The aim of Kindergarten to Grade 12 Social Studies Curriculum is to help students to participate responsibly in a world of interdependent peoples, communities and nations.
The Elementary Level Social Studies Curriculum recognizes that acquisition of social studies knowledge is not enough to equip our students to participate responsibly in the world as adults. Therefore, the four essential components of the social studies program--knowledge, skills and abilities, attitudes and values, and citizen action must be considered when planning social studies lessons.
There is a strong focus on each child developing a positive self-concept. Such development will be based upon recognizing and appreciating the value of each child and each child's family and culture. Learning about others and how to appreciate the similarities and differences among people will encourage the process of positive self-concept attainment.
The following excerpt offers helpful guidelines for social studies education in Kindergarten.
An important goal in the early years is to excite student interest in social studies and to capitalize on the eagerness of young children to learn. An effective ... social studies curriculum can help students gain a better understanding of themselves, as well as a view of the world within and beyond the walls of the classroom.
Many social studies concepts are abstract; nevertheless, even very young students can begin to grasp these concepts if they are presented in active and engaging ways appropriate to their interest and cognitive development.
A balance should be maintained across local, national, and global information and concepts so that children can begin to recognize how details fit into a larger whole. Social studies must incorporate an international perspective and provide multicultural experiences in an authentic and culturally sensitive manner. Early on, students should learn that each individual plays multiple and varied roles and that roles change as circumstances change. For example, students in the classroom should learn to make decisions as individuals and as members of a group.
Some of the decisions deal with learning how to make and why to follow school and community rules. Experiences in making such decisions mark the beginning of training in vital citizenship participation skills that must be nurtured and guided throughout the ... school years. Such preparation is vital for students who will live most of their lives in a nation with an increasingly diverse citizenry and in an international society that will be increasingly interdependent.
Balance in the curriculum can be achieved in a number of ways that capitalize on the child's growing sense of time and place. Children readily understand such concepts as change, location, diversity, justice, power and trade-offs when they are presented in concrete terms.
Kindergarten children can examine their own immediate environment through neighbourhood walks, as well as environments far away in time and space through pictures and films. Students can learn what all children and their families have in common, in what ways they differ, and how rules for behaviour and for social interaction always exist, even though those rules may vary from case to case and may change over time. These understandings can be achieved through use of songs, stories, pictures, artifacts, role play, map-making, model-building and similar classroom experiences.
Words are not enough. Drawing, building, singing and acting out parts can all be mobilized to make learning more fun, and stimulate the children's imagination to reach out toward the variety of human social experiences. Selective use of world literature, art, music and artifacts helps children to see the world's variety and again to understand how it has changed over time.
From: Charting a Course: Social Studies for the 21st Century, Curriculum Task Force of the National Commission, 1989, pages 3 to 11. Permission was obtained from National Council for the Social Studies. All rights reserved.