Elementary Social Studies Curriculum Framework with Enduring Understandings(TAKS Correlations Highlighted)

Kindergarten

TEKS Strand / Enduring Understandings / Content Knowledge and Related Skills
The student is expected to: / Critical TAKS Vocabulary
History /
  • People help shape communities.
  • Holidays celebrate special events.
/
  • Explain reasons for national holidays/customs
  • Identify significant national/state historical figures
  • Identify ordinary people who have shaped communities
  • Place events in chronological order
  • Use vocabulary related to time
/ 1776, George Washington, Stephen F. Austin
Geography /
  • Our community has both physical (natural) and human (man-made) characteristics.
/
  • Use terms to describe relative location
  • Locate places at school and describe their relative location
  • Identify physical characteristics of places
  • Identify human characteristics of places
/ Direction, Compass, Customs,
Economics /
  • Jobs help people meet basic human needs.
/
  • Identify basic human needs and how they are met
  • Identify jobs in the home, school, and community
  • Explain why people have jobs
/ Trade
Government /
  • Rules provide order, security, safety, and fairness for all.
  • Leaders make and enforce rules.
/
  • Identify rules and their purpose
  • Identify authority figures
  • Explain how authority figures make and enforce rules
/ Authority Figures, Laws
Citizenship /
  • Customs, symbols, and celebrations express pride in our country.
/
  • Identify flags of the United States and Texas
  • Recite the Pledge of Allegiance
  • Explain voting as a means of making decisions
/ Vote
Culture /
  • Everyone is alike and different.
  • Family customs and traditions teach us about our community and ourselves.
/
  • Identify personal attributes common to all people
  • Identify differences among people
  • Identify family customs and traditions and their importance
  • Describe customs of the local community
/ Culture, Traditions
TEKS Strand / Enduring Understandings / Content Knowledge and Related Skills
The student is expected to: / Critical TAKS Vocabulary
Science, Technology and Society /
  • Technology changes the way we live.
  • Technology helps accomplish specific tasks.
/
  • Identify examples of technology in the home and school
  • Describe how technology helps accomplish specific tasks
  • Describe how life might be different without technology
  • List ways technology meets human needs

Social Studies Skills*
The student is expected to: /
  • Obtain information about a topic using oral and visual sources
  • Sequence and categorize information
  • Identify main ideas from oral, visual, and print sources
  • Express ideas orally
  • Create and interpret visuals including pictures and maps
  • Use a problem-solving process
  • Use a decision-making process
/ Map

