Grade 1
Social Studies
Table of Contents
Unit 1: My Role as a Citizen...... 1
Unit 2: My School and My Community...... 10
Unit 3: History and Family...... 21
Unit 4: Basic Needs and People Who Provide Them...... 27
Louisiana Comprehensive Curriculum, Revised 2008
Course Introduction
The Louisiana Department of Education issued the Comprehensive Curriculum in 2005. The curriculum has been revised based on teacher feedback, an external review by a team of content experts from outside the state, and input from course writers. As in the first edition, the Louisiana Comprehensive Curriculum, revised 2008 is aligned with state content standards, as defined by Grade-Level Expectations (GLEs), and organized into coherent, time-bound units with sample activities and classroom assessments to guide teaching and learning. The order of the units ensures that all GLEs to be tested are addressed prior to the administration of iLEAP assessments.
District Implementation Guidelines
Local districts are responsible for implementation and monitoring of the Louisiana Comprehensive Curriculum and have been delegated the responsibility to decide if
- units are to be taught in the order presented
- substitutions of equivalent activities are allowed
- GLES can be adequately addressed using fewer activities than presented
- permitted changes are to be made at the district, school, or teacher level
Districts have been requested to inform teachers of decisions made.
Implementation of Activities in the Classroom
Incorporation of activities into lesson plans is critical to the successful implementation of the Louisiana Comprehensive Curriculum. Lesson plans should be designed to introduce students to one or more of the activities, to provide background information and follow-up, and to prepare students for success in mastering the Grade-Level Expectations associated with the activities. Lesson plans should address individual needs of students and should include processes for re-teaching concepts or skills for students who need additional instruction. Appropriate accommodations must be made for students with disabilities.
New Features
Content Area Literacy Strategies are an integral part of approximately one-third of the activities. Strategy names are italicized. The link (view literacy strategy descriptions) opens a document containing detailed descriptions and examples of the literacy strategies. This document can also be accessed directly at
A Materials List is provided for each activity andBlackline Masters (BLMs) are provided to assist in the delivery of activities or to assess student learning. A separate Blackline Master document is provided for each course.
The Access Guide to the Comprehensive Curriculum is an online database of suggested strategies, accommodations, assistive technology, and assessment options that may provide greater access to the curriculum activities. The Access Guide will be piloted during the 2008-2009 school year in Grades 4 and 8, with other grades to be added over time. Click on the Access Guide icon found on the first page of each unit or by going directly to the url
Louisiana Comprehensive Curriculum, Revised 2008
Grade 1
Social Studies
Unit 1: My Role as a Citizen
Time Frame: Approximately20 instructional periods at 45 minutes per period
Unit Description
This unit focuses on the student as a citizen, the importance of rules and how they are made and enforced, the roles and responsibilities of citizens, and the roles of leaders and how they are elected. Workers, their jobs, and their roles as consumers are also addressed.
Student Understandings
Students will recognize the leaders in the school community and the responsibilities of leaders to make the school a place of learning. In addition, the students will understand their responsibilities as classroom citizens and develop a basic understanding of jobs in their community, as well as of the role of individuals as consumers.
Guiding Questions
1.Can students identify leaders in the school community and their responsibilities?
2.Can students identify responsibilities as members of the school community?
3.Can students identify ways to contribute to the community?
4.Can students recognize American symbols and patriotic songs?
5.Can students give basic descriptions of various jobs in the community?
6.Can students provide basic explanations of the role of individuals as consumers?
7. Can students identify traits of good citizens?
Unit 1 Grade-Level Expectations (GLEs)
GLE # / GLE Text and BenchmarksCivics
16. / Identify school rules and the persons responsible for making and enforcing them (C-1A-E1)
17. / Explain the necessity of establishing leadership and order at school (C-1A-E2)
18. / Identify and recognize the current president of the United States (C-1A-E5)
19. / Explain the process of voting using classroom issues (C-1A-E6)
20. / Propose rules and consequences for a given situation and explain why the rules would be important (C-1A-E7)
21. / Discuss the importance of sharing responsibilities at home, class, and school (C-1B-E2)
22. / Define the meaning of the term classroom citizen (C-1D-E1)
23. / Identify patriotic songs and American symbols (C-1D-E4)
24. / Identify ways to participate in public service within school or community (e.g., volunteer, donations, and parent organizations) (C-1D-E5)
Economics
27. / Describe how the individual is a consumer (E-1A-E5)
28. / Identify simple descriptions of the work people do and the names of related jobs in the community (E-1A-E7)
29. / Explain why people in a school and community have different jobs (E-1A-E7)
Sample Activities
Activity 1: Leaders and Classroom Rules (GLEs: 17, 20)
Put this SQPL (Student Questions for Purposeful Learning) (view literacy strategy descriptions) statement on the board: A Leader helps a group work together.
