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SOCIAL STUDIES at All Saints Lower School
All Saints School strives to provide a loving and learning environment in which students are encouraged to realize their full potential as moral, religious, intellectual and social contributors to our world. No other subject area plays as great a role in preparing students for this responsibility as does that body of knowledge called Social Studies. All Saints offers a planned, sequential, and cumulative program. At each grade level, students are provided with many opportunities to develop the social science skills as they study the world in which they live.
First Grade: Social Studies in First Grade uses, as the primary resource, Grow and Change. Basic map skills and cardinal directions are introduced. American heroes and American heritage is studied. Topics such as citizenship, communities, and the environment are major components in the First Grade Social Studies curriculum. An “imaginary” trip to Washington, D.C. is the highlight of the year.
Second Grade: Using the MacMillan-McGraw text, My World - Adventures in Time and Place, students study the concepts of a community. Cultural changes, physical features, economics, governance and origins of people are explored. Map skills are introduced and reviewed. In February, students research and write a first person report about one of the Presidents. The study is culminated when students, dressed in costume, present their report in a special program entitled "Hall of Presidents.” The Pilgrim Family Feast, Christmas in Holland, and the Chinese New Year celebration are a few of the thematic units studied that demonstrate our diverse cultural heritage.
Third Grade: With the use of Communities - Adventures in Time and Place as a major source of information, as well as thematic units, students begin to understand the part British (and other Old World) cultures played in the historical development of our values. The students learn about the exploration and colonization of early America and the basic principles of our government formation as well as law-making today.
Fourth Grade: Students are given the opportunity to build geographic knowledge while gaining an understanding of the connections between people and their environment. The HBJ Social Studies series used by the Fourth Grade focuses on the states and regions of the United States. The series is enhanced with both fiction and non-fiction literature to create an awareness of the contributions of various cultural, religious, and ethnic groups.
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