St. Rose School
Social Studies/History Curriculum Standards
June 2003
Kindergarten
Learning and Working Now and Long Ago
Students in kindergarten are introduced to basic spatial, temporal, and causal
relationships, emphasizing the geographic and historical connections between
the world today and the world long ago. The stories of ordinary and extraordinary
people help describe the range and continuity of human experience and introduce
the concepts of courage, self-control, justice, heroism, leadership, deliberation,
and individual responsibility. Historical empathy for how people lived and worked
long ago reinforces the concept of civic behavior: how we interact respectfully
with each other, following rules, and respecting the rights of others.
Students understand that
being a good citizen involves acting in certain ways.
- Follow rules, such as sharing
and taking turns, and know the consequences of breaking them.
- Learn examples of honesty, courage,
determination, individual responsibility, and patriotism in American and world
history from stories and folklore.
- Know beliefs and related behaviors
of characters in stories from times past and understand the consequences of
the characters' actions.
Students recognize national
and state symbols and icons such as the national and state flags, the bald eagle,
and the Statue of Liberty.
Students match simple descriptions
of work that people do and the names of related jobs at the school, in the local
community, and from historical accounts.
Students compare and contrast
the locations of people, places, and environments and describe their characteristics.
- Determine the relative locations
of objects using the terms near/far, left/right, and behind/in front.
- Distinguish between land and water
on maps and globes and locate general areas referenced in historical legends
and stories.
- Identify traffic symbols and map
symbols (e.g., those for land, water, roads, cities).
- Construct maps and models of neighborhoods,
incorporating such structures as police and fire stations, airports, banks,
hospitals, supermarkets, harbors, schools, homes, places of worship, and transportation
lines.
- Demonstrate familiarity with the
school's layout, environs, and the jobs people do there.
Students put events in temporal
order using a calendar, placing days, weeks, and months in proper order.
Students understand that
history relates to events, people, and places of other times.
- Identify the purposes of, and
the people and events honored in, commemorative holidays, including the human
struggles that were the basis for the events (e.g., Thanksgiving, Independence
Day, Washington's and Lincoln's Birthdays, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Memorial
Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day).
- Know 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.
- Understand how people lived in
earlier times and how their lives would be different today (e.g., getting
water from a well, growing food, making clothing, having fun, forming organizations,
living by rules and laws).