Social Studies and Young Children

For courses in Social Studies in Early Childhood Education, Elementary Social Studies Methods, Science and Social Studies in Early Childhood, Integrated Primary Curriculum, and Language Arts and Social Studies in Early Childhood.

Developmentally appropriate strategies for teaching social studies to young children, with a focus on NCSS and NAEYC standards and using trade books, activities, and resources designed to reach young children.

Social Studies and Young Children provides the key elements teachers need to know about social studies teaching and learning with young children, ages three through eight. Written in an easy-to-understand style, the book includes NCSS and NAEYC standards, and weaves current research-based principles of developmentally appropriate practice throughout. Through the book’s experiential, hands-on learning approach, teachers see how to reach young learners, pique their interest, and use their natural curiosity to develop more critical thinking.

The developmental learning focus promotes the idea that by understanding how young children learn, teachers will be more successful in presenting material in a way that children are able to comprehend, further allowing them to build knowledge as they are developmentally able to make sense of the material. Cross-curricular teaching and learning is promoted through the inclusion of a list of trade books in each chapter. A variety of strategies, activities, resources, and key chapter sections illustrate the concepts and help students make the connections to daily classroom practice.