WATERFORD PUBLIC SCHOOLS

SOCIAL STUDIES CURRICULUM

GRADE TWO

 

Unit Title:  Family Histories

 

Standard:  1: Historical Thinking,

2: Local, United States & World History,

3: Historical Themes,

4: Applying History

 

Estimated Number of Days to Complete Unit:  Integrated and Ongoing

 

ENDURING UNDERSTANDINGS / DESIRED RESULTS

 

The student will understand that:

1.

Where we come from shapes who we are.

 

 

ASSESSMENTS / ACCEPTABLE EVIDENCE

 

1.

Students will interview family members and create a timeline of their family history.

2.

Students will create a Venn diagram to compare and contrast family life now and family life long ago.

3.

Students will write journal entries from the perspective of a child living in the 1800s.

 

 

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

 

1.

What are our roots?

2.

What story do timelines tell?

 

 

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

 

The student will be able to:

1.

Read and create timelines.

2.

Perform interviews and gather data regarding roles, jobs and other aspects of family life.

3.

Identify some goods, products and ideas which were exchanged as a result of movement.  (beliefs and values, traditions, celebrations)

4.

Describe changes that occur in family history over time.

5.

Display empathy for people who have lived in the past.

6.

Compare and contrast today to years past.

 

 

SUGGESTED RESOURCES

 

1.

Pegasus titles:  Happy Birthday, Grampie,  The Long Way to a New Land, Legend of a Bluebonnet, Angel Child, Dragon Child, The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush, Ox Cart Man, Josefina Story Quilt

2.

Festival Fun—Wildcats Kit

3.

Everybody Cooks Rice by Norah Dooley

4.

The Keeping Quilt by Patricia Polacco

5.

The Great Migration by Jacob Lawrence

6.

Peppe the Lamplighter by Elisa Bartone

7.

When I was Young in the Mountains by Cynthia Rylant

8.

The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant

9.

Places in Time by Elspeth Leacock

10.

So Far From the Sea by Eve Bunting

11.

Grandfather’s Journey by Alan Say

12.

Celebrations  DK Books

13.

Chicken Sunday by Patricia Polacco

14.

Grandparents, parents and other relatives

 

 

 

Unit Title: Our Community Today

 

Standard:  5:  United States Constitution and Government,

6:  Rights and Responsibilities of Citizens,

7:  Political Systems,

8:  International Relations,

12:  Human and Environmental Interaction,

13:  Limited Resources,

14:  Economic Systems,

15: Economic Interdependence

 

Estimated Number of Days to Complete Unit:  Integrated and Ongoing

 

ENDURING UNDERSTANDINGS / DESIRED RESULTS

 

The student will understand that:

1.

Government provides people with services and support they need.

2.

The government is only as strong as the people who participate in it.

 

 

ASSESSMENTS / ACCEPTABLE EVIDENCE

 

1.

Students will complete tasks on the webquest pertaining to local government officials and people’s rights and responsibilities as citizens within a community.

2.

Students will use graphic organizers to compare and contrast human, natural and capital resources.

3.

Students will create an advertisement for a good or service.

4.

Students write a “Letter to the Editor” to influence government official to address a concern within the community.

 

 

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

 

1.

How do communities get what they need?

2.

How is government organized to meet the needs of the people?

 

 

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

 

The student will be able to:

1.

Explain that individuals have rights and responsibilities to follow the law.

2.

Apply the process of how leaders are selected and how people monitor and influence decisions of their government.

3.

Identify the rights of citizens in a democratic society and explain why certain responsibilities are important to themselves, their families, community, state and nation.

4.

Identify services provided by local government and what governments can and cannot do.

5.

Describe the differences among human, natural and capital resources.

6.

Recognize that money is a generally accepted medium of exchange.

7.

Discuss United States’ patriotic symbols and holidays

8.

Describe ways to preserve our Earth’s natural resources.

