Social Studies Home Work
The foundation for Social Studies and History learning begins with children’s personal experiences and their initial understanding of themselves in relation to their families and homes. Gradually, children expand their understanding to include their schools, neighborhoods communities and the larger world. As their perception grows, they further expand this scope to understand how systems work together. Adults facilitate children’s social studies skills development by helping them engage in active investigations, individually and in groups that build on familiar experiences. (Pennsylvania Learning Standards for Early Childhood, Pre-Kindergarten, Pennsylvania Department of Education and Department of Public Welfare 2007, Page 35) Here are some activities you can do at home with your child to increase their awareness of self in relationship to the community, past, present, future and roles as consumers.
*Make drawings of family members and discuss their characteristics. Look at things like hair texture and color, eye color, height, skin color, the shape of their nose, eyes and head.
*Identify and locate familiar places. Take a walk around the neighborhood or Peninsula pointing out signs and landmarks.
*Provide opportunities for children to explore their environment, indoors and outdoors. Children thrive on experiences both natural and man made. Take a trip to the museum, walk on the beach, go to a playground you have never been to before, take a walk in your neighborhood on a snowy day, spend the afternoon at the library, check out the Tome Ridge Center or spend some time at the Asbury Woods Nature Center.
*Participate in family responsibilities. Allow children to take on a few jobs around the house, for example, making their bed, feeding the dog, taking out the garbage, setting the table, folding towels, dusting, raking the leaves, pulling weeds in the garden just to name a few.
*Provide opportunities for children to participate in decision making. Allow children to help plan daily meals. Give children several choices of healthy snacks throughout the day. Let children choose the game for family game night or what story to read before bed. Children can also help in the garden by picking what kinds of flowers and/or vegetables they would like to plant and participate in watering and weeding.
*When pointing out where objects are located in your house be sure to use positional and directional words like above, below, left and right.
*Establish and maintain consistent routines. An example of this might be, take a bath, put on pajamas, brush teeth, read a story and go to bed.
*Help children identify and locate familiar places by providing maps, globes, books and travel guides. Talk about different forms of transportation that they may use to get to those places, for example, to walk to a neighborhood store or fly to a different state or drive to Waldameer.
*Use the names of the days of the week during daily conversations.
*Establish and maintain consistent routines. An example of this might be, take a bath, put on pajamas, brush teeth, read a story and go to bed.
*Use “today”, “yesterday” and “tomorrow” in conversations when recording events on a calendar. Discuss daily what happened in the past and what will happen in the future. Initiate conversations with your child about things that are happening during a specific day and/or week. Use the names of the days of the week during daily conversations. Ask children to recall things that have happened last night and things that will happen tomorrow.
*Provide access to clocks, timers and watches. Talk about specific times of the day that things that happen, for example, bed time is at 8:30pm, we wake up at 7:00am and lunch time is at 11:30am. Make sure to use digital and analog clocks so children are familiar with both.
*After reading stories with your children, discuss what happened in the beginning, middle and end of the story.
*Invite grandparents to talk about their experiences.
*Look through photo albums and talk about the different stages of grown they have experienced. For example, here you are as a newborn. All you could do was eat, sleep and cry. This is you at 4 months old when you learned how to smile. Here you are at 5 months old and you started eating cereal. This is a picture of you rolling over at 6 months.
*Take your children with you to different service agencies and businesses. (fire house, post office, grocery store, pet store, beauty shop)
*Read informational and fiction books that are about people working together in schools and hospitals. Ask your child,” Is this fiction or non-fiction?” and “How do you know?”
*Set up dramatic play opportunities that involve the use of money. (banks, stores, restaurants, etc.) Take turns being the customer and the worker.
*Allow children the experience of handling real money. Talk about the names of the coins and currency and their values. Discuss the value of certain items you buy at various stores. Allow the children to hand the cashier the money to pay for items.
********These activities are directly linked to the Pennsylvania Learning Standards for Early Childhood.
*Make drawings of family members and discuss their characteristics. Look at things like hair texture and color, eye color, height, skin color, the shape of their nose, eyes and head.
*Identify and locate familiar places. Take a walk around the neighborhood or Peninsula pointing out signs and landmarks.
*Provide opportunities for children to explore their environment, indoors and outdoors. Children thrive on experiences both natural and man made. Take a trip to the museum, walk on the beach, go to a playground you have never been to before, take a walk in your neighborhood on a snowy day, spend the afternoon at the library, check out the Tome Ridge Center or spend some time at the Asbury Woods Nature Center.
*Participate in family responsibilities. Allow children to take on a few jobs around the house, for example, making their bed, feeding the dog, taking out the garbage, setting the table, folding towels, dusting, raking the leaves, pulling weeds in the garden just to name a few.
*Provide opportunities for children to participate in decision making. Allow children to help plan daily meals. Give children several choices of healthy snacks throughout the day. Let children choose the game for family game night or what story to read before bed. Children can also help in the garden by picking what kinds of flowers and/or vegetables they would like to plant and participate in watering and weeding.
*When pointing out where objects are located in your house be sure to use positional and directional words like above, below, left and right.
*Establish and maintain consistent routines. An example of this might be, take a bath, put on pajamas, brush teeth, read a story and go to bed.
*Help children identify and locate familiar places by providing maps, globes, books and travel guides. Talk about different forms of transportation that they may use to get to those places, for example, to walk to a neighborhood store or fly to a different state or drive to Waldameer.
*Use the names of the days of the week during daily conversations.
*Establish and maintain consistent routines. An example of this might be, take a bath, put on pajamas, brush teeth, read a story and go to bed.
*Use “today”, “yesterday” and “tomorrow” in conversations when recording events on a calendar. Discuss daily what happened in the past and what will happen in the future. Initiate conversations with your child about things that are happening during a specific day and/or week. Use the names of the days of the week during daily conversations. Ask children to recall things that have happened last night and things that will happen tomorrow.
*Provide access to clocks, timers and watches. Talk about specific times of the day that things that happen, for example, bed time is at 8:30pm, we wake up at 7:00am and lunch time is at 11:30am. Make sure to use digital and analog clocks so children are familiar with both.
*After reading stories with your children, discuss what happened in the beginning, middle and end of the story.
*Invite grandparents to talk about their experiences.
*Look through photo albums and talk about the different stages of grown they have experienced. For example, here you are as a newborn. All you could do was eat, sleep and cry. This is you at 4 months old when you learned how to smile. Here you are at 5 months old and you started eating cereal. This is a picture of you rolling over at 6 months.
*Take your children with you to different service agencies and businesses. (fire house, post office, grocery store, pet store, beauty shop)
*Read informational and fiction books that are about people working together in schools and hospitals. Ask your child,” Is this fiction or non-fiction?” and “How do you know?”
*Set up dramatic play opportunities that involve the use of money. (banks, stores, restaurants, etc.) Take turns being the customer and the worker.
*Allow children the experience of handling real money. Talk about the names of the coins and currency and their values. Discuss the value of certain items you buy at various stores. Allow the children to hand the cashier the money to pay for items.
********These activities are directly linked to the Pennsylvania Learning Standards for Early Childhood.
