SECOND GRADE

Exploring Our Nation and World: People and Places

Second-grade students are evolving into sensitive, caring, and empathetic individuals who connect in a positive way with their fellow citizens. They enjoy learning about people, places, and communities beyond their immediate environments. They are able to use simple charts, maps, models, and other abstract representations. Second graders also enjoy discussing, discovering how things work, classifying, and reviewing materials; and they appreciate closure. Activities involving these concepts may be incorporated into a classroom environment that includes instructional strategies designed to allow time for individual and group projects.

The curriculum for second grade sets the stage for students to acquire positive, lifelong dispositions toward learning and school. Students are involved in meaningful, active learning that includes hearing relevant literature, working in cooperative groups, and participating in related art activities. Standards require that students expand their prior knowledge of historical events, geography, and the interdependent system of goods and services. Additionally, students broaden their understanding of the ideals of civic involvement and of their rights and responsibilities.

Cherokee County Schools: The content standards, bullets and examples contained within this local version of the Alabama Course of Study: Social Studies are minimum content and are required for instruction and student mastery. The activities and resources listed in this document are not all-inclusive, but are a representation from which one can pick, choose and blend with activities and resources already employed within the kindergarten setting.

Alabama Course of Study: Social Studies

AHSGE

Activities

Resources

Exploring Our Nation and World: People and Places

Students will:

E	G	H	PS	1. Compare features of modern-day living to those of the past.
		ü

Examples: past—shopping in general stores, attending frontier schools in one-room buildings; present—shopping in national chain superstores, attending contemporary schools with multiple classrooms

· Using vocabulary to describe segments of time

Examples: year, decade, century

G	H	PS	2. Identify past and present contributions of a variety of individuals who have overcome difficulties or obstacles to achieve goals.
	ü

Examples: Abraham Lincoln rising from poverty and achieving position of President of the United States, Heather Whitestone coping with hearing loss and achieving title of Miss America, Nat “King” Cole struggling with segregation and becoming a world-renowned singer, Arthur George (A. G.) Gaston overcoming lack of completion of high school education and becoming exceptional businessman and developer and owner of one of the largest African-American businesses in the United States, Nelson Mandela confronting apartheid and receiving the Nobel Peace Prize

E	G	H	PS	3. Discuss historical and current events within the state and the nation that are recorded in a variety of resources.
		ü

Exam Examples: interviews with grandparents, Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, video of Neil Armstrong’s walk on the moon, newspaper reports of current elections, video about Sheyann Webb and her involvement in Selma’s voting rights

E	G	H	PS	4. Discuss celebrations in the United States and around the world.
		ü

Exa

Exam: Examples: Children’s Day in Japan, Veterans Day in the United States, Bastille Day in France, Cinco de Mayo in Mexico, New Year celebrations in China

E	G	H	PS	5. Explain the relationship between the production and distribution processes.
ü

ExaEe Examples: tracing milk supply from production on the farm to grocer stores and to consumers, tracing the manufacturing of technological components in other countries to consumers in the United States

· Discussing the impact of consumer choices and decisions

Examp Example: cost of buying and caring for a pet

· Making informed decisions about borrowing and saving

E	G	H	PS	6. Identify human-made and natural resources in the world.
ü	ü

Examples: human-made—paper, natural—crude oil

E	G	H	PS	7. Describe ways people throughout the world are affected by their geographic environments.
	ü

Examples: land use, housing, occupations

· Comparing physical features of regions throughout the world

Example: discussing differences in a desert environment, a tropical rainforest, and a polar region

· Identifying positive and negative ways people affect the environment

Examples: positive—restocking fish in lakes, oceans, and rivers; reforesting cleared land; negative—polluting water; throwing trash on roadways; causing erosion

E	G	H	PS	8. Identify continents, oceans, and the equator using technology, maps, and globes.
	ü

· Identifying map elements, including title, legend, and scale

· Identifying intermediate directions

· Utilizing key elements on maps and globes to estimate routes

Example: using a map scale to estimate the shortest route from one state to another or from Birmingham, Alabama to Athens, Greece

E	G	H	PS	9. Describe rights and responsibilities of citizens of the United States.
			ü

Examples: rights—voting, freedom of speech;
responsibilities—paying taxes

· Explaining the voting process and the use of results

Example: telling how some national and world issues are settled by voting

· Identifying acts of patriotism and symbols of the United States

Examples: acts—reciting the Pledge of Allegiance Allegiance to the flag, standing during the national a national anthem;
symbols symbols—Statue of Liberty, Liberty Bell

· Describing responsibilities of state, national, and world leaders

E	G	H	PS	10. Discuss ways in which people in authority gain the right to direct or control others.
			ü

Examples: being an appointed or elected official, being a parent or guardian, being a police officer

· Describing the appropriate use as well as the misuse of power and authority

Examples: use—determining safety rules,
misuse—showing disrespect for personal freedoms

E	G	H	PS	11. Explain how the diversity of people and customs in the United States and the world affect viewpoints and ideas.
	ü	ü

· Discussing how and why people from various cultures immigrated to the United States

Examples: how—ships, planes, automobiles;

why—improved quality of life, family connections, agricultural disasters

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See “Alabama Extras” unit 1 from Scott Foresman.

Readers theater

Visit Cherokee County Historical

Museum

Possible fluency lessons from literature sparked from the past—

http:www.nsc.ru/folk/folktale,htm

Independent grade level reading or read alouds

See “Alabama Extras” unit 6 from Scott Foresman.

Read alouds from biographies

Independent grade level reading and/or read alouds

See “Alabama Extras” unit 5 from Scott Foresman.

Read alouds and choral readings from Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech (paragraphs 13 & 16)

Audio or video record interview with a grandparent or other senior adult

Independent grade level reading and/or read alouds

Attend a Veterans Day program or participate in a Veterans Day program

Talk about or commemorate celebrations around the world on or near the holiday or celebration

Read/think alouds or independent readings about celebrations around the world

Introduce vocabulary associated with other cultures’ celebrations

Guided reading, independent reading, and/or choral reading

Visit a dairy farm, Leesburg Yarn Mills, K T H Leesburg Products, or a local bank— or have representatives from one or more of these places to come and talk to the class.

Read/think alouds and/or independent reading

See “Alabama Extras” unit 3 from Scott Foresman.

Independent grade level reading, or read alouds

Visit a cotton farm, cotton gin, and/or yarn mill or have a representative from each visit and share with the class

Read/think alouds

See “Alabama Extras” unit 2 from

Scott Foresman.

Read alouds and/or independent reading and rereading

Invite a soil and conservation officer visit the class

Read alouds and/or independent reading

See “Alabama Extras” unit 2 & 3 from Scott Foresman.

Read/think alouds and/or independent reading and rereading

Obtain actual maps of city, county & state along with globes and atlases for students to locate places and estimate distance.

See “Alabama Extras” unit 4 from Scott Foresman.

Daily recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag at a set time. Also break the pledge down (from one punctuation mark to the next) and discuss the meaning.

Invite local leaders (mayor, commissioner, probate judge, etc.) speak to the class.