Social Studies

The social studies curriculum is constructed around essential questions that focus the learning on critical concepts and skills needed to achieve the standards of global awareness, geography, historical investigations, core knowledge and citizenship. Performance assessments accompany each essential question. Harcourt Brace Social Studies textbooks are used as resource materials for the social studies curriculum.

Essential questions:

  1. Who am I?
  2. Who came before me?
  3. Who are my neighbors?
  4. Where do I belong?

First Grade
Essential questions:

  1. How do I become a good citizen?
  2. What happened in my world long ago?
  3. Where do I belong in my world?
  4. Where do I live in my world?

Second Grade
Essential question: "How Do People Live and Work Together?"

  1. What groups do people belong to in our world?
  2. Where do people live in the world?
  3. How do people learn from the past?
  4. How do people become responsible citizens?

Third Grade
Essential questions:

  1. What is a community?
  2. Where do people start communities?
  3. How do people live and work together in a community?
  4. How do communities grow and change?

Fourth Grade
Essential questions:

  1. What is America's (Pennsylvania's) Landscape?
  2. What are the features of America's (Pennsylvania's) land?
  3. What are America's (Pennsylvania's) resources and how do they affect industry and impact the environment?
  4. How has American (Pennsylvania) been shaped by its people?

Fifth Grade
Essential question: What is America's story?

  1. How do people connect to their world?
  2. How do people organize their world?
  3. How do people adapt to their world?
  4. How do people make decisions about their changing world?