Ledyard Public Schools

Social Studies Curriculum

Unit 1: All About Me

(Suggested amount of time to spend on unit: Ongoing)

FOCUS QUESTIONS

FQ1: Why am I special? (EQ1,2)

What do I look like? Where am I in my family? What do I like to do? What do I like to eat?

S6; PS2 Identify the rights of citizens in a democratic society and explain why certain responsibilities are important to themselves, their families, community, state and nation.

S12; PS4 Explain how human and natural processes shape places.

FQ2: How am I changing? (EQ1,2)

Timeline - birth to age (milestones) How have I changed?

S1; PS5 Identify ways different cultures record their history, compare past and present situations and events, present findings in appropriate, oral, written and visual ways.

S4; PS2 Seek historical background when confronted with problems and issues of the past as well as of today's world and their own lives.

FQ3:How is my family the same / different from others? (EQ2)

Describe family and share information

S3; PS2 Examine family life and cultures of different people at different times in history.

S3; PS4 Describe and explain some of the reasons people have moved and relate these reasons to some historic movements of large groups of people.

FQ4: What special days do we celebrate? (EQ 1,2,3)

Birthdays Family traditions Holidays

S3; PS1 Recognize that people develop traditions that transmit their beliefs and ideals.

NOTES TO TEACHER:

Integrate units throughout the year as appropriate. The following web sites provide literacy links for this topic:

Carol Otis Hurst at carolhurst.com

For this topic: children's lit web guide www.ucalguary.ca/~dkbrown/index.html

Education Planet www, educationplanet. com

Sources #2and #3 also have literature levels

RESOURCES:

Provided Resources:

Additional Resources:

RECOMMENDED ACTIVITIES:

Coat of Arms - Student draws pictures in the four quadrants of a coat of arms.

Create a classroom birthday book.

Create a classroom birthday graph (bar or pictograph) Other graph ideas: eye color, hair color, height, favorite food, color, activity, etc..

Create My Kindergarten Year Journal - monthly picture taken illustrating changes, drawing of favorite monthly activity

Create a Me Box - similar to poster except student actually brings five to six items in a shoe box andmshares each item with the class

All About Me books / mini books There are several versions, refer to resources

Create a Family Quilt - have each member of the family draw a picture of Themselves, have each member of the family draw something important to them, attach the quilt patches, hang and identify

Family Traditions Fair - invite families to come together for an evening to share family holiday traditions (usually done in the winter)

Look How Big I Am - using large size white butcher paper, have students work with partner to trace body outline then each person paints body parts, clothes, etc. then post.

Pictoral Timeline - Using a standard size sentence strip have students glue polaroids and draw pictures of important events in their life starting with their birth and ending with entrance into kindergarten

Kindergarten timeline - Take pictures of students doing monthly activities and place them on the students sentence strips

Autobiography - Have parents send in four or five pictures of child from birth to present, bind in chronological order, have student dictate story

ASSESSMENTS:

Essential questions
Focus questions
Performance tasks
Tests/quizzes
Teacher observations