Geography
• Make relief maps or globes of school, neighborhood, Alaskan community, or world.
• Construct personal experience maps.
• Incorporate knowledge of “left,” “right,” and cardinal directions.
• Use a neighborhood map to pinpoint students’ homes, and graph how many live on each bus route, street, etc.
• Observe and record changes within a local environment during the year.
• Construct a representation of human and physical features of local community.
• Explore how habitat/location influences a variety of cultures within Alaska.
• Use newspapers to enhance discussion about similarities and differences between own community and other larger/smaller communities through current events.
• Discuss seasonal changes and how the work forces are affected.
• Identify physical forces that have shaped the local environment (e.g., glaciers, volcanoes, rivers, earthquakes).
• Define, diagram, and evaluate the water cycle in relation to the local environment.
• Make relief maps of local physical systems.
• Predict and graph weather systems.
• Explore how weather impacts where and how we live.
• Interview family or community members on how they came to settle in Alaska.
• Discuss important state resource issues.
• Explore causes and types of pollution in the local community, and discuss possible courses of action.
• Visit a park or recreation area and look for evidence of pollution.
Government
• Throughout the year, discuss ways to make life in the classroom more comfortable, pleasant, and productive byü sharing and responsibly using materials and equipment;ü taking responsibility for assigned classroom jobs;ü respecting others’ rights and property;ü caring for classroom, school, and playground; andü 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 resolutions within the family, the school, and the community.
• Review, practice, evaluate, and revise classroom rules throughout the year. 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 discussion and literature what is involved in being a good friend and community member.
• Examine family responsibilities through literature, art, drama, and class discussions.
• Work cooperatively in a variety of group structures to accomplish many different kinds of goals.
• Identify the concept and qualities of leadership in students’ lives.
• 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.
• Examine democratic ideals and responsibilities within the school setting.
• Review the election process through classroom voting and discussions of pertinent local/national elections.
• Explore the responsibilities and benefits of citizenship.
• Celebrate cultural diversity within the classroom by having students and families share their own cultural heritage through food, costumes, traditions, stories, music, and art.
• Use literature, music, and art to identify cultural diversity, as well as persisting issues, rights, and roles.
• Conduct class survey on pertinent class or school issues. Discuss results.
• Review and practice the “Pledge of Allegiance.”
• Review and practice patriotic songs, “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” and “You’re a Grand Old Flag.”
• Read biographies of people involved in political and social change.
• Define power, and role-play appropriate and inappropriate ways of using power.
• Use media sources to follow pertinent current events and begin to critically analyze the information gathered.
• Select a school problem and identify possible consequences and solutions.
• Establish a school improvement project.
• Study occupations and identify those, locally, that involve production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services (e.g., oil, lumber, tourism, fishing).
• Identify natural resources in our community.
• Learn how local goods and merchandise are distributed throughout the community.
• Role-play buyer, seller, producer, and consumer.
• Develop and practice disaster drills at school and at home, including evaluating current safety of classroom.
History
• Explore and share personal family history and community history through literature, art, music, movement, writing, and interviews.
• Interview family and community members to learn how our lives have changed and/or remained the same over time.
• Choose a historical figure and study him/her through literature.
• 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.
• 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.
• Explore cultural past and current customs of the Denaina people on the Kenai Peninsula, including food, shelter, recreation, art, music, and stories.
• Identify Denaina, Russian, and European influences on the communities of the Kenai Peninsula.
• Examine past and present seasonal subsistence activities of local people.
• Compare and contrast traditional folklore from a variety of Alaskan Native peoples.
• Examine the historical events surrounding early interactions between Native Americans and the first European settlers.
• Explore the concept of slavery through literature; include significant people and events.
• Gain an understanding of cultural diversity through an in-depth comparison of life in another country with an emphasis on daily life, the arts, and literature.
• Share literature representing different places and time periods.
• 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.
• Begin to judge the accuracy, value, and relevance of information gathered from a variety of sources (e.g., media, newspapers, Internet).
• Debate issues, recognizing the importance of listening to all views. |