All Social Studies Units

Explore a menu of Social Studies unit plans from PreK–Grade 8, featuring engaging, standards-aligned lessons that build historical and civic understanding.

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Grade 1 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 8 (Grade 1 Social Studies): Working Together to Help Others

Guide students to plan and complete a simple kindness or service project that builds respect, responsibility, inclusion, and community awareness in the classroom and school.

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Grade 1 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 7 (Grade 1 Social Studies): Learning from Pictures and Stories

Teach students to gather facts from photos and short texts, sort relevant information, and distinguish simple facts from opinions while exploring familiar community topics.

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Grade 1 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 6 (Grade 1 Social Studies): Asking Questions About Our World

Help Grade 1 students build inquiry skills by asking who, what, and why questions about their community and finding answers through observation, simple texts, and interviews.

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Grade 1 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 5 (Grade 1 Social Studies): Being a Good Citizen

Teach first graders respect, responsibility, and cooperation with this weeklong Social Studies unit on classroom citizenship, featuring stories, role-plays, and simple games.

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Grade 1 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 4 (Grade 1 Social Studies): Symbols of Our School and Community

Help first graders explore school and community symbols—like flags, mascots, and signs—to understand what they represent, where they appear, and how these symbols shape identity and belonging.

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Grade 1 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 3 (Grade 1 Social Studies): Rules Keep Us Safe

Teach first graders why rules matter for fairness and safety through stories, discussions, and role-play, helping them follow and help create simple classroom agreements.

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Grade 1 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 2 (Grade 1 Social Studies): Leaders and Helpers at School

Help first graders explore school helpers and authority figures by identifying their roles, responsibilities, and the goods and services they provide to support the school community.

Grade 1 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 1 (Grade 1 Social Studies): Our Classroom Community

A caring, safe classroom community unit where first graders learn cooperation, kindness, and rule-following while creating a Class Promise that builds fairness, respect, and responsibility.

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Grade 2 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 36 (Grade 2 Social Studies): Cumulative Synthesis & Exhibition

Explore key Grade 2 Social Studies ideas—citizenship, maps, history, and economics—as students create interactive “Civic Fair” displays to showcase their year-long learning.

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Grade 2 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 35 (Grade 2 Social Studies): Citizenship in Action

Help students explore fairness, cooperation, equality, and everyday citizenship through stories, meetings, and role-plays that show how their choices keep the classroom safe, kind, and fair.

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Grade 2 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 34 (Grade 2 Social Studies): Working Together for Change

Students explore how people of all ages strengthen their communities through service, kindness, and small civic actions, practicing teamwork, respect, and simple decision-making to plan a class service project.

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Grade 2 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 33 (Grade 2 Social Studies): Caring for Our Planet and People

Teach students how reusing, reducing, and recycling protect land, water, animals, and people, as they identify local environmental problems and take simple civic actions to care for their community.

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Grade 2 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 32 (Grade 2 Social Studies): Natural and Human Resources

Explore how everyday products are made by connecting natural, human, and capital resources to the community’s factories, stores, roads, and other human-made features that help create and move goods.

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Grade 2 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 31 (Grade 2 Social Studies): Choices and Trade

Help students explore needs, wants, choices, trade, and opportunity cost through simple classroom simulations that show how limited resources shape decisions.

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Grade 2 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 30 (Grade 2 Social Studies): Why People Work

Help students explore why people work, how they earn, save, and spend money, and how choices involve opportunity cost, using stories, sorting activities, and simple class simulations.

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Grade 2 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 29 (Grade 2 Social Studies): Producers and Consumers

Teach students to identify producers and consumers, sort goods and services, and recognize the natural, human, and capital resources behind everyday products and community jobs.

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Grade 2 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 28 (Grade 2 Social Studies): Needs and Wants

Teach students the difference between needs and wants and how limited resources require making choices, using picture sorts, stories, and a class “store” to practice smart decision-making.

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Grade 2 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 27 (Grade 2 Social Studies): Midyear Review—People, Progress, and Change

Review timelines, past/present changes, important people and holidays, and family traditions as students use photos, maps, and simple sources to show how communities grow and change over time.

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Grade 2 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 26 (Grade 2 Social Studies): Leaders and Problem Solvers

Explore historical figures and community leaders who solved problems and served others, helping students understand why they’re remembered and how leaders support communities today.

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Grade 2 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 25 (Grade 2 Social Studies): Inventions That Changed Lives

Explore how inventions, tools, and transportation have changed life over time, helping students learn about needs, wants, jobs, and the natural, human, and capital resources behind technology.

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Grade 2 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 24 (Grade 2 Social Studies): Stories About the Past

Learn local and state history through books, photos, and oral stories as students practice identifying who, what, where, when, and why to retell key events.

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Grade 2 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 23 (Grade 2 Social Studies): Change Over Time in Our Community

Explore how communities change over time by comparing past and present photos, artifacts, and accounts while learning to choose helpful, trustworthy evidence.

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Grade 2 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 22 (Grade 2 Social Studies): How Families Preserve Traditions

Discover how families keep traditions alive through stories, celebrations, foods, and activities, while students learn to ask meaningful questions and share their own cultural traditions.

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Grade 2 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 21 (Grade 2 Social Studies): Celebrating Important People and Events

Explore holidays, leaders, and symbols that honor fairness and freedom, helping students understand why we celebrate important people and events and how traditions show respect.

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Grade 2 Social Studies Units

Unit Plan 20 (Grade 2 Social Studies): Then and Now—Homes and Schools

Compare homes, schools, and communities from long ago and today using photos, artifacts, and simple maps, highlighting human-made features and how they’ve changed over time.