Unit Plan 1 (Grade K Social Studies): Building Our Classroom Community
Build a safe, kind classroom community as kindergarteners learn rules, routines, and responsibility through stories, role-play, and shared Class Promise creation.
Focus: Help children feel safe and welcome as they learn classroom rules, routines, and ways to show kindness, fairness, and responsibility. Students practice using kind words, sharing, and taking turns, and begin asking and answering simple questions about people, places, and rules at school.
Grade Level: Kindergarten
Subject Area: Social Studies (Civics • Inquiry • Community)
Total Unit Duration: 5 sessions (one week), 20–30 minutes per session
I. Introduction
This opening unit helps kindergarteners learn that our classroom is a community where everyone belongs and matters. Students explore why we have rules (to keep us safe and fair) and how routines (lining up, cleaning up, using inside voices) help our day go smoothly. Through stories, role-play, and simple discussions, children practice kindness, listening, and sharing, and they help create a short Class Promise that they can understand and follow.
Essential Questions
- Why do we have rules in our classroom and school?
- What does it look and sound like to be a kind and safe classmate?
- How can we help each other and take care of our classroom?
- Who are the people in our classroom and school, and what do they do?
- What questions can we ask to learn more about our classroom and community?
II. Objectives and Standards
Learning Objectives — Students will be able to:
- Name at least two classroom rules and explain in simple language how they help us stay safe and fair.
- Show responsibility and respect by using kind words, including others in play, and caring for shared materials.
- Participate in classroom routines (lining up, sitting at the rug, cleaning up) with increasing independence.
- Ask and answer simple who/what/why questions about classroom rules and people who help at school.
- Help create and sign/illustrate a Class Promise that describes how we will treat each other.
Standards Alignment — Kindergarten (C3-based custom)
- K.C3.Civ.1 — Explain classroom rules and how they keep us safe and fair.
- K.C3.Civ.5 — Show responsibility and respect in a diverse classroom.
- K.C3.Inq.1 — Ask and answer questions about people, places, and rules.
Success Criteria — Student Language
- I can say at least one rule and tell why it is important.
- I can show respect by using kind words and caring for our things.
- I can follow routines like lining up and cleaning up with my class.
- I can ask a question about our classroom or the people who help us.
- I can help say or show our Class Promise with my classmates.