 

 

SUGGESTED RESOURCES

 

1.

Webquest-Second Grade-Character Education-(www.waterfordschools.org/webquests/charactered/html/index.htm)

2.

Visit from elected officials

3.

Local newspapers, etc.

4.

Time for Kids—Exploring Nonfiction Kit

5.

www.learningpage.com

6.

www.hud.gov/kids

7.

www.eduplace.com

8.

www.lessonplanz.com

9.

Sim-Town Computer Program

10.

Our American Flag--Sunshine

11.

Visit town buildings (post office, fire dispatch, police station)

12.

Great Divide by Dayle Ann Dodds

13.

We the Kids by David Catrow

14.

Follow the Money by Loreen Leedy

15.

If You Made a Million by David Schwartz

16.

Bloomers by Rhoda Blumberg

17.

Prairie Town by Bonnie and Arthur Geiser

18.

Dinosaurs to the Rescue by Laurie Krasny-Brown and Marc Brown

19. 

Common Ground by Molly Bang

20.

So You Want to be President by Judith St. George

 

 

 

Unit Title:  Maps and Geography

 

Standards:        9:  Places and Regions,

10:  Physical Systems,

11:  Human Systems,

12:  Human and Environmental Interaction

 

Estimated Number of Days to Complete Unit: four to six weeks

 

ENDURING UNDERSTANDINGS / DESIRED RESULTS

 

The student will understand that:

1.

Geography both brings people together and creates barriers between them.

 

 

ASSESSMENTS / ACCEPTABLE EVIDENCE

 

1.

Using a reference, students will create a world map by cutting out and labeling continent shapes and placing them accurately on a blank map.  Students will also label oceans and cardinal directions.

2.

Students will label Waterford and neighboring communities on a Connecticut map.

3.

Students create clay representations of land and water forms.

4.

Students will create a visual representation to attract tourists featuring the land and water form of Waterford.

 

 

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

 

1.

What boundaries define a place?

2.

How do you show the Earth on paper?

3.

What are some reasons that land is different around the world?

4.

How does this fit in with the big picture of the Earth?

 

 

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

 

The student will be able to:

1.

Locate and describe Earth’s major physical and human features (including cities, countries, bodies of water, etc.)

2.

Recognize the names of the seven continents.

3.

Identify New England states and capitals.

4.

Describe how seasonal changes including climate and location affect the lives of people living in Waterford.

5.

Locate Waterford and the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans on a map.

6.

Compare and contrast the geography in Waterford to other parts of the state, country or world.

7.

Describe the physical environment of Waterford (hilly/beach).

8. 

Use and understand a compass rose.

 

SUGGESTED RESOURCES

 

1.

Pegasus titles:  Living Worlds: Deserts, The Long Way to a New Land, Animal World of Pandas, Desert Giant, The Mighty Ocean

2.

Iditarod-Dogsled Race Across Alaska--Sunshine

3.

Storm at Coldwater Creek--Sunshine

4.

Time for Kids—Exploring Non-Fiction Kit

5.

Up High in the Mountains—Wildcats Kit

6.

Bridges—Wildcats Kit

7.

Extreme Lives—Wildcats Kit

8.

Time for Kids and Weekly Reader

9.

Map Skills Book B (Scholastic)

10.

Town and state maps

11.

Puzzle Maps U.S.A  by Nancy L. Clouse

12.

Scrambled States of America by Laurie Keller

13.

The Little House Virginia Lee Burton

14.

Journey by Sarah Stewart

15.

As the Crow Flies: A First Book of Maps by Gail Hartman

16.

Follow the Road by, Alvin Tresser

17.

City Mouse/Country Mouse  Scholastic

18.

Me On the Map by Joan Sweeney

19.

www.canteach.ca/elementary

20.

www.enchantedlearning.com

21.

www.proteacher.com

22.

www.worldatlas.com

23.

The Nystrom Nystronaut Atlas