THIRD GRADE • OUR COMMUNITIES
Social Studies: Community, Culture and Citizenship
Open any chapter to see its essential question, parent-friendly lesson overviews, important vocabulary, inquiry project, and the skills students will develop.
CHAPTER 5
Suggested time: 7 weeksAmerican Citizens, Symbols, and Governments
Why do governments and citizens need each other?
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What students will learn
Students explore democracy, the Constitution, the three branches of government, local and state government, rules and laws, community heroes, and the responsibilities of good citizens.
Lessons at a glance
- Lesson 1: Our Democratic Way of LifeStudents learn why the Constitution was written, how representative democracy works, and how shared principles can guide a community.
- Lesson 2: Branches of GovernmentStudents examine the legislative, executive, and judicial branches and how they work together. They also consider public-service careers and volunteerism.
- Lesson 3: Communities Need GovernmentsStudents compare local, state, and tribal government structures and identify services governments provide to communities.
- Lesson 4: Everybody Must Follow RulesStudents distinguish rules from laws, explain why both matter, and consider the consequences when expectations are not followed.
- Lesson 5: Heroes Help Their CommunitiesStudents study people who took action to solve community problems and explain how their choices made a difference.
- Lesson 6: Citizens Help Their CommunitiesStudents identify qualities of good citizens and leaders and propose a solution to a problem in their own community.
Social studies skills
Comparing forms and levels of government; explaining rights and responsibilities; identifying cause and effect in history; proposing solutions to community problems.
Words students may use
compromise, executive branch, federal, hero, judicial branch, jury, justice, legislative branch, rights, volunteer
Chapter inquiry project
Creating a Classroom Constitution
Try this at home
Ask your child to name one service provided by local government and one way a citizen can help make a community stronger.
Standards represented
Inquiry 1-5; History 1-4; Political Science 1-3
CHAPTER 1
Suggested time: 7 weeksCommunities in Our Country and World
Why does it matter where we live?
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What students will learn
Students compare urban, suburban, and rural communities and investigate how location, climate, land, water, and natural resources influence how people live and work.
Lessons at a glance
- Lesson 1: Locating and Describing Our CommunitiesStudents compare urban, suburban, and rural communities and use maps and globes to describe where communities are located.
- Lesson 2: Grouping Communities into RegionsStudents identify Milwaukee as a city and county within Wisconsin, compare Wisconsin communities, and examine how places can be grouped into regions.
- Lesson 3: Climate in a CommunityStudents compare climates and explain how temperature and precipitation affect people, plants, animals, and everyday activities.
- Lesson 4: Physical Characteristics of a CommunityStudents investigate how landforms and bodies of water affect where people live and how communities develop.
- Lesson 5: The Impact Today: Resources in a CommunityStudents distinguish renewable and nonrenewable resources and evaluate how resource availability benefits or challenges communities.
Social studies skills
Reading maps and globes; using latitude and longitude; comparing regions and communities; explaining relationships between people and their environment.
Words students may use
climate, community, elevation, erosion, humidity, landform, natural resource, population, precipitation, region
Chapter inquiry project
Understanding Your Community
Try this at home
Look at a map together and locate Milwaukee and Wisconsin. Discuss one feature of the land, water, climate, or resources that affects life here.
Standards represented
Inquiry 1-4; Geography 1, 3, 4 and 5
CHAPTER 3
Suggested time: 7 weeksPeople and Communities
What makes a community unique?
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What students will learn
Students learn how culture shapes communities and how people express identity through art, stories, music, dance, religion, traditions, and celebrations. They also study immigration and global connections.
Lessons at a glance
- Lesson 1: How a Culture Is DefinedStudents distinguish culture from ethnicity and explain how culture influences families, schools, groups, and communities.
- Lesson 2: Culture in Different U.S. CommunitiesStudents explore how people express culture through art, stories, music, dance, religion, and other traditions.
- Lesson 3: Immigration and Community CultureStudents learn about immigration to the United States and identify ways immigrants have enriched American communities and culture.
- Lesson 4: Cultural ComparisonStudents use artifacts and other evidence to compare lifestyles, traditions, and celebrations in communities around the world.
- Lesson 5: The Impact Today: Connecting CommunitiesStudents examine how transportation, communication, media, tourism, and trade connect people and change communities.
Social studies skills
Defining and describing culture; comparing perspectives and traditions; examining artifacts; explaining how immigration, technology, transportation, tourism, and trade connect communities.
