Kindergarten Social Studies Massachusetts Standards

Demonstrate civic knowledge, skills, and dispositions.

Develop focused questions or problem statements and conduct inquiries.

Organize information and data from multiple primary and secondary sources.

Analyze the purpose and point of view of each source; distinguish opinion from fact.

Evaluate the credibility, accuracy, and relevance of each source.

Argue or explain conclusions, using valid reasoning and evidence.

Determine next steps and take informed action, as appropriate.

With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.

Actively engage in group reading activities with purpose and understanding.

With prompting and support, identify the main topic and retell key details of a text.

With prompting and support, describe the connection between two individuals, events, places, or pieces of information in a text.

With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about the meaning of unknown words in a text.

Identify the front cover, back cover, and title page of a book.

Name the author and illustrator of a text and define the role of each in presenting the ideas or information in a text.

With prompting and support, describe the relationship between illustrations and the text in which they appear (e.g., what person, place, thing, or idea in the text an illustration depicts).

With prompting and support, identify the reasons an author gives to support points in a text.

With prompting and support, identify basic similarities and differences between two texts on the same topic (e.g., in illustrations, descriptions, procedures).

Participate in collaborative discussions with diverse partners about kindergarten topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.

Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions (e.g., listening to others and taking turns speaking about the topics and texts under discussion).

Continue a conversation through multiple exchanges.

Confirm understanding of a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media by asking and answering questions about key details and requesting clarification if something is not understood.

Ask and answer questions to seek help, get information, or clarify something that is not understood.

Describe familiar people, places, things and events, and, with prompting and support, provide additional detail.

Add drawings and visual displays to descriptions as desired to provide additional detail.

Speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings, and ideas clearly.

Understand and follow rules, limits, and expectations with minimal prompting and assistance; with prompting and support, ask and answer questions about the reasons for rules.

Take on responsibilities and follow through on them, being helpful to and respectful of others (e.g., volunteer for and carry out tasks in the classroom and at home).

With prompting and support, give examples from literature and informational texts read or read aloud of characters who show authority, fairness, caring, justice, responsibility, or who show how rules are created and followed.

Ask and answer questions and explore books to gain information about national symbols, songs, and texts of the United States:

why the flag of United States of America is red, white, and blue and has stars and stripes

why the bald eagle is the national emblem of United States

why "The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States

what the words of the "Pledge of Allegiance" mean

Describe the location of people, objects, and places, using correctly words and phrases such as up, down, near, far, left, right, straight, back, behind, in front of, next to, between.

With support, explain the similarities and differences between maps and globes.

Identify the elements of a physical address, including the street name and number, the city or town, the state (Massachusetts) and the country (United States).

With support, on a state map, find the city or town where the student's school is located; on a street map of the city or town, find the location of the student's school.

Use maps, photographs, their own drawings or other representations to show and explain to others the location of important places and relationships among places in the immediate neighborhood of the student's home or school.

Construct maps, drawings, and models that show physical features of familiar places.

Describe how some days, called civic holidays, are special because they celebrate important events or people in history (See the Resource Supplement, Section III, for a list of state, national, and international civic holidays and their histories).

Contrast and compare traditions and celebrations of peoples with diverse cultural backgrounds.

Put events from their personal lives, observations of the natural world, and from stories and informational texts read or read aloud in temporal order, using words and phrases relating to chronology and time, including:

Sequential actions: first, next, last;

Chronology and time: now, then, long ago, before, after, morning, afternoon, night, today, tomorrow, yesterday, last or next week, last or next month, last or next year.

With prompting and support, describe some things people do when they work inside and outside of the home, drawing on personal experience, literature, and informational texts.

With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about buying, selling or trading something and explain how people make choices about the things they need and want.

With prompting and support, give examples from personal experience, literature, or informational texts of goods and services that people purchase with money they earn.

Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose opinion pieces that tell a reader the topic or name of the book they are writing about and state an opinion or preference about the topic or book (e.g., "My favorite book is…").

Write, draw, or dictate writing routinely for a range of purposes, and audiences.

Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose informative/explanatory texts that name and supply some information about a topic.

Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to narrate a single event or experience, or several loosely linked events or experiences; sequence the narrative appropriately and provide a reaction to what it describes.

For poems, use rhyming words to create structure.

Begins in grade 1.

With guidance and support from adults, respond to questions and suggestions from peers and add details to strengthen writing if needed.

With guidance and support from adults, explore a variety of digital tools to produce and publish writing, including collaboration with peers.

Participate in shared research and writing projects (e.g., explore a number of books by a favorite author and express opinions about them).

With guidance and support, recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question.

Begins in grade 4.

Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity

Geography: connections among places

Research to Build and Present Knowledge

History and Social Science and the Standards for Literacy (Pre-K - 5)

Economics: work and commerce

Key Ideas and Details

Civics: classroom citizenship

Kindergarten: Many Roles in Living Learning and Working Together

Standards for History and Social Science Practice

Comprehension and Collaboration

Writing Standards

Range of Writing

History: shared traditions

Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas

Integration of Knowledge and Ideas

Speaking and Listening Standards

Reading Standards for Informational Text

Production and Distribution of Writing

Text Types and Purposes

Craft and Structure