Geography
• Begin to differentiate cardinal directions.
• Construct school/playground maps.
• Use simple school maps for various activities.
• Create simple maps to locate home on street or in a neighborhood.
• Locate Alaska and own community on a globe and several different maps.
• When discussing other places and cultures, locate their origins on maps and globes.
• Experiment with various media and tools to create maps.
• View local landmarks and illustrate them.
• Create a map of Alaska, including landforms and water.
• Observe and record seasonal changes at school and home.
• Explore and examine artifacts, music, costumes, languages, stories, food, and art of varied cultures.
• Learn street address, city, and state.
• Brainstorm similarities and differences between local and nearby community.
• Discuss and graph daily weather.
• Use newspaper forecast to predict weather and learn weather symbols.
• Investigate local environment; include plants’, animals’, and humans’ impact on the environment.
• Investigate activities that occur within local environments.
• Review clothing and activities appropriate for local weather and seasons.
• Examine and compare transportation in a variety of Alaskan communities.
• Locate places where students and their family members were born.
• Survey classmates and family members about favorite places to vacation and/or work. Organize information in a way to make comparisons and discuss results.
Government
• Throughout the year, discuss ways to make life in the classroom more comfortable, pleasant, and productive by
√ sharing and responsibly using materials and equipment;
√ taking responsibility for assigned classroom jobs;
√ caring for classroom, school, and playground; and
√using respectful language and behavior.
• Participate in setting classroom rules to accomplish the above.
• Use regular classroom meetings to solve problems.
• Develop skills for conflict resolution within the family, the
• school, and the community.
• Review, practice, evaluate, and revise classroom rules throughout the year. Draw and write about the rules. Role-play situations involving the rules.
• Learn, practice, and review school, playground, and bus rules throughout the year.
• Make a class list of ways to be a good learner at school.
• Explore through role-playing, discussion, and literature what is involved in being a good friend and family member.
• Examine individual roles within the family setting through literature, art, and class discussions.
• Work cooperatively in a variety of group structures to accomplish many different kinds of goals.
• Visit/interview leaders within the community and school, such as the city manager, police, and fire chief, and invite them to speak about civic duties.
• Learn how school works as a community, and interview various school workers.
• Explore election process by voting on a variety of classroom choices and discussing pertinent local/national elections.
• Celebrate cultural diversity within the classroom by having students and families share their own cultural heritage through food, costumes, traditions, stories, music, and art.
• Share multicultural literature, music, and art.
• Participate in class survey on pertinent class or school issues. Discuss results.
• Review and practice the “Pledge of Allegiance.”
• Learn patriotic songs, “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” and “You’re a Grand Old Flag.”
• Draw the American and Alaskan flags.
• Use media sources to follow current events of interest to students.
• Select a school problem and identify possible consequences and solutions.
• Learn about service and volunteering. Participate in a school or community service project such as clean up or recycling, collecting food or volunteering at food bank, helping with community projects.
• Explore how money is used to meet needs at home and at school.
• Discuss local production and import needs.
• Role-play buyer, seller, producer, and consumer.
• Develop and practice disaster drills at school and at home.
History
• Explore and share personal family history and community history through literature, art, music, movement, writing, and interviews.
• Construct a family tree to map family historical background.
• Interview family and community members to learn how our lives have changed and/or remained the same over time.
• Practice asking and answering questions about own and classmates’ stories, experiences, observations, and literature.
• Make a personal record of significant life events using a variety of formats.
• Maintain a class calendar or timeline throughout the year, noting significant events.
• Create personal or class time capsule at the beginning of the year; revisit at end of the school year.
• Build time awareness (today, tomorrow, yesterday) into classroom activities.
• Observe and record own physical changes throughout the year with photos, growth charts, tooth loss records, etc.
• Record and celebrate academic growth throughout the year through collections of student work.
• Compare/contrast life of other Alaskan students through journals, videos, pen pals, or the Internet.
• Share literature representing different places and time periods, observing and identifying past and present through text and illustrations.
• Compare different authors’/artists’ interpretations of historical events using art, literature, or children’s own memories of a common experience.
• Explore the traditions of family, cultural, and world holidays.
• Use newspapers, magazines, TV, radio, multimedia, and Internet access to follow current events of interest to students.
• Debate issues, recognizing the importance of listening to all views. |