History: My Community in the Past This week, we will begin our new Social Studies unit, My Community in the Past, where students explore how people, cultures, and communities have changed over time. We’ll kick off the unit with three foundational lessons that help students understand why people move, how immigration has shaped our country, and how we learn about the past.

What We’re Learning This Week

Tuesday – Lesson 1: A Family Moves

We will begin our unit by asking: “Why do people move to different places?”

Students will discuss reasons families move—such as new opportunities or joining loved ones—and how people bring their home culture with them when they move. This helps students understand that migration influences the communities we live in today.

Wednesday – Lesson 2: Coming to America (Ellis Island & Angel Island)

Students will explore how immigration has changed over time. We will learn that the experience was different depending on whether people arrived through Ellis Island or Angel Island, and we’ll discuss why people chose to immigrate. Students will analyze images and share observations about what life may have been like for newcomers long ago.

Thursday – Lesson 2 Extension: Immigration Mini Book
Using a nonfiction mini book, students will learn more about the immigration process, answer comprehension questions, and deepen their understanding of why people came to America and what their journeys were like.

Friday – Service Learning: Guest Speaker

We’ll welcome a community guest speaker to share about their job and how they help our community. Students will listen, ask questions, and reflect on the important role community helpers play—connecting our ongoing service-learning project.

Social Studies

This week, we will conclude our second geography unit, “Geography in My Community.” This unit was a study of how communities manage, modify and depend on the environment. The Essential Question for this unit was, “How have people influenced the geography of my community?”

Some key vocabulary words for this unit were:

• rural
• urban
• suburban
• renewable
• nonrenewable
• natural resources

This week’s social studies learning targets are:

• Human actions can change the environment.

We will take the unit assessment on Tuesday.

🗺️ During this short week, we are concluding our geography unit. On Tuesday and Wednesday, we will finish the last two lessons of the unit. On Thursday, we will play a review game. Friday is our day for our service-learning lesson.

Service Learning:

Our service-learning topic for 2nd grade is community appreciation. We will be learning what communities are and working together to support and appreciate them.

This week in service learning, students will identify how people help their communities and analyze different examples of community appreciation.

This week’s learning targets are:

• Different types of maps give different types of information and serve different purposes.
• Find human, natural, and political features on a map. Natural features are things in nature, human features are things people make, and political features are boundaries you can see on a map.
• Service Learning: Identify ways people try to help their community and if it is helpful or not.

🗺️On Wednesday, we began our second Social Studies unit, “How Geographers Talk About the World.” This unit is a study of how to use elements of maps to identify key cultural, human, political, and natural features. The Essential Question for this unit is, “How can we use maps as a tool to better understand the world around us?”

Some key vocabulary for this unit is:

• space
• place
• map key
• legend
• symbols
• cardinal directions
• compass rose
• globe
• hemisphere
• equator
• poles (North and South)

Service Learning:

Our service-learning topic for 2nd grade is community appreciation. We will be learning what communities are and working together to support and appreciate them.

This week in service learning, students will identify how people help their communities and analyze different examples of community appreciation.

This week’s learning targets are:

• Map tools, such as a map’s key/legend, symbols, and compass rose, are important to find places and understand what a map shows.
• Cardinal directions are the same on every map.
• Globes are a 3-D model of the Earth. There are 4 hemispheres separated by important lines.
• Different types of maps give different types of information and serve different purposes.
• Service Learning: Identify ways people try to help their community, and whether it is helpful or not.

Last week, students learned that community members have respectful debates and vote to make changes in their communities.

This week, our class will explore the topic of leadership and its impact on communities. Students will learn about leaders from the past and how their actions brought about change. We’ll finish the week by discussing citizenship and the responsibilities we all share as members of a community.