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What is your second grader learning in Social Studies right now?
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Anonymous
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The thread on math has me wondering.
My child doesn't seem to be learning much of anything in Social Studies. He brought home a packet about Martin Luther King Jr. last week, a little biography. That's basically been it since December, and he confirms that he only does Social Studies about once a week. He's in a MD public school. What topics or activities has your second grader been learning in history, civics, geography or economics? And is your child in MD, DC, or VA, public or private? |
Anonymous
| My kids go to a private Montessori in Maryland. I don't they have any social studies/civics/economics until 4th grade. Starting in K, they do a lot of geography using wooden puzzle maps and starting in 1st grade stick pin maps. Also starting in K, they do a lot of the seasons, biology, animal life, enviromentalism. |
Anonymous
| OP- I don't think most kids in MD schools get very much social studies or science. They aren't tested so they aren't a focus. I would talk to the teacher about what to expect and what they are doing in those areas. But don't be surprised if they get pushed to the back burner for more math and reading instruction. |
Anonymous
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My second grader learns about presidents and geography. Last month they did presentations about different cultural traditions.
For science they study machines, animals, nature, weather, etc. They can also participate in the science fair coming up. He also takes science enrichment after school. This is at a VPS |
Anonymous
| My daughter's 2nd grade class built their own community and then did a presentation to the parents about it. They did a unit on the civil rights movement in conjunction with MLK Day -- although last year's MLK project was the best since they read a short bit on MLK's life and then answered questions about what they read and then answered the questions for themselves. They are gearing up to study the Presidency in conjunction with Presidents' Day. |
Anonymous
My second grader has studied world geography (really sort of a review of continents and oceans) by studying animals on the verge of extinction around the world ... each child selected an animal from a list and researched that animal to learn habitat, diet, range, life cycle, why it is endangered and so forth. The kids used a computer program to record their research in a nice little diagram and created dioramas to illustrate their animal in its habitat. They presented their animals to parents and other classes at the school to practice their oral skills and to reinforce what they had learned as well as learn about the other animals. Their next social studies unit was to study Australia ... they visited a museum to see Maori art and then worked on learning about the geography, culture, animals, foods, and how to speak "Australian"  , and they will be tasting Australian foods and sharing what they have learned at an Australian Day party next week. Separately, they have studied Africa a bit and learned about Martin Luther King Jr. a bit. A lot of their social studies are very related to animals and geography at this point. Their next unit will be on Japan ... they will explore the beautiful artwork, learn to make sushi, attend a formal tea ceremony, and so forth. Makes me wish I were attending myself.
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Anonymous
| NoVA, public elementary - learning about weather, deposition, erosion etc. |
Anonymous
This sounds great. Where does your DC go to school? (private/public in DC/MD/VA) TIA |
Anonymous
Cool -- but is that social studies? Sounds more like earth science to me. |
Anonymous
| i have no idea if it is social studies, but that's the answer to the question according to my DD |
Anonymous
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16:18 again. The school is a private in Va.
I think most schools approach social studies as a study of geography in the early years and move more into more history-type information as children grow old enough to be able to look outside their own selves, families, and school to think about larger communities. It also takes more years than you realize for children to understand things that are happening now versus things in the past ... I have recently read that make-believe and creative play are really critical for kids to develop the imagination needed to understand things that happened long ago and/or far away from them in the world. |
Anonymous
Cute! It is, in fact, a second grade science standard. Number 2.7 from the VA SOL http://www.doe.virginia.gov/testing/sol/standards_docs/science/k-6/stds_science2.pdf For History and Social Studies, she should be learning about China, Egypt, and Native Americans; be able to locate and label the 7 continents, 4 oceans, certain rivers, mountains and lakes on a map; learn about several famous Americans. There's also some civics and economics in second grade, nothing too daunting I don't think. http://www.doe.virginia.gov/testing/sol/standards_docs/history_socialscience/k-3/stds_history2.pdf |
Anonymous
This tracks with what my second grader in FCPS is learning. They did the geopgraphy thing, Native Americans, some economic terms (Capital resources, human resources, etc.) and a few other things. She's learning about the food pyramid in science, but has also done types of matter, and endangered species (I think). I thought all of this "styuding for the test" would be useless, but she's learning some interesting stuff. I would prefer it be more in depth, but they can only cram so much into a year. If MD doesn't emphasize social science and science, I'm glad we're not there because those are DD's favorite subjects. |
Anonymous
| I just asked and got "people and places. Things like tax, income, sevices, barter and trade, crops, taking care of land . . . stuff like that." |
Anonymous
Let me guess . . . FCPS. DD studied that, too. It's the economics unit. |