Social Studies Curriculum Framework – Grade 1

TEKS Strand / Enduring Understandings / Content Knowledge and Related Skills
The student is expected to: / Critical TAKS Vocabulary
History /
  • People change communities in different ways.
  • Holidays, celebrations, and symbols help define our community.
/
  • Identify the contributions of historical figures
  • Identify historic figures known for individualism and inventiveness
  • Compare similarities and differences among historic figures
  • Describe the origins of holidays customs, and celebrations
  • Compare observance of past and present holidays and celebrations
  • Distinguish among past, present, and future
  • Create a calendar or timeline
  • Use vocabulary related to chronology
/ 1776, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Thomas Edison, Chronology,
Geography /
  • Human and geographic factors shape our community.
/
  • Locate places using the four cardinal directions
  • Describe relative location of self and objects relative to other classroom and school locations
  • Locate places of significance on maps and globes
  • Identify and describe the physical characteristics of places
  • Identify examples of and uses for natural resources
  • Identify and describe the human characteristics of places
/ North, South, East, West, Maps, Globes, City, Town, Rivers, Mountains, Plains, Ocean,
Economics /
  • Communities provide goods, services, and jobs in order to meet people’s needs.
/
  • Identify examples of goods and services
  • Identify ways people exchange goods and services
  • Identify the role of markets in exchanging goods and services
/ Trade, Barter, Cash Crops, Buy, Sell
TEKS Strand / Enduring Understandings / Content Knowledge and Related Skills
The student is expected to:
Economics (continued) /
  • Identify examples of people wanting more than they can have and how that forces them to make choices
  • Identify examples of choices families make when buying goods and services
  • Describe requirements of various jobs
  • Describe how specialized jobs contribute to the production of goods and services.
/ Need, Want
Government /
  • Rules, laws, and leaders exist to establish order, provide security, and manage conflict in the community.
/
  • Explain the need for rules and laws
  • Give examples of rules or laws that establish order, provide security, and manage conflict
  • Identify leaders in the community, state, and nation
  • Describe the roles of public officials
  • Identify the responsibilities of authority figures
/ President, Law, Rule, Governor, Mayor, Rights
Citizenship /
  • Strong communities need good citizens.
/
  • Identify characteristics of good citizenship
  • Identify historic figures who exemplify good citizenship
  • Identify ordinary people who exhibit good citizenship
  • Explain national and state patriotic symbols
  • Recite and explain the meaning of the Pledge of Allegiance and the Pledge to the Texas Flag
  • Use voting as a way of making choices and decisions
  • Explain how selected customs, symbols, and celebrations reflect individualism, inventiveness, and freedom
/ Vote, Election, Freedom, Sam Houston,
Culture /
  • Families form the basis of all communities.
/
  • Describe ways that families meet human needs
  • Describe similarities and differences in the way
/ Culture, Customs, Traditions
TEKS Strand / Enduring Understandings / Content Knowledge and Related Skills
The student is expected to:
Culture (continued) /
  • families meet human needs
  • Describe beliefs, customs, and traditions and explain their importance
  • Retell stories from selected folktales and legends

Science, Technology and Society /
  • Technological change affects daily life in a community.
/
  • Describe how household tools and appliances have changed the ways families live
  • Describe how technology has changed communication, transportation, and recreation
  • Describe how technology has changed the way people work
/ Technology, Inventions
Social Studies Skills*
The student is expected to: /
  • Obtain information about a topic from oral and visual sources
  • Sequence and categorize information
  • Identify main ideas from oral, visual, and print sources
  • Express ideas orally
  • Create and interpret visuals including pictures and maps
  • Use a problem-solving process
  • Use a decision-making process
*See Social Studies Skills Framework, ‘Emergent’ level for how to develop these skills in Grade 1. / Resource, Maps, Cause, Effect, Fact