Words students may use
apartheid, artifact, citizen, culture, ethnic group, folktale, heritage, oral tradition, pioneer, tolerance
Chapter inquiry project
Planning a Cultural Event
Try this at home
Share a family tradition, food, story, song, or celebration. Ask your child what it teaches about your family or community culture.
Standards represented
Inquiry 1-4; Behavioral Science 1-4; History 3 and 4
CHAPTER 2
Suggested time: 4 weeksThe Community and Its Environment
What is our relationship with our environment?
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What students will learn
Students investigate how people adapt to their surroundings, how human choices change environments, and how communities respond to environmental challenges.
Lessons at a glance
- Lesson 1: The Environment Affects People in a CommunityStudents explain how climate, land, resources, and natural hazards influence the ways people live and how communities prepare.
- Lesson 2: People in a Community Affect Their EnvironmentStudents compare how people adapt to the environment and examine how culture and technology influence those choices.
- Lesson 3: The Impact Today: Environmental Issues TodayStudents study how human activity can help or harm environments and consider responses to current environmental challenges.
Social studies skills
Explaining human-environment relationships; comparing adaptation with and without modern technology; weighing benefits and consequences; developing improvement plans using evidence.
Words students may use
atmosphere, deforestation, ecosystem, endangered, extinct, habitat, hydroelectric dam, natural disaster, ozone layer, technology
Chapter inquiry project
Improving the Environment
Try this at home
Notice one way your household uses natural resources. Discuss a realistic choice that could help protect the local environment.
Standards represented
Inquiry 1-4; Behavioral Science 1-4; Geography 1, 4 and 5
CHAPTER 4
Suggested time: 7 weeksCommunities Change Over Time
How does the past impact the present?
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What students will learn
Students investigate how movement, conflict, cooperation, innovation, important people, and major events have shaped communities. They compare the past and present using evidence.
Lessons at a glance
- Lesson 1: Conflict and CooperationStudents examine interactions among Native Americans, European explorers, and settlers and consider both positive and negative effects of cross-cultural contact.
- Lesson 2: Moving to a New LandStudents investigate why people move, how location affects growth, and which events and features cause communities to change.
- Lesson 3: Communities: Then and NowStudents compare daily life across time and study how transportation and other innovations changed communities.
- Lesson 4: How People and Events Change CommunitiesStudents investigate historical figures, events, and technologies that offered solutions and created lasting community change.
- Lesson 5: Changing CommunitiesStudents compare communities across time and place and explain why people preserve landmarks and other parts of community history.
- Lesson 6: The Impact Today: Special PlacesStudents explain how geography, history, culture, monuments, and buildings make communities distinctive.
Social studies skills
Using timelines and historical sources; comparing past and present; identifying cause and effect; examining multiple perspectives; explaining continuity and change.
Words students may use
boycott, decade, drought, expedition, innovation, monument, peninsula, public services, strait, taxes
Chapter inquiry project
Creating a Community Timeline
Try this at home
Compare an older photograph of Milwaukee with the city today. Ask your child what changed, what stayed the same, and what may have caused the changes.
Standards represented
Inquiry 1-4; History 1-4; Geography 2-5
CHAPTER 6
Suggested time: 7 weeksEconomics of Communities
How do people in a community meet their wants and needs?
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What students will learn
Students learn how businesses use resources to create goods and services, how markets and trade connect communities, how economies change, and how people earn and use money.
Lessons at a glance
- Lesson 1: Resources in an EconomyStudents identify natural, human, and capital resources and explain how local businesses use them to meet community needs.
- Lesson 2: Goods and ServicesStudents distinguish goods from services, examine entrepreneurship, and imagine a business that could serve their community.
- Lesson 3: Markets and TradeStudents learn how markets, importing, exporting, and trade help people and businesses obtain what they need.
- Lesson 4: Changing EconomiesStudents compare buying and selling in the past and present and explain how economic changes affect communities.
- Lesson 5: Using Money WiselyStudents explore how people earn, save, and spend money and identify useful questions to ask before making a purchase.
Social studies skills
Distinguishing wants and needs; classifying economic resources; explaining trade and profit; comparing past and present economies; making thoughtful spending choices.
Words students may use
benefits, capital resource, economy, entrepreneur, export, human capital, human resources, import, scarcity, specialize
Chapter inquiry project
Blogging About a Local Business
Try this at home
Choose a local business and identify the people, materials, tools, goods, or services it uses. Discuss how that business helps the community.
Standards represented
Inquiry 1-4; Economics 1-3; History 1 and 2