Suggestions for Social Studies Activities

Classroom Experiences

• Include in play areas toys related to methods of transportation: trucks, cars, buses, trains, airplanes, and helicopters can be added to the block area, and boats and barges can be added to the water table. The teacher can help children focus on the concept of transporting goods and people.

• Have the children take short walks in their neighborhood and identify structures (houses, businesses, churches, and so on).
• Lead children to observe changes in their immediate environments, such as changes in the room, on the playground, or in the school building.
• Encourage children to create structures with blocks that represent what they know of their community and neighborhood. They might construct a fire station, gas station, harbor, airport, etc.
• Have children work together to move toys or materials that need to be moved or to clean up the materials and play area.
• Keep a large scrapbook with records of important events in the children’s experiences. Reviewing it with the children will teach them that we can keep records of events and that these records help us to recall the events accurately.
• Visit workplaces in the neighborhood and make models of the neighborhood as a way of teaching about the world of work. Ask school or community workers to be guest speakers in the classroom.
• Have children categorize objects and goods as “wants” or “needs.” They can develop the concept that people are paid for their work and that the money is used to acquire goods.
• Invite children’s families to talk to the class about family and cultural customs or holiday celebrations, food, clothing, or other cultural experiences.

Community and Community Helpers Activities

• Discuss why we have rules at school and what they are. Help children to develop some new rules for the classroom and the school.
• Discuss with the children what to do if their home is on fire.
• Have a child pretend to be a police officer. The other children can pretend to be lost and have them try to give the police officer the correct information so the officer can help them.
• Have the children pretend to be mail carriers and deliver mail.
• Have the children make their own “home.” Glue wallpaper scraps to the inside of boxes. Cut out “windows” and glue fabric scraps above the holes for curtains. Have them use their imaginations.
• Read the book Rosie’s Walk; then discuss the things that the children see on their way to school.
• Walk around the schoolyard and collect a variety of things that can be used to make crayon rubbings, or have the children take paper and a crayon with them to do rubbings during the walk. Some items could be tree trunks, sidewalks, walls, manhole covers, or bricks.
• Have each student select a picture card from a deck depicting different careers, such as firefighter, police officer, baker, teacher, etc. Ask the children what the career is, what that person does, and why that career is important.
• Show the children a picture of a police officer. Encourage them to tell about an experience they have had with a police officer. Stress how they are important and what their responsibilities are: helping people in trouble, making sure rules are followed, directing traffic, helping lost children find their way home, and keeping our town safe.
• Set up a supermarket in the classroom. Use aprons, nametags, jackets, bags, shelves, play money, and a cash register. Group foods that go together (meats, dairy, etc.).
• Compare the sizes of different buildings in the neighborhood (store, apartment, house, skyscraper, etc.).
• Talk about some things children can do in their town for fun, such as going to the park, a museum, the zoo, etc.
• Place a graham cracker for each child in envelopes bearing the children’s names. Designate a mail carrier to deliver the “letters” to their owners.
• Make a fire collage using bits of red, orange, and yellow torn paper.
• Provide the children with paper bags; then walk around the inside and outside of the school picking up litter.

Transportation Activities

• Discuss the various types of transportation and why they are used. Children can cut out magazine pictures of different types of transportation vehicles and glue them to a piece of paper for a collage.

• Show children how to make a truck using a rectangle, a square, and two circles.
• Collect enough pictures of vehicles for each child. Discuss each mode of transportation. Then cut each picture into three to ten pieces (depending on age level). Children can work their own puzzles and then trade with others.
• Group small toy cars, boats, trains, and other vehicles into type, color, size, mode of transport (flying, floating), etc.
• Divide a bulletin board into three sections: air, land, and water. Have the children cut out magazine pictures of transportation vehicles and place them in the appropriate sections.
  
  
• Make a graph showing how the children get to school. Draw a grid on a chalkboard and label each row by drawing or attaching a picture of a bus, car, bike, or child walking. Have the children tell how they arrive at school and graph their responses.
• Help the children fold paper airplanes; then let them decorate them any way they would like.

Safety Activities

• Cut out the shape of a traffic light and red, yellow, and green circles. Have the children place the lights of the traffic light into the correct order and ask them what each color represents.

• Teach the children their addresses and phone numbers. Tell them why it is important for them to know this information.
• Discuss some safety rules and encourage the children to offer some of the rules they know and obey.
• Discuss the fire safety, water safety, traffic safety, school safety, and home safety rules.
  Fire safety rules: never play with matches; stop, drop, and roll if your clothes are on fire; stay low and go to avoid smoke; keep away from hot appliances; practice home fire drills.
  Water safety rules: never swim alone; stay seated in a boat and wear a life jacket; get out of the water during a thunderstorm; walk around a pool; learn to swim.
  Traffic safety: obey all traffic signs and lights; fasten your seat belt; look left, right, then left again before crossing a road; listen and follow directions from the bus driver; keep both hands on the handlebars when riding a bike.
  School safety: walk in the school, don’t run; keep your hands and feet to yourself; keep litter in its place; stay alert and play safe on the playground; don’t play with fire alarms or fire extinguishers.
  Home safety: know your address and phone number; don’t take medicine unless your parents or teacher gives it to you; stay away from household cleaners; never open the door for strangers; attach emergency numbers near each phone in the house.
• Discuss what to do if a stranger approaches and asks for help or offers candy.
• Arrange chairs to form a line for seats on a bus. Have children take turns being the bus driver and the passengers and show safe ways to get on and off the bus.
• Tape some traffic sounds, including sirens, and have children identify and draw what they hear. Discuss how the sounds make them feel.
• Put life jackets, goggles, fins, traffic signs, masks, toy vehicles, doctor’s kit, telephones, etc., in the dramatic play area.
• Play “Red Light, Green Light.”
• Do sinking and floating experiments.
• Walk around the school and look for things that could be considered unsafe.
• Show the children poison stickers and tell them what they mean and why they should avoid these products.
• Practice dialing 911.

Health Activities

• Have children wash and dry their hands. Then have them take turns rubbing lotion on each other’s hands and buffing their nails.

• Talk about the uses of water: drinking, washing dishes, bathing, etc.
• Have the children cut out magazine pictures of things they use to keep themselves clean. Talk about the items; then make a collage with the pictures.
• Discuss step-by-step directions for washing hands and face, brushing hair, shampooing hair, brushing and flossing teeth.
• Talk about what each of the children do before they come to school.
• Talk about the importance of sleep.
• Discuss the importance of our eyesight. Have the children cover one eye using an eyepatch and see if their everyday activities become harder to perform.
• Discuss what we do when we need to blow or wipe our noses (get a tissue, throw it in the trash, and wash our hands).
• Talk about what we do if we cut ourselves (wash it out, put on a band-aid, etc.).