Social Studies Curriculum Framework – Grade 2

TEKS Strand / Enduring Understandings / Content Knowledge and Related Skills
The student is expected to: / Critical TAKS Vocabulary
History /
  • People change communities.
  • Celebrations and landmarks help define our community, state, and nation.
/
  • Explain the significance of various community, state, and national celebrations and landmarks
  • Describe the order of events by using designations of time periods
  • Use vocabulary related to chronology
  • Create and interpret timelines
  • Describe and measure calendar time by days, weeks, months, and years.
  • Name several sources of information about a given period or event
  • Compare various interpretations of time periods using evidence such as photographs and interviews
  • Identify the contributions of historical figures
  • Identify historic figures known for individualism and inventiveness
  • Explain how local people and events have influenced local community history
/ Susan B. Anthony, George Washington Carver, Albert Einstein, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Thurgood Marshall, Franklin Roosevelt, 1776, Settler
Geography /
  • Physical (natural) and human (man-made) features shape our environment.
/
  • Use symbols, find locations, and determine directions on maps and globes
  • Draw maps to show places and routes
  • Identify major landforms and bodies of water
  • Locate the community, Texas, the United States, and selected countries on maps and globes
  • Compare information from different sources about places and regions
  • Describe how weather patterns, natural resources, seasonal patterns, and natural
/ North, South, East, West, Maps, Globes, Oceans, Rivers, Lakes, Mountains, Plains, Desert, Weather, Settlement
TEKS Strand / Enduring Understandings / Content Knowledge and Related Skills
The student is expected to: / Critical TAKS Vocabulary
Geography (continued) / hazards affect activities and settlement patterns
  • Explain how and identify ways people depend on the physical environment and its natural resources to satisfy basic needs
  • Identify ways people have modified the physical environment
  • Identify consequences of human modification of the physical environment
  • Identify ways people can conserve and replenish natural resources
/ Natural Resource
Economics /
  • Goods, services, and jobs meet people's needs.
/
  • Identify examples of goods and services
  • Identify ways people exchange goods and services
  • Identify the role of markets in exchanging goods and services
  • Identify examples of people wanting more than they can have and how that forces them to make choices
  • Identify examples of choices families make when buying goods and services
  • Describe requirements of various jobs
  • Describe how specialized jobs contribute to the production of goods and services.
/ Goods, Service, Trade, Barter, Free Enterprise, Market, Tax, Want, Need, Scarce, Plantation
Government /
  • Governments exist to establish order, provide public services, and manage conflict in the family, school, community, state, and nation.
/
  • Explain the need for rules and laws
  • Give examples of rules or laws that establish order, provide security, and manage conflict
  • Identify leaders in the community, state, and nation
  • Describe the roles of public officials
  • Identify the responsibilities of authority figures
/ Law, Rule, Supreme Court, President, Legislature, Government, Governor
TEKS Strand / Enduring Understandings / Content Knowledge and Related Skills
The student is expected to: / Critical TAKS Vocabulary
Citizenship /
  • Strong communities need good citizens.
/
  • Identify characteristics of good citizenship
  • Identify historic figures who exemplify good citizenship
  • Identify ordinary people who exhibit good citizenship
  • Explain national and state patriotic symbols
  • Recite and explain the meaning of the Pledge of Allegiance and the Pledge to the Texas Flag
  • Use voting as a way of making choices and decisions
  • Explain how selected customs, symbols, and celebrations reflect individualism, inventiveness, and freedom
/ Freedom, Vote, Election, Majority Rule, Citizen, Cesar Chavez
Culture /
  • Literature and fine arts reflect our cultural heritage.
/
  • Describe ways that families meet human needs
  • Describe similarities and differences in the way families meet human needs
  • Describe beliefs, customs, and traditions and explain their importance
  • Retell stories from selected folktales and legends
/ Culture, Customs, Traditions
Science, Technology and Society /
  • Technological change impacts life in communities.
/
  • Describe how household tools and appliances have changed the ways families live
  • Describe how technology has changed communication, transportation, and recreation
  • Describe how technology has changed the way people work
/ Technology
Social Studies Skills*
The student is expected to: /
  • Obtain information about a topic from oral and visual sources
  • Sequence and categorize information
  • Identify main ideas from oral, visual, and print sources
  • Express ideas orally
  • Create and interpret visuals including pictures and maps
  • Use a problem-solving process
  • Use a decision-making process
*See Social Studies Skills Framework, ‘Emergent’ level for how to develop these skills in Grade 1. / Opinion, Fact, Resource, Point of View, Cause, Effect

Social Studies Curriculum Framework – Grade 3

TEKS Strand / Enduring Understandings / Content Knowledge and Related Skills
The student is expected to: / Critical TAKS Vocabulary
History /
  • Individuals, events, and ideas change communities over time.
  • Communities, past and present, share common characteristics.
/
  • Describe how individuals, events, and ideas have changed communities over time
  • Identify individuals who have shaped communities
  • Describe how individuals have contributed to the expansion of existing communities or the creation of new communities
  • Identify reasons people have formed new communities
  • Compare ways present and past communities meet their needs
  • Use vocabulary related to chronology
  • Create and interpret timelines
  • Describe historical times in terms of years, decades, and centuries
/ Jane Addams, Stephen F. Austin, Cesar Chavez, Andrew Carnegie, Year, Decade, Century
Geography /
  • Humans adapt to variations in the physical environment.
/
  • Describe and explain variations in the physical environment
  • Compare how people in different communities adapt to the physical environment
  • Describe the effects of physical and human processes in shaping the landscape
  • Identify and compare the human characteristics of selected regions
  • Use cardinal and intermediate directions to locate places on maps and globes
  • Use a scale to determine the distance between places on maps and globes
  • Identify and use the compass rose, grid, and
/ Agriculture, cardinal directions, climate, compass rose, direction, desert, gulf, landforms, location, map key, mountains, natural resources, ocean, soil, vegetation, rivers, weather
TEKS Strand / Enduring Understandings / Content Knowledge and Related Skills
The student is expected to: / Critical TAKS Vocabulary
Geography (continued) / symbols, to locate places on maps and globes
  • Draw maps of places and regions that include map elements

