Fourth Grade Social Studies Guiding Questions

1. Fourth Grade Social StudiesGuiding Questions

2. Unit 1: Map Skills-Examining the United States’ Place in the World • Can students identify and interpret various types of maps? • Can students locate and label locations on a map or globe using lines of latitude and longitude? • Can students explain what causes the Earth’s surface to change?

3. Unit 1 Continued • Can students discuss how people impact their environment and in what way people depend on the environment? • Can students explain what influences patterns of land use and settlement? • Can students identify the differences among countries, states, parishes, and cities?

4. Unit 2: Geographic and Cultural Characteristics of Regions • Can students understand various maps and attributes in locating United States regions? • Can students use geographic tools to compare characteristics of various areas? • Can students explain the effects of natural events of people in regions?

5. Unit 2 Continued • Can students discuss the cultural identities of various people in the U.S. and the impact on their cultural heritage? • Can students identify physical and human characteristics of regions?

6. Unit 3: The Movement of People • Can students compare the beliefs, customs, and traditions of various cultures and how they may have changed over time? • Can students identify and discuss early explorers and explorations in North America?

7. Unit 3 Continued • Can students recognize the cause and effects of voluntary and involuntary migrations to and within the United States? • Can students locate the best place for human settlement based on a map and given information?

8. Unit 3 Continued • Can students construct and interpret a timeline, as well as compare and contrast primary and secondary sources?

9. Unit 4: The Movement of Ideas: Scientific Contributions and Culture • Can students describe the influence of cultural elements on America’s national heritage? • Can students identify cultural elements, beliefs, and significant historical achievements of various cultures around the world?

10. Unit 4 Continued • Can students identify historical figures and achievements from around the world and describe the impact of their contributions on society?

11. Unit 5: The Movement of Goods and Resources • Can students demonstrate a basic understanding of the economy, the role of markets, and ways of transporting goods? • Can students identify the significance of natural resources to the people and the economy? • Can students differentiate economic activities from the local region, state, and national levels?

12. Unit 5 Continued • Can students identify natural, human, and capital resources? • Can students identify and use key vocabulary to define basic economic concepts? • Can students demonstrate a basic understanding of the cyclical economic relationship among individuals, households, businesses, and governments?

13. Unit 6: Our Government • Can students identify the various roles the government plays in the community and the rights of the citizens? • Can students define the roles of both elected and appointed officials and how they serve the community on the local, state, and national levels?

14. Unit 6 Continued • Can students explain the need for government and identify the three major branches of government? • Can students explain how government uses taxes to pay for goods and services?

15. Unit 7: Growth of a Nation • Can students explain the importance of events, ideas, and leaders significant to the nation’s development and American democratic principles? • Can students identify leaders and their influence in the early development of America?

16. Unit 7 Continued • Can students explain the important ideas presented in American historical documents and how they are evidenced in daily lives? • Can students list the similarities and differences between the Louisiana Constitution and the U.S. Constitution?

17. Unit 7 Continued • Can students discuss civic responsibilities and traits of good citizenship as it relates to solving a national issue and the preservation and improvement of democracy? • Can students explain the concept of nation, the role of the United Nations, and ways nations interact?

18. Unit 8: Making Economic Choices • Can students identify the roles by banks, governments, and businesses in their daily lives? • Can students demonstrate how choices and decisions in using cash, checks, or credit cards affect their lives?

19. Unit 8 Continued • Can students identify the trade-offs a person makes in making economic decisions? • Can students explain how the rise and fall of prices affect budgets?

20. Unit 9: Producers and Consumers • Can students create a proposal based on the four questions all producers must answer on a product of interest? • Can students explain the various roles careers have on society and the advantages of training and increasing one’s skills and knowledge?

21. Unit 9 Continued • Can students identify what happens to a business when it takes a risk for profit and how goods are affected by supply and demand?