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?

UMCDC 2nd Grade MIOpenBook Chapter 1 Section 1 "What is a community?" (20-21)

UMCDC 2nd Grade MIOpenBook Chapter 1 Section 2 "How are communities alike?" (20-21)

UMCDC 2nd Grade MIOpenBook Chapter 1 Section 3 "How are communities different?" (20-21)

UMCDC 2nd Grade MIOpenBook Chapter 1 "Why Do People Live in Communities" (20-21)

UMCDC 2nd Grade MIOpenBook Chapter 2 Section 1 "How can we show where things are located inside places?" (20-21)

UMCDC 2nd Grade MIOpenBook Chapter 2 Section 2 "How can we show where things are located inside communities?" (20-21)

UMCDC 2nd Grade MIOpenBook Chapter 2 Section 3 "How can we compare communities?" (20-21)

UMCDC 2nd Grade MIOpenBook Chapter 2 Section 4 "How do people change the environment of their community?" (20-21)

UMCDC 2nd Grade MIOpenBook Chapter 2 "What Are Some Ways People Interact With the Natural Characteristics of Their Community?" (20-21)

UMCDC 2nd Grade MIOpenBook Chapter 3 "How Do People Work Together in a Community?" (20-21)

UMCDC 2nd Grade MIOpenBook Chapter 3 Section 1 "How does scarcity affect people?" (20-21)

UMCDC 2nd Grade MIOpenBook Chapter 3 Section 2 "How can people make good economic choices?" (20-21)

UMCDC 2nd Grade MIOpenBook Chapter 3 Section 3 "How do people use resources to produce goods and services?" (20-21)

UMCDC 2nd Grade MIOpenBook Chapter 3 Section 4 "Why do people trade?" (20-21)

UMCDC 2nd Grade MIOpenBook Chapter 4 "How Do People Get Along Together in a Community?" (20-21)