1st grade Social Studies: how to help at home
What your child learns in 1st grade social studies in the Alabama Course of Study, and simple things to try at home.
Focus areas this year
- Course: Living and Working Together in Community and State
- Leaders, laws and good citizens
- Jobs, saving and spending
- Alabama on a map, and life long ago
Easy ways to practice social studies at home
- Talk about your family, your neighborhood and the people who help in it.
- Make a simple map of your home or street together.
- Share a family tradition or story and ask your child to share one back.
- Practice taking turns and sharing, and talk about why fairness matters.
What each unit covers
My Community
Community helpers and places, plus rights, rules, roles and responsibilities at home, at school and in the community.
Respect & Inclusion
Sharing, taking turns, listening, including others, and showing respect for people, belongings and the places we share.
Community Services
Jobs that serve the community (fire, health, sanitation, libraries, transit) and services the government or community provides for everyone.
Earning, Saving & Sharing
Practices how people earn income, why families save, sharing and bartering, choosing between needs and wants, and natural, human and capital resources.
Goods and Services
Introduces goods (things) and services (work people do), and how communities depend on each other to exchange them.
Maps
Reading a simple map with north at the top, using north, south, east and west, map symbols and legends, and near and far.
Our Land
Natural and human-made features, how the land shapes how we live, and caring for it by reducing, reusing and recycling.
Changes in My Life
Big life events (a new sibling, a move, starting school), how people's experiences are alike and different, and ordering events as a simple timeline.
Social Studies Detectives
The inquiry process: asking good questions, finding clues in people, photos, maps and charts, thinking about what they show and sharing what we learned.
School & Travel Long Ago
How schools and communities worked in the past, and how people traveled by wagon, stagecoach, sailing ship and steam train before cars and airplanes.
Alabama on the Map
Locating Alabama, its capital Montgomery, counties and county seats, neighboring states and the Gulf of Mexico on political and physical maps.
Leaders & Citizens
Public offices in the community and state (mayor, city council, governor, state legislature, tribal council), how voting helps people decide, and how citizens help the common good.
Alabama at Work
Natural resources in Alabama (coal, cotton, fish, forests, marble), how farms grow food and factories make products like cars and paper, how goods reach stores, and how the land shapes jobs and fun.
Famous Alabamians
Helen Keller, Rosa Parks, Jesse Owens, Booker T. Washington, George Washington Carver, Hank Williams and astronaut Jan Davis, and events such as the building of Moundville, the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Space Race.
Alabama Celebrates
Festivals and observances in Alabama (Mardi Gras in Mobile, the National Peanut Festival, the W.C. Handy Music Festival, the Bridge Crossing Jubilee and others) and historic places like the State Capitol, museums, libraries and monuments.
What the report card levels look like at home
- Beginning
- Just getting started with this idea. Short, regular practice with lots of support helps most.
- Approaching
- Understands parts of it and is building confidence. Keep practicing the tricky parts.
- Meeting
- Has it! Mixed review now and then keeps it strong.
- Exceeding
- Applies it confidently, even in new or harder situations. Try challenge mode and real-life problems.
Your child’s teacher decides the level on the report card. Read the Alabama report card guide.
Common questions
Talk about your family, your neighborhood and the people who help in it. Make a simple map of your home or street together. Keep sessions short, about 10 to 15 minutes, and stop on a success.
The Alabama Course of Study 1st grade social studies units include My Community, Respect & Inclusion, Community Services, Earning, Saving & Sharing, Goods and Services, Maps.
Free printable 1st grade social studies practice sheet
Questions from every unit, with an answer key.