A social studies pre-k curriculum helps children to expand their horizons from school to the neighborhoods they live in the ones in which they don’t. They go on to use that information when navigating the world as teenagers and eventually, adults!
Children begin to grasp social studies learning as soon as they start to make friends and become active within the classroom. Preschool offers a safe, loving environment where your children can learn about many things, including life skills, how to follow routines, and be mentored by the staff.
Below, Providence Children’s Academy discusses the importance of social studies in a preschool curriculum.
First of all, what is social studies in the context of the American education system? Social studies refers to the combined studies of multiple fields of social sciences and humanities. This typically includes history, political science, geography, psychology, and even philosophy studies.
There are many interesting and exciting ways to incorporate social studies into your pre-k curriculum so that your children remain interested and excited to learn. If you can make your classes fun, preschoolers are more likely to remember what they’ve learned!
Everything in a classroom connects to various parts of social studies.
By playing games, block building, and taking part in group projects, children learn to deal with conflict resolution, different emotions, and even learn to be accepting of people who are different.
Children gain confidence as they interact socially. They also learn to take turns, share, and practice being leaders and followers. Preschoolers benefit from being given responsibilities such as handing out napkins, crayons, cups, being in charge of turning the lights on and off, as well as opening and closing doors.
2. Use Class Trips To Your Advantage
Class field trips are a great way for preschoolers to see the “behind the scenes” at banks, police stations, restaurants, senior citizens centers, and firehouses–just to name a few! Visiting and learning about different occupations helps to shape preschoolers’ ideas about who they want to be when they grow up! It also helps them to identify any interests they may have.
To help reinforce the things they have learned on field trips, children can play pretending to run a grocery store, restaurant, a a police station and so much more.
Field trips give educators and daycare centers the chance to be creative with students! If you want to teach your children about how laws are made, perhaps you should consider a field trip to city hall. Or maybe you want to teach students about water treatment and conservation, so you plan a trip to your local water treatment plant. When it comes to learning, the possibilities are endless!
3. Encourage Reading
Children can learn so many things when a teacher reads books and discusses photos. They can learn their history, other history of other cultures, and how different children grow up around the world in places such as Botswana, Russia, Greenland, Singapore, and even in the Caribbean Islands.
Teachers can invite grandparents, parents, and other adults to talk about their cultures or their jobs. If the visitor grew up in a different country, they can show some pictures and talk about their experiences growing up there. They can discuss different professions such as being doctors, police, dentists, artists and firefighters. All of these things help shape young minds and open gateways to learning.
Holidays are an excellent way to learn about social studies.
Teachers can use the opportunity to teach their children about different traditions that are a special part of some cultures, such as Hanukkah, Ramadan, and Diwali. They can learn about the civil rights movement of the 1960s and the role Martin Luther King, Jr. played. Children could make small log cabins out of pretzel sticks for Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. For Thanksgiving, all the children could discuss what they’re thankful for and talk about the first Thanksgiving dinner. The list goes on and on!
Including an appreciation for diversity and inclusion in your pre-k curriculum is an important life skill that children will take with them all the way into adulthood.
Teachers use local neighborhoods to help children be more observant. They have two major options that they can observe.
One is various buildings around their neighborhoods: homes, churches, synagogues, mosques, schools, and parks. The other is businesses around their neighborhood: grocery stores, tailors, dry cleaners, toy stores, doctor offices, bookshops, and clothing retailers.
When children fully grasp social studies, it will undoubtedly benefit them in the long run. If it’s actively part of your school or daycare’s curriculum, you can rest easy knowing that your child will be going out into the world as a kind, understanding individual.
Below are just a few benefits social studies have on preschoolers:
- Social studies help to guide children so that they can discover who they are as individuals. This will help them to grow up and be the person who they want to be.
- They’re taught about diversity and that you should never judge a book by its cover. Whether it’s gender, ethnicity and age or even culture, language and family structures. Everyone should always be treated with respect and dignity.
- Preschoolers gain confidence as their social studies skill grows. This will help them to make friends and be kind to others.
Preschools In Coconut Creek
At Providence Children’s Academy, our students are provided an exceptional education and each student is given the tools necessary for full development during the program and for success later on in their lives. If you are interested in learning and growing with Providence, call us today at (954) 570-6914 or check out our blog for more tips and useful parenting information!