going to read a story where a little girl
   learns the REAL meaning of telling the truth.
2. Read the story and discuss. Pay particular
   attention to how different people and groups act
   within the story.
3. Afterwards, discuss ways that Libby Louise could
   have behaved differently. Then, have students
   divide into groups and act out better choices
   that Libby Louise could have made in the
   situations where she told too much truth.

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Teaching Unit Two

• The transitional words are meant to be introduced
  in this unit and continually reinforced all year
  long calendar time is a great and natural way
  to do this.
• Obviously, students will not instantaneously
  remember all of the words to the Star Spangled
  Banner and the Pledge of Allegiance. Keep
  working at it, and help them understand some idea
  of what those words actually mean.

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Teaching Unit Two

• Consider shared readings for both the Pledge and
  the anthem.
• Put the words on sentence strips and let children
  arrange them in the correct order in a pocket
  chart.
• Create a cloze activity with the words.
• Read the words as part of an illustrated story

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Teaching Unit Two

• Dont delay introducing economics Labor Day is
  the perfect time to do it!
• www.econedlink.org
• www.econed.org
• The K-2 Economics document also includes an
  activity called The Land of Snakes Donuts
  that involves Play-dough. While there is more
  than snakes donuts involved in economics, its
  a great hands-on way to get started!

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Final Thoughts

• Why mess with concepts and enduring
  understandings?
• Front end planning and instruction will pay off
  in the long run.
• Students will know more than memorized dates,
  names, and places.
• Make the concept wall an integral part of your
  teachingit will help you and the students make
  connections within and between concepts.
• Try to incorporate some social studies content
  every day even if its just a quick review of a
  concept.