Grade 2 Social Studies Guide
Let's explore the world! In 2nd grade Social Studies, we learn about the world and the people in it through five topics:
- Reading and making maps
- Geography and its effects on people
- History: migrations and cultures
- Civics: countries and governments
- Economics: resources and choices
2018 Massachusetts History and Social Science Curriculum FrameworkBelow are the standards from the Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for History and Social Science.
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Standards for Social Studies Practice, Pre-K thru 12
- Demonstrate civic knowledge, skills, and dispositions.
- Develop focused questions or problem statements and conduct inquiries.
- Organize information and data from multiple primary and secondary sources.
- Analyze the purpose and point of view of each source; distinguish opinion from fact.
- Evaluate the credibility, accuracy, and relevance of each source.
- Argue or explain conclusions, using valid reasoning and evidence.
- Determine next steps and take informed action, as appropriate.
Topic 1. Reading and making maps
Supporting Question: What do maps show?
1. Explain the kinds of information provided by components of a map (e.g., compass rose/cardinal directions, scale, key/legend, title) and give examples of how maps can show relationships between humans and the environment (e.g., travel, roads, natural resources, agriculture, mining).
2. Compare different kinds of map projections (e.g., Mercator, Peters) and explain how they represent the world differently.
3. Construct a map of a familiar location (e.g., the school, the neighborhood, a park).
Supporting Question: What do maps show?
1. Explain the kinds of information provided by components of a map (e.g., compass rose/cardinal directions, scale, key/legend, title) and give examples of how maps can show relationships between humans and the environment (e.g., travel, roads, natural resources, agriculture, mining).
2. Compare different kinds of map projections (e.g., Mercator, Peters) and explain how they represent the world differently.
3. Construct a map of a familiar location (e.g., the school, the neighborhood, a park).
Topic 2. Geography and its effects on people
Supporting Question: How do people adapt to or change their environment?
1. On a map of the world and on a globe, locate all the continents and some major physical characteristics on each continent (e.g., lakes, seas, bays, rivers and tributaries, mountains and mountain ranges, and peninsulas, deserts, plains).
2. On a map of the world and on a globe, locate the oceans of the world, and explain the importance of oceans and how they make the world habitable.
3. Explain how the location of landforms and bodies of water helps determine conditions (i.e., climate, weather, vegetation) for habitable living.
4. Explain and describe human interaction with the physical world (the environment).
Supporting Question: How do people adapt to or change their environment?
1. On a map of the world and on a globe, locate all the continents and some major physical characteristics on each continent (e.g., lakes, seas, bays, rivers and tributaries, mountains and mountain ranges, and peninsulas, deserts, plains).
2. On a map of the world and on a globe, locate the oceans of the world, and explain the importance of oceans and how they make the world habitable.
3. Explain how the location of landforms and bodies of water helps determine conditions (i.e., climate, weather, vegetation) for habitable living.
4. Explain and describe human interaction with the physical world (the environment).
- Clarification statement: Students should learn how humans either adapt to or change the environment to meet their needs for survival and living (e.g., by finding or raising plants and animals for food, clothing, and shelter) and why humans prefer to settle by rivers, bodies of water, and in or near certain landforms.
- Note that grade 2 standards in the Massachusetts Science and Technology/Engineering Framework also address types of landforms, and bodies of water.
Topic 3. History: migrations and cultures
Supporting Question: What are the different reasons people choose to settle in a community?
1. Investigate reasons why people migrate (move) to different places around the world, recognizing that some migration is voluntary, some forced (e.g., refugees, people driven from their homelands, enslaved people).
Supporting Question: What are the different reasons people choose to settle in a community?
1. Investigate reasons why people migrate (move) to different places around the world, recognizing that some migration is voluntary, some forced (e.g., refugees, people driven from their homelands, enslaved people).
- Clarification statement: Students might explore newspaper articles, stories, or informational texts in which people migrate or move in order to solve a problem, such as moving to be closer to relatives and friends, to be safe, to find a less expensive, healthier, or better place to live, to find work or education, to be free to practice a religion. Identifying the types of problems people face that might be addressed by migration supports the understanding of problem-solving skills. As they study history in the later elementary grades, students will learn about many instances of voluntary and forced migrations.