The students will turn to a partner and think of a good question they have about this statement. The students’ questions will be written on the board. Each question that is asked more than once will be starredto signify it is an important question.
In an SQPL lesson the teacher creates a statement related to the material that will cause the students to wonder, challenge, and question. The statement does not have to be factually true as long as it provokes interest and curiosity.
Lead a discussion with the students on how every group needs a leader. Throughout thediscussion make sure the starred questions posted from the SQPL are answered. Discuss how parents are the leaders at home and teachers are the leaders at school. Continue with the discussion helping students understand that leaders make rules to help people in the group. Help students formulate a definition of what a rule is.
Have students work in small groups to make rules for classroom centers and other areas of the school and classroom. Have each group role play their rules for the class. Make a list of the rules presented by each group. Discuss the importance of rules with the class. Post the list of rules in the classroom.
Activity 2: Consequences of Broken Rules (GLE: 20)
Materials List: Little Red Riding Hood by Candice Ransom or The Three Bears by Paul Galdone
Read aloud the book Little Red Riding Hood by Candice Ransom or The Three Bears by Paul Galdone.Have the students retell the story. Generate a list of the broken rules that students identified in the story. Using the list of broken rules from the story, have the students explain the consequence that occurred from the rule’s being broken.Reread the story. Have the class brainstorm the class rules that they feel are needed to help them live and work together successfully. Using the list of class rules the students brainstormed, have the students explain why these rules are important to the class.A shared writing strategy can be used to create the rules list. Select the top five or six rules for the class. Post these rules in the classroom.
Activity 3: School Rulesand Leaders (GLEs: 16, 17)
Lead a discussion with students about who are the leaders in different school locations (e.g., the cafeteria-manager, the gym-teacher, the playground-teacher, the classroom-teacher, the bus-bus driver) Review the discussion generated in Activity 1 on how a leader makes rules that help people. Have students role-play being different leaders (cafeteria manager, teacher, bus driver).
Have the students work in cooperative groups to create skits about different school locations (e.g., the cafeteria, the gym, the playground, the classroom, the bus). Each skit should show how students are following rules and being good citizens. Have the class discuss the rules being followed and the consequences of students not following rules shown in the skit.
Activity 4: Traits of a GoodClassroom Citizen (GLE: 22)
Materials List: green and brown construction paper, Three Kind Mice, My Grandma’s the Mayor, Velveteen Rabbit, Nice New Neighbors, Katy and the Big Snow, Grouchy Ladybug , Corduroy, Bargain for Frances,Frog and Toad Are Friends, George and Martha
Ask students to identify traits of good classroom citizens. Write their responses on the board. Read stories to students about positive character traits, including honesty, truthfulness, kindness, self-discipline, responsibility, and resourcefulness (e.g., Three Kind Mice by Vivian Sathre, My Grandma’s the Mayor by Kathleen A O’Toole, Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams, Nice New Neighbors by Franz Brandenberg, Katy and the Big Snow by Virginia Lee Burton, Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle, Corduroy by Don Freeman, Bargain for Frances by Russell Hoban, Frog and Toad Are Friends by Arnold Lobel, and George and Martha by James Marshall).
Make a large tree for a bulletin board or wall display. Label branches with names of positive character traits. When students display positive character traits, place their names on the branches. In addition, send home notes to parents complimenting the students on their displays of positive character traits.
Activity 5: Good Citizens Share Responsibilities (GLEs: 21, 22, 24)
Materials List: pictures of good citizens sharing responsibilities at home, school, or in the community; chartpaper; markers
Show students pictures of good citizens who are sharing responsibilities at home, school, or in the community. Make a chart with the headings: Following Rules, Sharing with Others, and Helping Others. Have the students decide which heading each picture belongs under. Then have students brainstorm ways they could be good citizens and write their examples under each heading. Encourage responses that include the home, the classroom, the school, and the community.
Call students’ attention to the examples under the heading Helping Others. Discuss the idea of public service by helping within the community by volunteering, donating, or being a member of a community organization. Have students brainstorm things they could do to be a good helper in the community. Have students give examples of non-paid volunteers in their community.
