Second grade students in Michigan continue their integrative approach to social studies by focusing in on the local community. Students are introduced to a social environment larger than their immediate surroundings.

If you’ve taken time to glance at the Kindergarten “Myself and Others” book, or its sequel First Grade “Families and Schools”, you’ll know that the authors of those books envisioned them being “big books” which were meant to be experienced with the teacher projecting the materials on a big screen. This book begins the transition from “big book” to an individualized tool. It doesn’t mean that the book is meant to be read without teacher interaction, but this resource was designed to be in the hands of students in conjunction with daily classroom instruction.

This second chapter covers the geography standards for second grade. Now that students have a firm understanding of what a community is, we move into the study of communities by getting students into exploring maps. In Kindergarten and First grade we had teachers construct a classroom box. This activity was designed by Dr. Phil Gersmehl and his wife Carol and is based upon some of the work they did in Harlem New York. In this chapter we once again revisit the idea of a classroom in a box, and present to you here instructions for making your own.

Now that we’ve spent time talking about what a community is and then exploring them, the conversation of this chapter is focused around the compelling question “How do people work together in a community?” On the one hand, this question appears rooted in civics, but the content we cover is rooted in economics. Students have already learned about needs and wants, and consumers and producers in earlier grades, and now we introduce an economic term “scarcity”. You may choose to review the concepts of needs vs wants before introducing this term.

Chapter 4 is all about civics. While many teachers may be tempted to do this chapter first, it is placed here for a reason. Many of the concepts introduced in Chapters 1-3 are revisited here. Some of the content from 1st grade may serve as a great review at the start of the year.

Our final chapter in 2nd grade is all about history - how we study it and how we learn about places - especially our community. The authors recognized early on that it would be impossible for us to write a community history for every community in Michigan, so we continue with our study of two - a small town and a larger town. Our hope is that you’ll have students make connections between these two featured communities and their own. How are they alike? How are they different?

Using both families and schools as a lens for study, 1st grade students learn about geography, history, economics, and civics with strong connections to the literacy block!

The First Grade text is meant to be explored visually by students like a traditional “big book”. Some teachers may also want their students to have a copy of the book as a digital text on an iPad, Chromebook, or other digital device. Either way, the way students interact with this book is different from other MI Open Book materials.

This chapter is all about history. In future grades students begin to learn about the history of our state, our country, and our world. In the early grades however, students learn about history through a much smaller lens. In first grade it’s about families.

The First Grade text is meant to be explored visually by students like a traditional “big book”. Some teachers may also want their students to have a copy of the book as a digital text on an iPad, Chromebook, or other digital device. Either way, the way students interact with this book is different from other MI Open Book materials. Each short reading is meant to have some teacher interaction go along with it. We tell you what those are in each section. This chapter also requires construction of a small box. You may use the lid of a ream of paper for creation of this box, or have a sturdier one built for you. This same box will be used across all K-2 books. You may want to have one sturdy one built and shared between teachers.

Students further study the concepts outlined in the geography content expectations by discussing now how they are part of their environment. In this chapter important foundational concepts such as natural and human characteristics are discussed and explored.

When people live and work together, problems can occur. Classrooms and schools can have problems. A problem
is something difficult that needs to be solved. It can be hard to solve a problem because not everyone will agree on how to solve it.

Kindergarten students are encouraged to gain an increased awareness of themselves and the world around them in our entry level text in the series.

The Kindergarten text is meant to be explored visually by students like a traditional “big book”. Some teachers may also want their students to have a copy of the book as a digital text on an iPad, Chromebook, or other digital device. Either way, the way students interact with this book is different from other MI Open Book materials.

This chapter is all about history. In future grades students begin to learn about the history of our state, our country, and our world. In the early grades however, students learn about history through a much smaller lens. In first grade it’s about families.

This chapter on Geography is meant to introduce students to the world around them and begin building foundational geographic skills which will serve them well in later social studies courses. This chapter may look different than many geography units you’ve seen.This chapter was designed with close help from Dr. Phil Gersmehl and his wife Carol, both of whom have extensive geographic pedagogical knowledge and experience. In this chapter we invite students to the world of spatial thinking rather than simply nailing down and exploring the five themes of geography.

This chapter introduces students to history by exploring the ideas of past, present, and future. Students learn about timelines and eventually construct their own timeline of important events in their lives. Through it all they learn about how people learn about the past.

In Kindergarten, students are introduced to the basic concepts of economics. People of all ages experience two important economic terms introduced here: needs and wants. The differences between a need and a want is where we spend our first chunk of time in this chapter.

You may be tempted to skip this short section. It is brief in comparison to previous chapters but it is ultimately one of the most important. Students have spent their entire class period up to this point exploring and learning more about foundational social studies concepts. This is the chapter that puts it all together.