Pittsford Central Schools

GRADE: 3

In the grade three social studies program, students study about communities around the world. They locate world communities and learn how different communities meet their basic needs and wants.

ECONOMICS:

Choices trading barter cost
money export import resources
taxes rewards consequences labor
interdependence specialized jobs supply demand
income profit consumer scarcity
making decisions      

Write about basic needs of all families and communities around the world (food, water, shelter, clothing)

Recognized that choices are influenced by individual differences and our choices affect our lives and others

Explore influence of advertising on choices

Give examples of how competition effects price

Give reasons for the need of authority

Identify ways communities depend on others to meet basic needs and wants

Identify goods, services, and people as producers and consumers

Count and make change to ten dollars

Discuss ways families, schools, and communities make economic decisions (cost vs. need)

Compare and contrast two communities and how food, clothing, and shelter is obtained

Write about family wants and their benefits

List the advantages and disadvantages of living in a mountain, desert, or rain forest community

Discuss ways World Communities provide goods and services for each other (interdependence)

Develop a chart comparing three regions or communities (population, climate, products)

CIVICS:

Rights and Responsibilities

Respect

Citizenship

Health and Safety

Compromise

Choices/Voting

Decision making

Leaders

Problem solving

Government (local, state, regional)

Symbols of our nation

Patriotic holidays

Why governments are needed

Democracy

Types of families (extended, single parent, nuclear)

Majority rules

Laws

rules

Interdependence

Conflict

Nation

Cultures

Common values

Need for authority

Diversity and similarities of people

International customs

World communities

Compare your life with another person in another culture

Interpret a timeline

Develop and awareness of current events

Identify the causes of conflict in the world

Compare and contrast differences in families and rules

Discuss how people in communities may effect change

Identify patriotic holidays and celebration of our multicultural heritage

GEOGRAPHY:

Communities urban routes
Geography suburban soil
Climate rural scale
Specialization weather arid
City environment oasis
County state peak
Country continent base
ocean equator altitude
longitude/latitude North Pole valleys
4 hemispheres South Pole canyons
conservation symbols erosion
boundary landmarks volcano
international boundaries desert
mountain rain forest precipitation
range/chain island peninsula
bay river river source
river mouth vegetation glaciers
landslide compass rose (8 directions)  

Understand communities around the world differ from one another in physical features

Understand the development of a community is influenced by environmental and geographic factors

Locate on a globe: the four hemispheres, continents and oceans, lines of latitude and longitude, Canada and Mexico as neighboring countries

Explain advantages and disadvantages of living in each world community (mountain, desert, rain forest)

Identify four environmental factors influencing these (above) world communities

Identify ways people adapt to and/or change their environment

Locate his/her home on a street map of Pittsford/Rochester

Locate Pittsford and Rochester on a county, state, and US maps

Label primary directions on a World map

Locate and label the mountain ranges, deserts, and rain forests

Label continents and oceans on a globe

AMERICAN HISTORY

Awareness that communities change over time

Awareness that communities of the future will be different in many ways

Awareness of cultures and why people form communities

Historic events and patriotic holidays can be celebrated and viewed through art, music, and writings of famous people in history

WORLD HISTORY / CULTURE

Awareness of three major world regions and factors that influence change in these regions (mountain, desert, rain forest)

Understand cultural characteristics of world communities

Awareness that the development of world communities is influenced by environmental and geographic factors

Understand the interdependence of people

TERMS: AMERICAN AND WORLD HISTORY / CULTURE

Diversity Culture
Timeline Traditions
Artifacts Century
Decade Customs
Monuments Conflicts
Interdependent

SKILLS:

Interpret charts, graphs, and maps

Identify key and symbols on a map

Construct a table, chart, or graph given specific data

Write compare-contrast paragraphs examining the advantages or disadvantages of living in one community vs. another

Use conflict resolution techniques of listening to other viewpoints, understanding their needs, prioritizing, making judgments, and making decisions based on facts

Develop and interpret a timeline

Use role playing to show effect of choices on our lives and others

Illustrate or show ways communities around the world depend on each other

Create and write a narrative about another time or place

Listen to and read historical narratives created by others

Analyze historical fiction and the events they describe

Compare different stories about a historical figure and historic event

Explain how things can change over a period of time

Draw conclusions from data presented in graphs

Write about information presented in photographs, paintings, and drawings

Find historical data

Evaluate the consequences of a decision

Library Component:

Use the electronic encyclopedia in the library to print maps of designated areas.

Use the expanded screen of the library computer catalog to locate non-fiction resources on regions of the world.

Approved at third grade faculty meeting April 7, 1998


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Former Social Studies Coordinator Pittsford Central Schools

 Peter Pappas 

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