Second Grade Social Studies
Course Description
In second grade, students engage in the study of geography as it relates to various characteristics of the regions of both Missouri and the United States. This approach supports in-depth inquiry through the examination and evaluation of multiple sources and allows students to explore various regions through the disciplines of history, civics, government, and economics. The study of these disciplines prompts students to consider questions such as the essential questions listed below.
Grade Level: Second Grade
Related Priority Standards (State &/or National): Missouri Learning Standards for Social Studies (K-5)
KSD Priority Standards for 2nd Grade Social Studies
- Explain how laws and rules are made and changed, how individual rights are protected, and how being an active and informed citizen makes a difference within a community (2.PC.1)
- Explain the branches and functions of government, identifying the responsibilities and powers of officials at various levels and branches of government (2.GS.2)
- Identify, construct, and use different types of maps for various purposes (2.EG.5.A)
- Identify, locate, and describe regions of your community, the state, and the world. (2.EG.5.B/F/G)
- Identify, locate, and describe the physical characteristics, human characteristics, and cultural characteristics of your region in Missouri and features of the world. (2.EG.5.C)
- Identify, construct, and use different types of maps for various purposes (2.EG.5.A)
- Compare the culture and people in our community across time periods (2.H.3.A)
- Explore how various historical figures have influenced progress and have impacted human, physical, and/or cultural characteristics of a region in some way. (2.PC.1.E, 2.H.3.C)
- Examine and give examples of the economic concepts of income, labor, wages, and cost-benefit situations (2.E.4.A/B)
- Describe different modes of communication and transportation, identifying their advantages and disadvantages, and explaining how innovation and technology have impacted how people communicate, travel, work, and live (2.EG.5.E)
- Explore how various historical figures have influenced progress and have impacted human, physical, and/or cultural characteristics of a region in some way (2.PC.1.E, 2.H.3.C)
Essential Questions
- How do citizens interact with the government?
- How does where you live impact how you live?
- What are different reasons people choose to settle in a community and how does that affect their environment?
- What are there different types of maps?
- How has the way of life stayed the same and changed over time in Kirkwood, St. Louis, and Missouri?
- How is life in Kirkwood, St. Louis, and Missouri the same and different over the past decades?
- What was life like for your grandparents and your parents, when they were your age? How were their lives the same and different from your own?
- How do people change the world through inventions and their actions?
- How have inventions changed the lives of people?
- How has technology changed the way we live?
Course-Level Scope & Sequence (Units &/or Skills)
Unit 1: What Makes a Community a Community?
In this unit, students will explore what governments do and how citizens interact with the government. Students will:
- Explain and give examples of how laws and rules are made and changed within a community
- Explain how individual rights are protected within a community
- Analyze how being an active and informed citizen makes a difference in your community
- Identify and explain the concept of branches and functions of government
- Distinguish responsibilities and powers of government officials at various levels and branches of government in authoritative decisions
- Read and construct maps with title and key
Unit 2: How Does Where You Live Impact How You Live?
In this unit, students will explore how where they live impacts how they live, the different reasons people choose to settle in a community, how people affect their environment, and the purposes of different types of maps. Students will:
- Identify the properties and use of different types of maps for various purposes
- Identify, name, and locate regions of your community, the state, and the world (continents, oceans, hemispheres)
- Identify and describe the physical characteristics of the student’s region in MO and features of the world
- Identify examples of different regions in MO
- Explain how geography affects the way people live today
Unit 3: Kirkwood & St. Louis, Past & Present
In this unit, students will explore how life has stayed the same and changed over time in Kirkwood, St. Louis, and Missouri. In addition, students will examine what life was like for their parents and grandparents when they were in school and the similarities and differences of these experiences with their own. Students will:
- Compare the culture and people in our community across multiple time periods
- Read and construct maps with title and key
- Name and locate the regions in your community
- Describe human characteristics of the student’s region in MO (i.e. - population composition, architecture, economic and recreation activities, relationship to water)
Unit 4: Inventors & Pioneers, Innovations & Impacts
In this unit, students will explore how people change the world through inventions and their actions, how inventions have changed the lives of people, and how inventions have affected income, labor, and wages. In addition, students will examine how technology has changed the way we live, how different types of communication and transportation have changed over time, and how different inventors and/or pioneers have impacted economic, civil, and social programs. Finally, students will explore how community needs and wants are met, the cost/benefit relationships involved in innovation, and character traits and attitudes shared by inventors/pioneers. Students will:
- Describe the character traits, civic attitudes, and contributions of inventors/pioneers in their field who influenced progress in the US
- Explain the relationship of income, labor and wages (and how technology influences/changes/affects the relationship)
- Describe a personal cost-benefit situation
- Describe different types of communication and transportation and identify their advantages and disadvantages
- Describe how transportation and communication systems have facilitated the movement of people, products and ideas
Course Resources & Materials: A variety of resources are used to support instruction of this curriculum, including primary source documents, maps, atlases, articles, trade books, and videos from Brainpop Jr., Flocabulary, and other online resources. Additional picture books to support the kindergarten curriculum are listed below.
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Date Last Revised/Approved: 2019