New Social Studies Grade 2 (1960s)

A new highway has been planned for this community and here is where it will go. What changes will be brought about in the community because of this new highway? What will it mean to the people involved? Will the changes be good or will they be bad for the community? And why? >> [music] >> Long before the boys and girls reach the level of understanding necessary to cope with the changes a new highway will bring to their community, they must understand more of the world around them. The concept of community might first be developed through questions. We can uh ascertain what the boys and girls already know about their community. And through the use of a tabletop map, we might help them to make this picture clearer. What street do you live on? What street is the fire department on? How do we get to the park? How do we get to the railroad station? Which is wider, a street or a highway, and why? What street will we use to go to the shopping center? Have boys and girls developed the concept of community? Perhaps a chart story composed by the class will help the boys and girls pinpoint their concept of community. A field trip taken around the community might help them to identify with the town in which they live. Four individual maps drawn by the children from the tabletop map will help them to get a clearer picture of the streets and roads that make up their community. Since change is an everpresent part of our everyday living, how can we help the boys and girls to better understand this concept? A flannel board might be used with questions such as these. What things were probably always present in our community? Perhaps the hills or the mountains. There might have been a river. One day a man came with his family to live near the river and they built a house. Soon other people came to live in this area. They wanted to live on the other side of the river. Why would they build a bridge instead of using a boat? When many families lived together, there was need for a school for the boys and girls. And so a school was built. Do we still have the same little log cabins that were present in that first community? No. They have given way to our new and more modern homes. Change in the community. A mural might also be used to help the boys and girls understand change in the community. This mural shows the changes that might take place if a new highway were being planned for a community. People might have to do volunteer work. They will go out and talk to their neighbors about the changes a new highway will make. Some of them will go to town hall to discuss with the town officials some of the changes that will be made in the town when a new highway comes. Why do some communities grow faster than others? What is it about a particular town that makes it more attractive than another? The need for goods and services must be met if people are going to come there to live. To help boys and un and girls understand the need for goods and services, we might use articles such as this. What is this? And what are these? Do we need these goods? How do we get these goods? Are they available in our community? And a home. What must we have in order to have these goods? Who are these people? What are their jobs? Why do we pay for the services of these people? What do these people do with the money they earn for their services? Because people need money to pay for goods and services. Let's look at our tabletop map and discover where people can work in our communities to earn money. Perhaps some people will work at the shopping center. Some will work at the school. Other people will find employment in a restaurant or in a factory. Some people will work in the park. There will be firemen. There will be ministers and other church related jobs. There might be a hotel. There might be an office building or some may work at the railroad station. A field trip to any one of these business establishments will help the boys and girls understand the need for all of these jobs. Why can't we all be a doctor? Why can't we all work in the hotel? Which would make more money, the doctor or someone working in a hotel as a waiter or a waitress? Why can't we all be doctors? A look at the classroom helpers chart will help the boys and girls understand the division of labor in the world of work. Why can't we all hold a flag? Why can't we all go to the office every morning? a role-playing activity following a field trip to the community to help the boys and girls understand the need for profit and business, the division of labor, the need for transportation and communication to make these businesses possible within the community. Because transportation and communication are so important in the community, let's see what our community has to offer in the way of transportation and communication. Again, let's go back to the tabletop map. There are cars to take us places on the highway. There may be a train to provide transportation in our community. There may be taxis and school buses available within the community to provide transportation. A resource person may be invited in, such as a bus driver, to discuss with the boys and girls, such questions as to what is your job, what do you do besides drive the bus? Do you have to go to school and why, for how long? Communication is also an important part of our community life. What would happen in our small community if we had a sudden snowstorm and all means of transportation were cut off? How might the telephone help us? What workers would we depend upon to help us? Do we have this kind of service available in our community? What other kind of communication might we use? The radio. What workers would we need for it? And why? All of these ways of communication might be explored because there are many people living together in one area. There is need for political organization. Through discussion of rules at home, the boys and girls can understand the need for rules there. And a look at the classroom code will help the boys and girls to understand why we need to have rules in the classroom. Such questions as these will help them to understand the need for this. Whose rules are these? Who made them and why? What is our responsibility regarding them? What would happen if we did not have these rules? Can we now broaden our thinking to include the community? What does the stop sign mean when we come to it? What is our responsibility regarding it? What do we do when we come to the traffic light and it's red even if there is no other traffic around or no policemen there to check on us? What other signs might we see in the community that would mean that we must follow rules and regulations? What does this sign say? What is our responsibility regarding it? Posters such as these may be placed about the classroom with captions underneath them to help the boys and girls better understand their need and their responsibility regarding it. A policeman might be invited into the classroom to share with the boys and girls his reasons for wanting to help them, how they can be his helper and friend. Police service is only one of the many services that are available in the community. There may be provisions for a fire department, for maintenance of streets and roads, and for parks and playgrounds. Why do we have these services in our community? Why do we need them? Who uses them? Why don't we just all have our own fire station or take care of our own streets and roads? Taxes are a familiar word to the boys and girls. But do they understand that all of us must share in the burden of paying the taxes? A bulletin board set up such as this might help the boys and girls to understand that all of us share in taking care of the tax burden. This represents the money that is earned by all of the people in the community. Part of this money is used for goods and services that we need. Part of it will be used for savings. Part of it will go for the taxes to pay for the services within our community. Geography plays a very important part throughout the course of study. A globe is a very important part of this study. There should be at least one in every classroom in my opinion and more are desirable. Through exploration, the boys and girls can discover the land mass on which they live. They can discover the oceans that are nearest them. They will find the hot places on our earth. They will be able to locate the cold places that are represented on the globe. They will be able to answer such questions as where are the warmer temperatures found in our community, the colder temperatures on our land, and why? Current event time provides a natural setting for the use of the globe. If you are using a tabletop map, an activity such as this might be used to help the boys and girls better understand direction. Which direction is your car traveling now? Is it turns left? Is it turns right? Through involvement, boys and girls will begin to sense an identification with their community and with the skills that we are teaching them. Because the community is a real place and we live in it and share its responsibilities, we might like to keep this thought before the boys and girls through the use of the daily pledge to the flag. Through discussion, we may be able to compose a simple explanation of the pledge of allegiance and post it near the flag. Such questions as where did our flag come from? Why do we have a flag? What does it mean? Might be helpful in helping the boys and girls to understand our American heritage. Observance of special holidays and national events will also help the boys and girls to better appreciate the country in which we live. An activity using pictures such as these and questioning who are these people? Why do we have a day set aside for them? What does it mean to love your country? What does it mean to serve your country? might better help them to understand the meaning of our holidays and why we feel it is important that we celebrate them. Records, stories, films, film strips, and many other resources are available to us to enrich our study of patriotic citizenship. Now then, will boys and girls be able to understand the change a highway will make in their community? Will they sense the involvement of the many people concerned? Will they be able to think this through for themselves because of the many social, economical, political, and geographical concepts that have been developed? I believe that through the use of questions, discussion, involvement, and graphics, boys and girls in the second grade can master the concept as suggested in the new state program. You have been watching a teaching demonstration of the new social studies curriculum for grade 2 with Marie Schilling, the North Colony Central School District. This has been a presentation by the Bureau of Elementary Curriculum Development and the Division of Educational Communications, produced by the New York State Education Department.