3rd grade Social Studies
10 units matched to the Alabama Course of Study. Kids see this subject as “Our World”.
Focus areas
- Course: Alabama in American History and Government I: Geography and Settlement
- Alabama's land, regions and resources
- Earning, spending and trade
- Indigenous peoples of Alabama, and European exploration
Units
Unit 1
Maps of Our World
Using maps and globes to find continents, oceans and countries, physical and human features, and why people settle near water and flat land.
Content standard: 3.1 · using maps and globes to find continents, oceans, hemispheres and countries
Unit 2
Map Tools & Grids
Using a legend, compass rose and map scale; the Equator, Prime Meridian, International Date Line and tropics; latitude and longitude; and working out real distances with a map scale.
Content standard: 3.1 · locating map features with geographic terms, latitude and longitude, and the map scale
Unit 3
Alabama's Land Regions
Alabama's neighbors and land regions (Highland Rim, Cumberland Plateau, Ridge and Valley, Piedmont, Black Belt, Upper and Lower Coastal Plain), their landforms, resources and climate, and how they connect Alabama to other states.
Content standard: 3.2 · Alabama's land regions, their features and natural resources, and how geography connects Alabama to other states
Unit 4
Alabama's Rivers
Alabama's major rivers (Alabama, Black Warrior, Cahaba, Chattahoochee, Coosa, Mobile, Perdido, Tallapoosa, Tennessee and Tombigbee), where they begin and end, and how rivers shaped towns and trade.
Content standard: 3.2 · Alabama's major river systems, their points of origin and how they connect Alabama to other states
Unit 5
Parks, Symbols & Landmarks
Alabama's state symbols, state and national parks in Alabama and why they are preserved, and landmarks and monuments in Alabama and the nation.
Content standard: 3.3; 3.4 · state and national parks in Alabama and their benefits, and state and national symbols, landmarks and monuments
Unit 6
People & the Environment
Hurricanes, tornadoes, floods and droughts and their effects on Alabama over time, and how people have helped and harmed Alabama's environment (forests, rivers, pollution and conservation).
Content standard: 3.5; 3.6 · the effects of natural disasters, and how human activity has helped and harmed Alabama's environment
Unit 7
Digging Up the Past
What anthropologists, archaeologists and paleontologists do, and how life changed in the Southeast through the Paleo, Archaic, Woodland and Mississippian periods, including Moundville and Russell Cave.
Content standard: 3.7; 3.8 · the roles of anthropologists, archaeologists and paleontologists, and changes in pre-contact cultures of the Southeast
Unit 8
Native Nations of Alabama
The homelands, towns, governments and trade of Native nations in Alabama, each with its own ways, and the nations today, including the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, Alabama's federally recognized tribe. Written in the present tense for living nations.
Content standard: 3.8 · Indigenous cultures, governments and economies in the Southeast before European colonization, and nations in Alabama
Unit 9
Explorers & Encounters
Why Europeans explored the Americas, the routes of early explorers, Hernando de Soto's march through Alabama and its effects on Native peoples, and early colonies such as St. Augustine, Roanoke, Jamestown and Plymouth.
Content standard: 3.9; 3.10 · reasons for European exploration, explorers' routes, de Soto's expedition, early colonies, and conflicts with Indigenous peoples
Unit 10
French Alabama
French colonization of Alabama: the LeMoyne brothers, Mobile (1702), Fort Toulouse (1717) and Fort Condé, the deerskin trade, and relations between the French, Spanish, English and Native nations.
Content standard: 3.11; 3.10 · French exploration and colonization of Alabama, its forts and trade, and relationships with Indigenous peoples
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