Economics /
  • Saving can help satisfy human needs and wants.
  • The choices scarcity forces us to make brings us together in the marketplace asproducers and consumers.
/
  • Identify ways of earning, spending, and saving money
  • Analyze a simple budget
  • Define and identify examples of scarcity
  • Explain the impact of scarcity on the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services
  • Explain the impact of scarcity on interdependence within and among communities
  • Explain the concept of a free market
  • Give examples of how a simple business operates
  • Explain how supply and demand affect the price of a good or service
  • Explain how the cost of production and selling price affect profits
  • Identify historic figures that have started new businesses
/ Barter, cash crops, consumer, factory, free enterprise, goods, income, interdependent, market, needs, wants, savings, scarce, services, tax, trade
Government /
  • Local governments exist to meet the needs of the community.
/
  • Describe the basic structure of government in the local community
  • Identify services commonly provided by local governments
  • Identify local government officials and explain how they are chosen
  • Explain how government services are financed
  • Explain the importance of the consent of the governed to the functions of local government
/ Constitution, cooperation, county, courts, democracy, government, law, leader, tax, mayor, state,
TEKS Strand / Enduring Understandings / Content Knowledge and Related Skills
The student is expected to: / Critical TAKS Vocabulary
Citizenship /
  • The characteristics of good citizenship may be found in both ordinary people and historical figures.
  • In democratic societies, individuals and groups can make decisions that change communities.
/
  • Identify characteristics of good citizenship
  • Identify historic figures who have exemplified good citizenship
  • Identify and explain the importance of acts of civic responsibility
  • Identify ordinary people who exemplify good citizenship
  • Give examples of community changes that result from individual or group decisions
  • Identify examples of actions individuals and groups can take to improve the community
  • Identify examples of non-profit and/or civic organizations and explain how they serve the common good
/ Ballot, voting, election, citizen, civic responsibility, freedom, rights, opinion, patriotism
Culture /
  • Celebrations help define communities, states, and nations.
  • Real and mythical heroes shape cultures.
/
  • Identify the heroic deeds of state and national heroes
  • Retell the heroic deeds of characters from American folktales and legends
  • Retell the heroic deeds of characters of Greek and Roman myths
  • Identify how selected fictional characters created new communities
  • Identify and explain the significance of selected writers and artists and their stories, poems, statues, paintings and other examples of cultural heritage to communities around the world
/ Culture, customs, traditions
Science, Technology and Society /
  • Technology changes the way we live.
  • Technology helps accomplish specific tasks.
/
  • Identify scientists and inventors who have created or invented new technology
  • Identify the impact of new technology on communities around the world
/ Technology, Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, Factory, Thomas Edison
Social Studies Skills*
The student is expected to: /
  • Obtain information about a community using print, oral, visual, and computer sources
  • Sequence and categorize information
  • Interpret oral, visual, and print material by identifying the main idea, identifying cause and effect, and comparing and contrasting
  • Use various parts of a source, including the table of contents, glossary, and index, as well as keyboard computer searches, to locate information
  • Interpret and create visuals, including graphs, charts, tables, timelines, illustrations, and maps
  • Use appropriate mathematical skills to interpret social studies information
  • Express ideas orally
  • Create written and visual materials, such as stories, poems, pictures, maps, and graphic organizers to express ideas
  • Use standard grammar, spelling, sentence structure, and punctuation
  • Use a problem-solving process
  • Use a decision-making process
*See Social Studies Skills Framework, “Novice’ level for how to develop these skills in Grade 3 / Graph, chart, scale, map, sequence, categorize, interpret, cause, effect, tables, timelines