4th grade Social Studies
14 units matched to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). Kids see this subject as “Our World”.
Focus areas
- Texas history: American Indian groups, explorers and missions, Mexican Texas
- The Texas Revolution, the Republic, statehood, the Civil War and Reconstruction
- Cattle, railroads, oil and 20th-century Texas
- Texas regions and maps, free enterprise, government, citizenship and celebrations
Units
Unit 1
First Peoples of Texas
Ideas about how people first came to the Americas, the four cultural regions of American Indians in Texas, the ways of life of the Caddo, Karankawa, Lipan Apache, Jumano and Comanche, how the Caddo and Comanche governed themselves, and the three tribes in Texas today (Ysleta del Sur Pueblo, Alabama-Coushatta and Kickapoo). Nations are described as living communities, with nothing sacred or ceremonial.
TEKS student expectation: 4.1(A); 4.1(B); 4.1(C); 4.1(D); 4.9(A); 4.12(A) · origins, ways of life and cultural regions of American Indian groups in Texas, their economies and governments, and the tribes in Texas today
Unit 2
Explorers & Missions
Why Europeans explored Texas, Álvarez de Pineda, Cabeza de Vaca, Coronado and La Salle, and when, where and why Spain built missions, presidios and towns. Told plainly: the missions harmed many American Indian people through disease, forced labor and the loss of land and culture.
TEKS student expectation: 4.2(A); 4.2(B); 4.2(C); 4.12(B) · reasons for European exploration, the explorers' impact, Spanish missions and settlements, and Spanish colonial government
Unit 3
Mexican Texas
Texas in Mexico's War of Independence (the Battle of Medina), the empresarios Moses and Stephen F. Austin, Martín de León and Green DeWitt, how early settlers made a living, and Mexico's early government.
TEKS student expectation: 4.2(D); 4.2(E); 4.9(B); 4.12(B) · Texas's role in the Mexican War of Independence, the empresarios, early settlers' economic activities and early Mexican government
Unit 4
The Texas Revolution
Causes, events and effects of the Texas Revolution: Gonzales, the Alamo, the Texas Declaration of Independence (signed at Washington-on-the-Brazos), the Runaway Scrape, Goliad and San Jacinto, with Travis, Bowie, Crockett, Seguín, Benavides, Ruiz, Santa Anna, Susanna Dickinson and Enrique Esparza.
TEKS student expectation: 4.3(A); 4.3(B); 4.13(A) · causes, major events and effects of the Texas Revolution, the people who took part, and the Texas Declaration of Independence
Unit 5
Republic to Statehood
The Republic of Texas: its constitution, presidents Houston, Lamar and Jones, José Antonio Navarro, debt, the Texas Rangers and relations with American Indian nations, then annexation in 1845 and the U.S.-Mexican War.
TEKS student expectation: 4.3(C); 4.3(D); 4.3(E) · leaders of the Republic of Texas, its successes and problems, annexation and the U.S.-Mexican War
Unit 6
Civil War & Reconstruction
Texas's secession (its declaration of causes named slavery), the Civil War in Texas, Juneteenth in Galveston and Reconstruction. Told factually and neutrally.
TEKS student expectation: 4.4(A); 4.14(D) · the impact of the Civil War and Reconstruction on Texas, and the origins of Juneteenth
Unit 7
Cattle, Rails & the Frontier
Vaqueros and longhorns, the cattle drives and Charles Goodnight, Richard King and Lizzie Johnson, how railroads changed Texas towns and industries, and how the Red River War, frontier forts, railroads and the loss of the buffalo changed life for Plains nations.
TEKS student expectation: 4.4(B); 4.4(C); 4.4(D); 4.10(C) · the cattle industry, the effects of railroads, and the effects of the Red River War, forts and the loss of the buffalo on American Indian life
Unit 8
Oil, Wars & Inventors
Spindletop and Pattillo Higgins, how oil and gas made Texas industrial and urban, the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl and World War II (Audie Murphy, Cleto Rodríguez, Bessie Coleman), and Texas inventors and scientists such as Gail Borden, Joseph Glidden, Michael DeBakey and Millie Hughes-Fulford.
TEKS student expectation: 4.5(A); 4.5(B); 4.18(A); 4.18(B) · 20th-century events and people in Texas, the oil and gas industry, and Texas inventors, scientists and innovations
Unit 9
Regions of Texas
The four physical regions of Texas (Mountains and Basins, Great Plains, North Central Plains, Coastal Plains), their landforms, climate, vegetation and work, and why people settled where they did.
TEKS student expectation: 4.6(A); 4.6(B); 4.7(A); 4.7(B); 4.11(A); 4.11(B) · the physical regions of Texas, patterns of settlement, and how people in each region earn a living
Unit 10
Maps & the Land
Compass roses, legends, scales and grids, the rivers and borders of Texas, and how and why Texans have adapted to and changed their environment (dams, irrigation, timber clearing, ship channels), with the good and bad effects.
TEKS student expectation: 4.8(A); 4.8(B); 4.8(C); 4.20(A); 4.20(B) · how Texans adapt to and modify the environment and its consequences, and using map elements and geographic data
Unit 11
The Texas Economy
How free enterprise works (supply, demand, profit and competition) and its benefits, needs and wants, how Texans earn a living in each region, and how transportation, communication, immigration and limited resources shaped the Texas economy.
TEKS student expectation: 4.10(A); 4.10(B); 4.11(A); 4.11(B); 4.11(C); 4.11(D) · the free enterprise system, how Texans earn a living, and what shaped economic growth in Texas
Unit 12
Government & Citizens
The three branches of Texas government, the Declaration of Independence, US Constitution and Bill of Rights, voting and civic participation, leaders at each level, and Texans who modeled public service, such as Barbara Jordan, Ann Richards and Henry B. González.
TEKS student expectation: 4.13(B); 4.13(C); 4.15(A); 4.15(B); 4.15(C); 4.15(D); 4.15(E); 4.15(F); 4.16(A); 4.16(B); 4.22(B) · the branches of Texas government, founding documents, civic participation and leadership
Unit 13
Symbols & Celebrations
The six flags over Texas, the Alamo and San Jacinto Monument, "Texas, Our Texas" and the Pledge to the Texas Flag, state symbols, Texas Independence Day and Juneteenth, cultural celebrations and Texas artists such as Lydia Mendoza, Chelo Silva and Julius Bledsoe.
TEKS student expectation: 4.14(A); 4.14(B); 4.14(C); 4.14(D); 4.17(A); 4.17(B) · Texas symbols, landmarks, song, pledge and celebrations, and the contributions of Texas artists
Unit 14
Texas Through Time
Ordering events in Texas history from the first explorers to the space age, plus primary and secondary sources, decades and centuries, cause and effect and points of view.
TEKS student expectation: 4.19(A); 4.19(B); 4.19(C); 4.19(D); 4.19(E) · putting Texas history in order and working with primary and secondary sources
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