Diocese of Sacramento
SOCIAL STUDIES
ACADEMIC CONTENT
STANDARDS
for grades K - 2
The intellectual skills noted below are to
be learned through, and applied to, the content standards for grades K-5. They
are to be assessed only in conjunction with the content standards in grades K-5
and are not to be assessed in isolation.
Historical and Social Sciences Analysis Skills
In addition to the standards for grades 1-5, students demonstrate the
following intellectual, reasoning, reflection and research skills:
Grades K-5
Chronological and Spatial Thinking
1. students place key events and people
of the historical era they are studying both in a chronological sequence and
within a spatial context; they interpret timelines
2. students apply terms related to time
correctly, including past, present, future, decade, century, and generation
3. students explain how the present is connected to the past,
identifying both similarities and differences between the two, and how some
things change over time and some things stay the same
4. students use map and globe skills to
determine the absolute locations of places and interpret information available
through the map's legend, scale, and symbolic representations
5. students judge the significance of the
relative location of a place (e.g., close to a harbor, trade routes) and
analyze how those relative advantages or disadvantages can change over time
Research, Evidence and Point of
View
1. students differentiate between primary
and secondary sources
2. students pose relevant questions about
events encountered in historical documents, eyewitness accounts, oral
histories, letters, diaries, artifacts, photos, maps, art and architecture
3. students distinguish fact from fiction
by comparing documentary sources on historical figures and events with
fictionalized characters and events
Historical Interpretation
1. students summarize the key events of
the era they are studying and explain their historical contexts
2. students identify the human and
physical characteristics of the places they are studying and explain how these
features form the unique character of these places
3. students identify and interpret the
multiple causes and effects of historical events
4. students
conduct cost/benefit analyses of historical and current events
HISTORY/SOCIAL SCIENCE STANDARDS
Kindergarten
Learning and
Working Now and Long Ago
K.1 Demonstrate an understanding
that being a good Catholic involves acting in certain ways, in terms of:
1. Rules and the consequences of
breaking them.
2. Honesty, courage, determination,
and individual responsibility.
3. Beliefs and related behavior of
characters in stories from times past, including the Bible, and the
consequences of their actions.
K.2 Develop a sense of patriotism
by learning to recognize national and state symbols, as well as icons (e.g.
flags, bald
eagle, Statue of Liberty).
K.3
Match simple
descriptions of work that people do and the names of those jobs with examples
from the Church, school, local community, state, and national governments.
K.4 Compare and contrast the
locations of people, places, and environments and describe the human and
physical characteristics of places by:
1. Determining the relative location
of objects using near/far, left/right, behind/in front.
2. Distinguishing between land and
water and locating general areas referenced in historically based legends and
stories on maps and globes.
3. Identifying traffic symbols and map
symbols (legend references to land, water, roads, and cities).
4. Constructing maps and models of
neighborhoods, incorporating such structures as churches, police and fire stations,
airports, banks, hospitals, supermarkets, harbors, schools, homes, places of
worship, and transportation lines.
5. Demonstrating familiarity with the
school’s layout, environs, and the jobs people do there.
K.5
Put events in
temporal order by using a calendar, placing days, weeks, and months in proper
order, in addition to noting important Catholic feast days, holidays, and
seasons of the Church.
K.6 Understand that history
relates to events, people, and places of other times, in terms of:
1. The people and events honored in
commemorative holidays, including the human struggles that were behind the
events (e.g. Thanksgiving, Independence Day, Washington’s and
Lincoln’s Birthdays, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day,
Columbus Day, and Veterans Day).
2. The triumphs in American legends
and historical accounts through the stories of such people as Pocahontas,
George Washington, Booker T. Washington, Daniel Boone, and Benjamin Franklin.
3. The different ways people lived in
earlier days and how their lives would be different today (e.g. the process of
getting water from a well, growing food, making clothing, having fun, the type
of organization. Rules and laws).
4. The characters in the Bible and the
historical significance of their lives.
HISTORY/SOCIAL
SCIENCE STANDARDS
Grade One
A
Child’s Place in Time and Space
Students in grade one continue a
more detailed treatment of the broad concepts of rights and responsibilities in
the contemporary world. The
classroom serves as a microcosm of society in which decisions are made with
respect for individual responsibility, for other people and for the rules by
which we all must live: fair play, good sportsmanship, respect for the rights
and opinions of others
and the two great commandments of loving God and others. Students examine the geographic and
economic aspects of life in their own neighborhoods and compare them to those
of people long ago. Students
explore the varied backgrounds of American citizens and learn about the symbols,
icons, and songs that reflect our common heritage.
