Social Studies - Kindergarten

Enduring Understanding: B.F. Skinner said, "Education is what survives when what has been learnt has been forgotten." This statement explains enduring understandings. In Understanding by Design, by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe, enduring understandings are defined as "specific inferences, based on big ideas, that have lasting value beyond the classroom." These are typically written as full-sentence statements about what, specifically, your students will understand and be able to use later on in life, even when the small details of what they learned have been forgotten.

Enduring understandings are also transferable in new situations. Wiggins and McTighe explain that, because enduring understandings are often abstract, "they require uncoverage through sustained inquiry rather than one-shot coverage. The student must come to understand or be helped to grasp the idea, as a result of work. If teachers treat an understanding like a fact, the student is unlikely to get it."

Essential Question: An essential question is "a question that lies at the heart of a subject or a curriculum (as opposed to being either trivial or leading) and promotes inquiry and uncoverage of a subject. Essential questions thus do not yield a single straightforward answer (as a leading question does) but produces different plausible responses, about which thoughtful and knowledgeable people may disagree." An essential question can be either overarching or topical (unit-specific) in scope.
(Source: Understanding by Design, by Grant P. Wiggins and Jay McTighe; ISBN: 416600353.)

Standard I    Standard II    Standard III    Standard IV

(Culture): Students will recognize and describe how individuals and families are both similar and different.

Enduring Understandings

Objective 1:
Identify how individuals are similar and different.

Essential Questions

• Why is showing respect to all individuals important?

Indicators:

1. Describe and compare characteristics of self and others (e.g., differences in gender, height, language, beliefs, and color of skin, eyes, hair).
2. Explain how people change over time (e.g., self, others).
3. Demonstrate respect for each individual.
4. Explain the elements of culture, including language, dress, food, shelter, and stories.

Objective 2:
Recognize and describe how families have both similar and different characteristics.

Essential Questions

• Describe ways in which families are unique.

Indicators:

1. Identify family members (i.e., immediate and extended).
2. Explain family rules and routines.
3. Describe family members' duties and responsibilities within the family.
4. Share how families celebrate occasions such as birthdays and holidays.
5. Explain how families change over time (i.e., past, present, future).
6. Describe ways that families provide love, care, food, shelter, clothing, companionship, and protection.

(Citizenship): Students will recognize their roles and responsibilities of being a good citizen.

Enduring Understandings

Objective 1:
Demonstrate appropriate ways to behave in different settings.

Essential Questions

• Explain why honesty, responsibility, and respect are important qualities.

Indicators:

1. Explain why families and classrooms have rules (e.g., examples of rules and consequences).
2. Demonstrate positive relationships through play and friendship.
3. Identify examples of individual honesty and responsibility.
4. Identify examples of honesty, responsibility, patriotism, and courage from history, literature, and folklore, as well as from everyday life (e.g., heroes of diverse cultures).
5. Demonstrate respect for others, leaders, and the environment.

Objective 2:
Identify and demonstrate safe practices in the home and classroom.

Essential Questions

• Why is following rules an important responsibility when you are at home or at school?

Indicators:

1. Recite name, address, and telephone number.
2. Follow safety procedures for school emergencies (e.g., fire drill, earthquake, intruder).
3. Recognize and explain common traffic symbols.
4. Identify school personnel to whom students can go to for help or safety.
5. Identify and articulate the purpose and role of authority figures (e.g., parents, secretary, principal, teacher, librarian, police officers, firefighters, tribal leaders).

Objective 3:
Investigate and explain how symbols and songs unite families and classmates.

Essential Questions

• Explain how symbols and songs can help families and classmates feel connected.

Indicators:

1. Identify school systems and traditions (e.g., mascot, song, events).
2. Recognize state and national symbols (e.g., state and national flags, bald eagle, seagull, Statue of Liberty).
3. Learn and sing state and U.S. patriotic songs.
4. Identify the people and events honored in Utah and U.S. commemorative holidays.
5. Know the words and meaning of the Pledge of Allegiance.
6. Identify the rules and etiquette of citizenship (e.g., stand for the flag, hand over heart).

(Geography): Students will use geographic terms and tools.

Enduring Understandings

Objective 1:
Identify geographic terms that describe their surroundings.

Essential Questions

• How can understanding physical features help you describe your surroundings?

Indicators:

1. Locate objects in the classroom using the terms near/far, left/right, behind/in front, and up/down.
2. Identify and describe physical features (e.g., mountain/hill, lake/ocean, river, road/highway).
3. Make a simple map (e.g., home, home to school, classroom).

Objective 2:
Describe the purpose of a map or globe.

Essential Questions

• Why is having knowledge of maps and globes important?

Indicators:

1. Identify maps and globes.
2. Distinguish between land and water on maps and globes.
3. Determine a location by using terms such as near/far, up/down, right/left.
4. Identify cardinal directions on a map.

(Financial Literacy): Students can explain how humans meet their needs in many ways.

Enduring Understandings

Objective 1:
Recognize that people have basic needs (food, shelter, and clothing) and wants (toys, games, treats).

Essential Questions

• How can your basic needs be met?

Indicators:

1. Identify the difference between basic wants and needs.
2. Explain that families have needs and wants.
3. Describe how basic human needs, such as food, shelter, and clothing, can be met.

Objective 2:
Explain that people have jobs and earn money to meet their needs.

Essential Questions

• Why do people work?

Indicators:

1. Identify the jobs in the home and in the school.
2. Explain why people work (i.e., to earn money to buy the things that they need or want).
3. Describe different types of jobs that people do and the tools and equipment that they use.
4. Recognize various forms of United States coins and currency.

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