Activity 6: Elections (GLEs: 18, 19,20)
Tell students they will have a say in deciding what will happen in the classroom. Have them suggest rules they think should apply to everyone in the room. Then ask for suggestions about activities they would like to do in class. After making lists on the board, tell students they can vote to “elect” a certain number of activities and a set of rules they will abide by. Be sure to involve students in discussing the rules and activities so everyone understands what they will be voting on. Students should also consider how rules can be used to resolve classroom issues. After the discussion, conduct an election by voice vote, count of hands, or written ballot. Explain to students that this process is similar to how we elect the U.S. President. Briefly discuss with them the similarities and have them name the current U.S. President.
Have the students locate a picture of the current president either in the newspaper, a magazine, or on the Internet.
Activity 7: Good Citizenship (GLEs: 19, 21, 24)
Have students play charades with characteristics that demonstrate good citizenship (e.g., playing fairly, helping others, and practicing self-control). Ask them to explain the importance of sharing responsibilities at home, in class, and at school. Discuss ways to participate in public service within the school and the community. List possibilities of ways to participate (e.g., litter patrol, canned food drive, recycling, sending cards to nursing homes). Discusswith students how to decide as aclass inwhich activity theyshouldparticipate.Bring in the process of voting during the discussion. Have the class vote on the activity.
Activity 8: American Symbols and Patriotic Songs (GLE: 23)
Materials List: books containing information on America’s national symbols and CD of patriotic songs, a large piece of paper to make a mural, dowel rods or paper towel rolls, Kid Pix software program (optional), computer (optional), chart paper, markers
Show the students pictures of national symbols(U.S. flag, bald eagle, Liberty Bell, Statueof Liberty). Make a KWL chart(view literacy strategy descriptions) of the things students already know about the symbols and what they want to learn about the symbols. Using informational books, read stories to the students about our national symbols. After a class discussion complete the KWL chart about what the students learned in the lesson.
National Symbols
KWhat I know / W
What I want to know / L
What I learned
Have the students use the information they learned and make a mural about America’s national symbols. Let the students listen to a variety of patriotic songs and choose the song they would like to use with their mural. Using dowel rods or paper towel rolls, have the students roll up their mural. Put on a class show and play each student’s patriotic selection as he/she unrolls his/her mural for the class. If the computer program Kid Pix© is available, the students can draw their pictures on slides on the computer. The slides can be combined to make a class show and patriotic music can be incorporated into the slide show.
Activity 9: Individuals as Consumers (GLE: 27)
Materials List: The Berenstain Bears and Mama’s New Job, newspaper ads from different stores and business places, chart paper
Use the DRTA (directed reading-thinking activity)(view literacy strategy descriptions)
- Introduce background knowledge by discussing personal experiences of students buying things they use or things they want. Record the students’ responses on the board. Discuss the title of the book The Berenstain Bears and Mama’s New Job.
- Have the students make predictions about the story.
- Read the book The Berenstain Bearsand Mama’s New Job by Stan Berenstain, which introduces the concept of goods (Mama creates quilts that people want to buy).
- Have students check their predictions about the story.
DRTA is an instructional approach that invites students to make predictions and then check their predictions during and after reading. DRTA provides a frame for self-monitoring because students should pause throughout the reading to ask students’ questions.
Lead adiscussion about the book bringing in the definition of goods.Have students work in small groups to generate lists of goods they use, want to have, and therefore want to buy. When complete, have the groups compare their lists. Create a chart of the top five items.
Show students newspaper ads from different stores and other places of business. Start a class discussion on the difference between goods and services. Have the students come up with a working definition for goods and services. On a chart help the students make a list of the kinds of goods and services each store or business can provide. Put the students in groups and have them role play being consumers by buying goods or services listed on the chart.
Activity 10: Jobs in the Community (GLEs: 28)
Materials List: index cards
Invite community members into the classroom to speak about their jobs. Prior to the visit have the students develop a list of questions to ask the community member about his/her job. Have students make trading cards about the community members by having them draw pictures of a person on an index card and write the person’s job under the picture. (If a word processor is available, the students can make trading cards on the computer by copying and pasting a picture of a worker and typing the person’s job under the picture.)
Display the trading cards on a bulletin board depicting community workers.
Activity 11: Division of Labor (GLEs: 28, 29)
Materials List: Uncle Jed’s Barbershop
While reading the book Uncle Jed’s Barbershop by Margaree King Mitchell, identify and describe the work people do in the story and related work people do in the students’ community. Encourage students to explain why people have different jobs by asking: