Grade 3 Social Studies New York standards Standards

Communities around the World

Civic Participation

Economics and Economic Systems

Geographic Reasoning

Comparison and Contextualization

Chronological Reasoning and Causation

Gathering, Interpreting and Using Evidence

Geographic regions have unifying characteristics and can be studied using a variety of tools.

Earth is comprised of water and large land masses that can be divided into distinct regions.

Students will identify the continents and oceans, by using globes and maps.

Students will locate the selected world communities in relation to oceans and continents.

Globes, maps, photographs, and satellite images contain geographic information. Maps often have a title, legend or key, compass orientation, author, date, grid, and scale.

Students will identify the differences between a globe and a map.

Students will examine a variety of maps for at least two of the selected world communities, looking for structural features of the map such as title, legend or key, compass orientation, author, date, grid, and scale. These should include political, physical, vegetation, and resource maps. A variety of scale should be represented (e.g., continent vs. country, country vs. city).

Students will compare geographic information found in photographs and satellite images with other representations of the same area and identify differences for at least one of the selected world communities

Each community develops an economic system that addresses three questions: what will be produced, how will it be produced, and who will get what is produced?

Communities around the world produce goods and provide services.

Students will determine what goods are produced and services are provided in each selected world community.

Students will examine how the goods are produced within each selected world community.

Students will investigate who receives the goods that are produced in each selected world community.

World communities have needs, wants, and limited resources. To meet their needs and wants, communities trade with others. Technological developments in transportation and communication have influenced trade.

Students will examine each selected world community in terms of what products and/or services it exports to other communities.

Students will examine each selected world community in terms of what products and/or services it imports from other communities.

Students will explore the basic economic concepts of supply and demand and how they influence prices and trade.

Students will examine how technological developments in transportation and communication have influenced trade over time.

The location of world communities can be described using geographic tools and vocabulary.

World communities can be located on globes and maps.

Students will examine where each selected world community is located.

World communities can be located in relation to each other and to principle parallels and meridians.

Students will examine the location of each selected world community relative to the United States and other selected world communities. Students will locate each selected world community in relationship to principal parallels (equator, Tropic of Cancer, Tropic of Capricorn, Arctic Circle, and Antarctic Circle) and meridians (Prime Meridian) using cardinal and intermediate directions.

Geographic factors often influence where people settle and form communities. People adapt to and modify their environment in different ways to meet their needs.

Geographic factors influence where people settle and their lifestyle. Some geographic factors make a location more suitable for settlement, while others act as deterrents.

Students will examine the geographic factors of each selected world community, including physical features and climate, noting how certain factors are likely to support settlement and larger populations.

Students will investigate the lifestyle of the people who live in each selected world community and how the lifestyle has been influenced by the geographic factors.

People make adaptations and modifications to the environment. Advancements in science, technology, and industry can bring about modifications to the environment and can have unintended consequences on the environment. People have attempted to take actions to protect the environment.

Students will examine how each selected world community has adapted to and/or modified its environment to meet its needs.

Students will investigate how human activities and the use of technology have altered the environment, bringing about unintended consequences for each of the selected world communities and their own community.

Students will explore actions that are being taken to protect the environment in the selected world communities and in their own community.

Each community or culture has a unique history, including heroic figures, traditions, and holidays.

People in world communities use legends, folktales, oral histories, biographies, and historical narratives to transmit cultural histories from one generation to the next.

Students will examine legends, folktales, oral histories, biographies, and historical narratives to learn about the important individuals and events of each selected world community.

Students will examine symbols of each selected world community.

Arts, music, dance, and literature develop through a community's history.

Students will explore the arts, music, dance, and literature of each selected world community.

Communities share cultural similarities and differences across the world.

The structure and activities of families and schools share similarities and differences across world communities.

Students will compare and contrast the structure and activities of families and schools in each selected community with their own.

Communities around the world can be diverse in terms of their members, languages spoken, customs and traditions, and religious beliefs and practices. People in world communities celebrate various holidays and festivals.

Students will examine each selected world community in terms of its members, languages spoken, customs and traditions, and religious beliefs and practices.

Students will learn about the holidays and festivals celebrated in each selected world community and compare them to the holidays and festivals celebrated in their own community.

Communities from around the world interact with other people and communities and exchange cultural ideas and practices.

Cultural diffusion is the process by which cultures exchange and transmit ideas, beliefs, technologies, and goods over time.

Students will examine people, goods, and ideas that have diffused from other communities into each selected world community and the effects of the people, goods, and ideas on these communities.

Students will examine people, goods, and ideas from each selected world community that have diffused into other communities and their effects on those communities.

Governments in communities and countries around the world have the authority to make and the power to enforce laws. The role of the citizen within these communities or countries varies across different types of governments.

The United States government is based on democratic principles. The fundamental principles of other governments may be similar to or different from those of the United States government.

Students will examine the type of government is found in each selected world community and compare and contrast it with United States government, as well as with the types of governments found in other selected world communities.

The process of selecting leaders, solving problems, and making decisions differs across governments in nations and communities around the world.

Students will examine different processes of selecting leaders, solving problems, and making decisions in nations and communities and compare and contrast them to the process used in the United States.

Different governments have different ways of maintaining order and keeping people safe. This includes making rules and laws and enforcing these rules and laws.

Students will examine how the government maintains order, keeps people safe, and makes and enforces rules and laws in each selected world community and compare and contrast it with the process in the United States, as well as in selected world communities.

The definition of citizenship and the role of the citizen vary across different types of political systems, and citizens play a greater role in the political process in some countries than in others.

Students will examine the role of the citizen in each selected world community and how this role is similar to or different from the role a citizen plays in the United States, as well in as other selected world communities.

The concept of universal human rights suggests that all people should be treated fairly and should have the opportunity to meet their basic needs.

Across global communities, governments and citizens alike have a responsibility to protect human rights and to treat others fairly.

Students will examine the extent to which governments and citizens have protected human rights and treated others fairly for each world community.

Across time and place, communities and cultures have struggled with prejudice and discrimination as barriers to justice and equality for all people.

Students will examine prejudice and discrimination and how they serve as barriers to justice and equality for all people.

When faced with prejudice and discrimination, people can take steps to support social action and change.

Students will investigate steps people can take to support social action and change.

Communities meet their needs and wants in a variety of ways, forming the basis for their economy.

World communities use human and natural resources in different ways.

Students will investigate available resources for each selected world community and how these resources are used to meet basic needs and wants.

Students will explore the concepts of surplus and scarcity in relation to resources for each selected world community.

People in communities have various ways of meeting their basic needs and earning a living.

Students will investigate how each selected world community meets its basic needs of food, clothing, and shelter, and compare that to their own community.

Students will examine the various ways people earn a living and how this has changed, if at all, over time in each selected world community.

Develop questions about a world community.

Recognize and use different forms of evidence to make meaning in social studies (including primary and secondary sources, such as art and photographs, artifacts, oral histories, maps, and graphs).

Identify and explain creation and/or authorship, purpose, and format of evidence. Where appropriate, identify point of view.

Identify arguments of others.

Identify inferences.

Create understanding of the past by using and analyzing primary and secondary sources.

Explain how three or more events are related to one another.

Employ mathematical skills to measure time in years and centuries

Identify causes and effects, using examples from his/her life or from a current event or history.

Distinguish between long-term and immediate causes and effects of an event from his/her life or current events or history.

Recognize continuity and change over periods of time.

Recognize periods of time, such as decades and centuries.

Recognize and identify patterns of continuity and change in world communities.

Identify a world region by describing a characteristic that places within it have in common.

Identify multiple perspectives by comparing and contrasting points of view in differing world communities.

Describe a historical event in a world community.

Recognize the relationship between geography, economics, and history in world communities.

Describe a historical development in a world community with specific details, including time and place.

Ask geographic questions about where places are located and why they are located there, using location terms and geographic representations, such as maps, photographs, satellite images, and models. Describe where places are in relation to each other and describe connections between places.

Distinguish human activities and human-made features from "environments" (natural events or physical features—land, air, and water— that are not directly made by humans).

Describe how human activities affect the environment of a world community; describe how the environment of a specific world community affects the human activities in that community.

Recognize a process that applies to population, and a resulting pattern.

Describe how human activities alter places and regions.

Examine how scarcity affects the decisions about the use of resources by people and governments; examine the costs and benefits of economic decisions.

Identify the variety of resources available in a particular world community used to produce goods and/or provide services.

Identify products found in world communities and the various ways that people in those communities pay for products.

Examine the goods and services provided by world communities; describe what goods and services a world community trades with other world communities.

Explore the types of governments in world communities and the services that they provide to citizens.

Demonstrate respect for the rights of others in discussions and classroom debates, regardless of whether one agrees with the other viewpoints.

Participate in activities that focus on a classroom, school, or world community issue or problem.

Identify different types of political systems found in world communities.

Identify opportunities for and the role of the individual in social and political participation in the school, local community, or world community.

Show respect in issues involving difference and conflict; participate in negotiating and compromising in the resolution of differences and conflict.

Identify situations in which social actions are required and suggest actions.

Identify leaders of world communities and the president of the United States; identify similarities and differences in their roles.

Identify rights and responsibilities of citizens in the local community and compare them to those in world communities.