Social Studies Curriculum
Our Social Studies program provides our students with a continuous and comprehensive study of history and geography and conforms to the California Social Studies Framework. At every grade level critical thinking and map and global skills are emphasized. We use as our basic text in Grades K through 8 the Houghton-Mifflin Social Studies Series.
St. Simon 4th graders have California History Day and 5th graders have Colonial Day. This is a full day of real life enactments which demonstrate everyday life. These activities bring history alive for our students.
Below is a summary of our curriculum. For detailed curriculum by topic see the California State Board of Education K-12 Content Standards.
Kindergarten
Being a good citizen; work that people do; introduction to history. Students recognize national and state symbols.
1st Grade
Places in our community, country, world. Students compare and contrast everyday life in different times and places.
2nd Grade
People in our community, country, world. Students differentiate between things that happened long ago and things that happened yesterday. Students begin to use maps.
3rd Grade
Our Native Americans and settlement of the United States. Students use maps, tables, graphs, photographs, and charts to organize information about people, places, and environments.
4th Grade
California history. Students learn the social, political, cultural, and economic life and interactions among people of California from the pre-Columbian societies to the Spanish mission and Mexican rancho periods; the Gold Rush, the granting of statehood and how California became an agricultural and industrial power.
5th Grade
United States history up to the framing of the Constitution, and U. S. geography. Begin with Pre-Columbian settlements and study different Native American cultures; follow early explorers and settlements in North America; study formation of the thirteen colonies and colonial life; American Revolution and the formation of the American Republic. Know the location of the fifty states and their capitals.
6th Grade
Early man through the Roman Empire. Early physical and cultural development of humankind from the Paleolithic era to the agricultural revolution; early civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Kush; Ancient Hebrews; Ancient Greece; India and China.
7th Grade
World Empires through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Students analyze the geographic, political, economic, religious, and social structures of the civilizations of Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and Pre-Columbian America.
8th Grade
United States history concentrating on the critical events of the period from the American Revolution to Reconstruction.