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.