Curriculum: Social Studies

Social Studies in the Lower School

Since the philosophy and practice in the School for Children begins with the idea that children are makers of meaning through their interactions in the human world, social studies serves as the core interdisciplinary curriculum in the Lower School. Teachers integrate concepts and skills from the other academic areas within children's daily experiential work with materials and each other. In the tradition of Bank Street's progressive origins, which emphasize the importance of active engagement in the world around us, the social studies program addresses two major themes: (1) the study of human life as it presents itself from moment to moment; e.g., sharing, working together cooperatively, resolving conflicts; and (2) the study of the connections and relationships necessary for physical and psychological survival in the world around them.

Since children in the Lower School have a shorter history of experiences in the world and are in the early stages of developing their knowledge and symbol making capabilities, their social studies focus on the concrete visible world around them. Not yet ready for the abstract ideas about places further away in time and space, our social studies is based on children's daily experiences and their developmental needs. Play provides the medium for understanding and consolidation of knowledge for our youngest children. Play is the means through which children think, feel, and create meaning. Their "textbooks" are the open-ended sensorial materials- such as blocks, paint, clay wood, water, sand- through which they investigate and work through what they know and don't know about their physical and social world. Within the relatively safe context of play, children try out roles, act out "what-ifs", express ideas, try out solutions to problems, and simply imagine. Through the symbolic nature of play, making things stand for other things through physical, visual, and verbal means, children lay the foundation for future, more sophisticated abstract and symbolic thinking.

When planning social studies experiences, teachers think about the whole child and the inseparability of the social, emotional, and intellectual components of learning. Children's dramatic play and inquiry about school, family, and community are the sources of the social studies topics. Since the family is the young child's primary reference, Lower School teachers develop curriculum that reflects the cultural diversity of the families in the classroom, school and neighborhood. Each child and family is considered unique; each family's heritage and contributions to our society are shared and valued as integral to daily classroom life. A teacher begins a study by finding out from children about their experiences and knowledge about a particular area of study, such as families, work, the Bank Street building, city transportation. The study gradually widens as children take trips to broaden and deepen their understandings. In the classroom, they share and discuss these experiences in meetings and use the open-ended sensorial materials to recreate and construct meaning.

In the 3s the focus is on the widening world, from home to school and becoming a member of the classroom community. This curriculum includes the dual processes of separation and joining. Especially in the beginning months of school, teachers are actively engaged in seeking ways within the curriculum to establish children's trust as well as evoke their curiosity in their new school setting. As teachers encourage relationships between children and their families, the threes learn how they are different from and similar to others. They also learn about how their classroom relates to other places in the school by taking trips to other classrooms and offices at Bank Street and to local stores and parks.

4/5s

The 4/5s learn about the connections between their families, school, and the neighborhood. They explore the richness and diversity of how families live and work in their homes and workplaces as well as investigate places in the neighborhood that their families and their classroom depend on for their needs and interests at home and at school. For example, they might study stores that families depend on; different kinds of bread that families make at home or buy at a local shop, or how families use the nearby Riverside Park. Since children are fascinated by and curious about the obvious differences between themselves and their families, a study about skin color, hair color and texture, language, holidays, foods, or family configurations becomes an important part of the social studies curriculum.

5/6s

The 5/6s expand their understanding of work relationships between home, school, and neighborhood to include workers in the city and surrounding environs. Their focus is on the organization and relationships within a particular workplace. For example, in a study of transportation within our city, children will examine how each terminal is organized in order for the vehicles and workers to transport people in and out of the city. Children are highly motivated to learn from the many trips to places of active work performed by the various workers in our city. In the classroom, children try out workers' roles through dramatic play in their buildings in the block area. Other possibilities for social studies topics are farms and markets; breads and bakeries; workers in the Bank Street building, along with neighborhood workplaces that Bank Street personnel depend on. These areas are explored through trips, and the resulting information is used to develop re-creations in the block area, in drawings and stories, cooking, and through the use of other open-ended materials.