Click link below to view MN state standards for Social Studies.
2nd grade standards are on pages 26-30.
minnesota_k-12_academic_standards_in_social_studies_2.21.12_11.pdf | |
File Size: | 1590 kb |
File Type: |
During our 2nd grade school year, children will be doing several research projects and presentations. 2nd grade students will continue to build their foundational understanding in the social studies disciplines of citizenship and government, economics, geography and history.
1 Unit: Citizenship
This unit examines citizenship. Children will learn that people have many rights and responsibilities and that rules and laws are created and enforced to support a community. They will learn the purpose of, and services provided by the government, the principle of shared and separated powers, the importance of constitutions, and the need for fair voting processes.
What families can do at home to help:
What families can do at home to help:
- Discuss the roles of each family member. Discuss the roles of school staff. How are they the same? How are they different?
- Discuss rules at home and rules at school. How are they different? How are they the same?
- Discuss what your family could do to make your home or community a better place to live.
Curriculum Links and on-line practice resources:
2 Unit: America's Culture
In this unit, children explore how their classroom and community are multi-culturally diverse. This diversity is due to the variety of cultures each child brings with them. Much of the way they look, act, and celebrate is because of what they have learned from their families' ancestors. Many families are made up of immigrants who bring customs and traditions from their home country to the United States. Family cultures are based on the traditions and customs of their ancestors, along with new traditions and customs families practice individually.
Second graders will also study indigenous people and the influence of a variety of cultures on our society, gaining an understanding of the United States’ common heritage.
Second graders will also create and use calendars & time lines to order the events in their lives and to track the passage of time and chronicle events.
What families can do at home to help:
Second graders will also study indigenous people and the influence of a variety of cultures on our society, gaining an understanding of the United States’ common heritage.
Second graders will also create and use calendars & time lines to order the events in their lives and to track the passage of time and chronicle events.
What families can do at home to help:
- Create a family timeline showing significant events in your family.
- Discuss your family traditions and culture. Together, cook a traditional/cultural food that represents your family’s background.
- As a family, discuss how your family’s culture is the same or different from another family’s culture (locally, globally, historically).
Curriculum Links and on-line practice resources:
3 Unit: Geography
In this unit, children will identify how humans impact the world around them and why this is important in their lives. Through experiences with maps and globes, children will identify landforms and natural resources. They will use cardinal directions to discuss locations of continents, the equator, mountain ranges, oceans, & other landforms using maps and globes. Second graders will also sketch maps to show information from a story. They begin to understand how resources and physical features influence the distribution of people around the world, and use maps and other geographic tools to explain the characteristics of places.
What families can do at home to help:
What families can do at home to help:
- Teach your child the home address.
- Use a map (city map or draw your own) to locate home, school, place of worship, grocery store, etc.
- Examine a Minnesota or USA map. Locate places your family has visited or would like to visit in the future.
Curriculum Links and on-line practice resources:
4 Unit: Economics
This unit examines the study of economics. Second graders will be able to sort and classify natural, capital, and human resources. By describing the trade-offs of a decision, children will learn the concept of opportunity cost and its connection to scarcity of resources. Given a goal and several alternatives choices to reach that goal, they will select the best choice and explain why they chose it and the trade offs or cost of their choices. They will learn the process of meeting needs and wants from producer to consumer and identify money as the generally accepted item used in making exchanges.
What families can do at home to help:
What families can do at home to help:
- Discuss the goods and services members of your family help produce or provide to the community.
- Visit a factory or farm to see how things are produced.