- Clarification Statement: This topic continues the theme of diversity from grade 1. It lends itself to many connections with language arts and an exploration of books about diversity and immigration. Students will learn more about the diversity of the United States in grades 3 through 5, 8, and high school.
- Clarification Statement: Students should be able to explain why people move to a new location or stay in a particular location. They learn about what, in some cases, attracts people to a certain location (i.e., “pull factors”) and what, in other cases, forces people to move to a new location (i.e., “push factors”).
- Clarification Statement: Students should be able to give examples of traditions or customs from other countries practiced in the United States today, with a focus on the cultures represented in the class and what those cultures have contributed to U.S. society; describe traditional foods, customs, games, and music of the place they, their family, or their ancestors came.
Topic 4. Civics in the context of geography: countries and governments
Supporting Question: Why are continents divided into countries?
1. Recognize the difference between physical geography and political geography.
Supporting Question: Why are continents divided into countries?
1. Recognize the difference between physical geography and political geography.
- For example, students learn that Africa is a continent (physical geography) that includes a number of independent countries (e.g., Egypt, Somalia, Nigeria).
- Clarification Statement: Students should identify characteristics that make up a country (e.g., government, leaders, citizens), some purposes of government (e.g., to provide security and education) and how one country distinguishes itself from others (e.g., by its history, culture, language, type of government).
- Clarification Statement: Students should choose a country of interest, for example,
- a country where they, their families, or their ancestors lived,
- a country where they have friends or relatives,
- a country that they have visited or would like to visit,
- a country that is the setting for one of their favorite stories, or
- a country that has an interesting animal population, environment, or terrain.
Topic 5. Economics: resources and choices (shared with grade 1)
Supporting Question: How do the resources of an area affect its industries and jobs?
Resources
1. Explain the relationship between natural resources and industries and jobs in a particular location (e.g., fishing, shipbuilding, farming, trading, mining, lumbering, manufacturing).
3. Explain that people are a resource too, and that the knowledge and skills they gain through
school, college, and work make possible innovations and technological advancements that lead to an ever-growing share of goods and services.
Earning Income
4. Explain what it means to be employed and define the terms income, wages, and salary.
Buying Goods and Services
5. Give examples of products (goods) that people buy and use.
6. Give examples of services people do for each other.
7. Give examples of choices people have to make about buying goods and services (e.g., food
for the family or a video game; bus fare to get to work or a movie ticket for entertainment) and why they have to make choices (e.g., because they have only enough money for one purchase, not two).
8. Analyze examples of voluntary choices people make about buying goods and services (e.g., to buy from a company that supports its workers or protects the environment).
Saving
9. Compare and contrast reasons why people save some of their money (e.g., deciding to put some of it aside for later for a future purchase, for a charitable donation or for an emergency).
Supporting Question: How do the resources of an area affect its industries and jobs?
Resources
1. Explain the relationship between natural resources and industries and jobs in a particular location (e.g., fishing, shipbuilding, farming, trading, mining, lumbering, manufacturing).
- Clarification Statement: Students should learn that there are connections between geography and economics, and that natural resources can be specific to the geography of a place and can influence its economic activities.
3. Explain that people are a resource too, and that the knowledge and skills they gain through
school, college, and work make possible innovations and technological advancements that lead to an ever-growing share of goods and services.
Earning Income
4. Explain what it means to be employed and define the terms income, wages, and salary.
Buying Goods and Services
5. Give examples of products (goods) that people buy and use.
6. Give examples of services people do for each other.
7. Give examples of choices people have to make about buying goods and services (e.g., food
for the family or a video game; bus fare to get to work or a movie ticket for entertainment) and why they have to make choices (e.g., because they have only enough money for one purchase, not two).
8. Analyze examples of voluntary choices people make about buying goods and services (e.g., to buy from a company that supports its workers or protects the environment).
Saving
9. Compare and contrast reasons why people save some of their money (e.g., deciding to put some of it aside for later for a future purchase, for a charitable donation or for an emergency).