1.1 Students describe the rights and individual responsibilities of
citizenship, in terms of:
1. The
making of rules by direct democracy (everyone votes on the rules) and be
representative democracy (a smaller elected group make the rules); examples of
both in their classroom, school and community.
2. The
elements of fair play and good sportsmanship, respect for the rights and
opinions of others, and respect for rules by which we live, including the meaning
of the “Golden Rule.”
1.2 Students compare and contrast the absolute and relative locations of
people and places and describe the physical and human characteristics of places
by:
1. Using
maps and globes to locate their local community, the State of California, the
United States, the seven continents, and the four oceans.
2. Comparing
the information from a three-dimensional model to a picture of the same
location.
3. Constructing
a simple map, using cardinal directions and map symbols.
4. Describing
how location, weather, and physical environments affect the way people live,
including food, clothing, shelter, transportation, and recreation.
1.3 Students know and understand the symbols, icons, and traditions of
the United States that provide continuity and sense of community across time,
in terms of:
1. The
Pledge of Allegiance, and the songs that express American ideals (e.g., My
Country ‘Tis of Thee).
2. National
holidays and the heroism and achievements of the people associated with them.
3. American
symbols, landmarks and essential documents such a the flag, the bald eagle, the
Statue of Liberty, the U.S. Constitution, and the Declaration of Independence;
explain the people and events associated with them.
1.4 Students compare and contrast everyday life in different times and
places around the world and recognize that some aspects of people, places, and
things change over time and others stay the same, in terms of:
1. The
structure of schools and communities in the past.
2. Transportation
methods of earlier days.
3. Similar
and differences in the work (inside and outside the home), dress, manners,
stories, games, and festivals of earlier generations, drawing from biographies,
oral history, and folklore.
1.5 Students describe the human characteristics of familiar places and
the varied backgrounds of American citizens, in terms of:
1. The
ways in which they are all part of the same community, sharing principles,
goals, and traditions despite their varied ancestry; the forms of diversity in
their school and community and the benefits and challenges of a diverse
population.
2. The
difficulties, successes and ways in which American Indian and immigrant
populations have helped define Californian and American culture.
3. Comparisons
of the beliefs, customs, ceremonies, traditions, and social practices of the
varied cultures drawing from folklore.
HISTORY/SOCIAL
SIENCE STANDARDS
Grade Two
People Who
Make a Difference
Students in grade two explore the
lives of actual people who make a difference in their everyday lives and learn
the stories of extraordinary people from history and religion whose
achievements have touched them, directly or indirectly. The study of contemporary people who
supply goods and services aids in understanding the complex interdependence in
our free market system.
2.1 Students differentiate between those things that happened long ago
and yesterday by:
1. Tracing
the history of a family through the use of primary and secondary sources
including artifacts, photographs, interviews, and documents.
2. Comparing
and contrasting their daily lives with those of parents, grandparents, and
people from Bible stories.
3. Placing
important events in their lives in the order in which they occurred (e.g., on a
timeline or story board).
2.2 Students demonstrate map skills by describing the absolute and
relative locations of people, places, and environments by:
1. Locating
on a simple letter-numbered grid system the specific locations and geographic
features in their neighborhood or community (e.g., map the classroom, the
school).
2. Labeling
a simple map from the memory of the North American continent, including the
countries, oceans, Great Lakes, major rivers,
mountain ranges; identifying the essential map elements of title, legend,
directional indicator, scale, and date.
3. Locating
on a map where their ancestors used to live, describing when their family moved
to the local community, and describe how and why they make their trip.
4. Comparing
and contrasting basic land use in urban, suburban, and rural environments in California.
2.3 Students explain the institutions and practices of governments on
the United States
and other countries, in terms of:
1. The
difference between making laws, carrying out laws, determining if laws have
been violated and punishing wrongdoers.
2. The
ways in which groups and nations interact with one another and try to resolve
problems (e.g., trade, cultural contacts, treaties, diplomacy, military force,
and prayer).
3. Understand
that the Ten Commandments are a basis for many of our civil laws.
2.4 Students understand basic economic concepts of their individual
roles in the economy, and demonstrate basic economic reasoning skills, in terms
of:
1. Food production
and consumption long ago and today including the role of farmers.
2. The
role and interdependence of buyers (consumers) and sellers (producers) of goods
and services.
3. How
limits on resources require people to choose what to produce and what to
consume.
2.5
Students
understand the importance of individual action and character and explain how
heroes and saints from long ago and the recent past make a difference in
others’ lives (e.g., biographies of George Washington Carver, Marie
Curie, Louis Pasteur, Albert Einstein, Indira Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, Jackie
Robinson, Mother
Teresa, and many saints).
History Tracking
Sheet – Kindergarten
History Tracking
Sheet – First Grade
History
Tracking Sheet – Second Grade
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