Where do children first learn about community outside the home? When they’re in school, and especially when they’re participating in social-studies activities. Social studies learning begins when children engage in social interactions—as they make friends, learn alongside their peers, and participate in decision-making in the classroom. That’s the foundation they take with them into their future social studies classes and into their social lives beyond the classroom.
What is our approach to social-studies learning for our preschool students? We know that it’s important to create a wholesome, inclusive environment for each child to learn in. That environment transforms the classroom into a community that your child shares with his classmates, and that sets his expectations for how communities should be—supportive, open to everyone, and full of opportunities to engage and contribute.
Those first lessons—your children’s first social interactions outside the home—are how your children will create bridges to the people and places around them.
Our social-studies learning activities begin with an exploration of the continent of North America. Throughout August and September, your child will learn about social life at the level of the city, then the state, followed by the country and then the entire continent. Our goal is to help every child establish her own social roots in her community before she begins to learn about other continents.
Once those connections to our home continent are established, your child’s journey around the world continues to other continents. Our approach to social-studies learning and building connections around the world is truly special. For the rest of the year, we dedicate each month to a new continent. Each day, students meet one boy and one girl from each continent. They’ll learn about the daily lives of those children as we read through a scrapbook filled with the stories of these children’s lives. Every page in the scrapbook becomes an opportunity to celebrate the culture, livelihoods, and traditions of the part of the world that those children call home.
Before your children can become citizens of the world, they’re part of a local community and class. Our yearlong method for social-studies learning will put your children on the map as a geographer and explorer. The corners of the globe, although physically far away, are within your child’s reach at Mt. Elizabeth Academy!
