Social Studies and Young Children

Book excerpt: Social Studies and Young Children presents developmentally appropriate strategies for teaching social studies to young children, with a focus on NCSS and NAEYC standards and using trade books, activities, and other resources designed to reach young children. Written in an easy-to-understand style, the book weaves current research-based principles of developmentally appropriate practice throughout. Through the book's experiential, hands-on learning approach, teachers see how to reach young learners, pique their interest, and use their natural curiosity to develop more critical thinking. The developmental learning focus promotes the idea that by understanding how young children learn, teachers will be more successful in presenting material in a way that children are able to comprehend, further allowing them to build knowledge as they are developmentally able to make sense of the material. Cross-curricular teaching and learning is promoted through the inclusion of a list of trade books in each chapter. A variety of strategies, activities, resources, and key chapter sections illustrate the concepts and help students make the connections to daily classroom practice. The First Edition of Social Studies and Young Children includes: Students make the connections between the theory and learning of social studies. Chapter 1 presents helpful background information about learning theory, including an illustrative table that summarizes theorists and their ideas about young learners. Learning and understanding of the text concepts, diversity, and inclusion are enhanced through a variety of key chapter sections. Students become familiar with what children should be learning as they plan for learning goals. Included are 10 NCSS themes and relevant NAEYC standards listed in every chapter. An understanding of what is developmentally appropriate for teaching social studies content and concepts is accomplished through references to child development and DAP throughout the book. Concepts and ideas are illustrated and clarified. Numerous practical and useful examples, activities, and resource ideas relevant for different age groups appear at the end of each chapter. Teachers see how to provide relevant, appropriate assessment for young children in a full chapter devoted to the topic. (Chapter 9) Teachers see how to integrate social studies into the everyday lives of their students, and to teach social studies with other subjects through the book's interdisciplinary experiential method presented throughout.