Kindergarten Social Studies Unit 2: My School and Community
How the Units Work
If you haven't seen the first unit yet, here's how I am setting up these social studies units.
Each My World View unit is designed to be simple, open-and-go, and easy to use with young learners. The idea is that you can read a short, simple text together and then complete a worksheet, activity, or little project to go along with it.
The texts are intentionally short and simple so that they work well for kindergarten and can also be adapted for younger learners.
And, of course, you can always stop and talk about the topic as you go!
I especially love using the discussion questions included throughout the unit because they give you an easy way to connect the lesson to the child's own experiences.
Unit 2: My School and Community
In Unit 2, we're moving beyond ourselves and beginning to look at the places, people, rules, and responsibilities that make up the world around us.
There are lots of opportunities for children to talk about their own experiences, draw pictures, make choices, and even create their own community.
Inside, you'll learn together about:
- My School – Talk about what school is like and the different people who help make school a safe and welcoming place.
- School Rules – Learn why rules are important and how they help everyone stay safe, learn, and have fun together.
- Classroom Jobs – Talk about how everyone can help in the classroom and learn about different classroom responsibilities.
- Classroom Jobs Class Project – Create a classroom helper system using the included job cards and student name cards.
- Places in My School – Explore places such as the classroom, library, gym, cafeteria, office, hallway, and playground and learn what each place is used for.
- Where Do I Go? – Practice matching different activities with the correct place in school, such as going to the library to borrow a book or the cafeteria to eat lunch.
- My Community – Learn what a community is and talk about the different places people live, work, learn, and play.
- My Community Challenge – Children can create their own community using houses, businesses, services, transportation, roads, and other community pieces.
- My Community Project – Put everything together and create a little community of your own!
- Community Helpers – Learn about some of the many people who help their communities every day, including teachers, police officers, firefighters, doctors, construction workers, janitors, mail carriers, crossing guards, and garbage collectors.
- Community Helpers Mini-Book – Color, cut, and assemble a little community helpers book while talking about the different jobs.
- Community Helper Hats – Choose a community helper and make a fun hat to wear!
- Transportation – Explore different ways people travel on land, water, and through the air.
- Being a Good Community Citizen – Talk about kindness, sharing, taking turns, cleaning up, and helping others.
- Good Citizen Choices – Decide which actions are good choices and which ones don't help our community.
- How to Help? – Think about simple ways to help when someone is sad, waiting for a turn, has dropped something, or when the classroom needs cleaning.
- Good Citizen Award – Finish the unit by celebrating a child who has demonstrated what it means to be a good citizen!
I Love the Community Project!
A Simple Way to Use the Unit
You don't have to do everything at once!
You could easily spread this unit out over several weeks and spend a little time on social studies each day.
For example, you might read the My School text one day and complete the matching or drawing activity. The next day you could talk about school rules, followed by classroom jobs and places in the school.
Then move into the community section, where children can learn about their community, community helpers, and transportation before finishing with lessons about being a good citizen.
The activities are simple enough that you can easily adjust them depending on your learners and how much time you have.
