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What does a student learn in ?

This is the year social studies stretches beyond the classroom to the wider community. Students learn how fair rules get made, how shoppers and workers depend on each other, and why people settle near rivers, coasts, and good farmland. They start reading different kinds of maps and using old letters and diaries to figure out what happened in the past. By spring, they can place events on a timeline and explain why a community needs both rules and people willing to follow them.

  • Rules and laws
  • Maps
  • Goods and services
  • Community cultures
  • Primary sources
  • Timelines
Source: Mississippi Mississippi College- & Career-Readiness Standards
Mastery Learning Standards
The required skills a student should display by the end of Grade 2.
Civics
  • Differentiate civic virtues from civic responsibilities, then evaluate their…

    2.CI.1

    Civic virtues are habits like honesty and fairness. Civic responsibilities are duties like following rules and voting. Students look at both and decide why each one matters for keeping a community working well.

  • Identify civic virtues and civic responsibilities

    2.CI.1.1

    Civic virtues are personal habits like honesty and respect. Civic responsibilities are duties like following rules and participating in the community. Students learn to tell the difference between the two.

  • Discuss how common civic virtues among citizens help create peaceful and…

    2.CI.1.2

    Civic virtues are habits like honesty, respect, and fairness. Students explore how those habits, practiced by enough people in a neighborhood or town, help keep communities peaceful and running smoothly.

  • Compare civic responsibilities to responsibilities of home and school

    2.CI.1.3

    Civic responsibilities are duties people share as members of a community, like following laws or voting. Students compare those public duties to familiar ones at home and school, such as doing chores or following classroom rules.

  • Assess how rules and laws are created to provide equal and fair service and…

    2.CI.2

    Rules and laws exist so everyone gets treated the same way. Students look at how communities create those rules and why fairness matters when people make decisions that affect everyone.

  • Discuss importance of fair rules and laws applied to all citizens

    2.CI.2.1

    Fair rules apply to everyone, not just some people. Students discuss why laws matter and what makes them fair, using real examples like school rules and community laws.

  • Analyze the fairness of rules and laws

    2.CI.2.2

    Students look at a classroom rule or a community law and decide whether it treats everyone the same way. They explain why a rule seems fair or unfair, using examples from school or their neighborhood.

  • Identify who is responsible for creating and enforcing rules and laws

    2.CI.2.3

    Students learn who makes the rules in their community (like a city council or school board) and who enforces them (like police or a principal). It connects the laws people follow every day to the real people responsible for creating and upholding them.

  • Discuss how laws are fairly created and fairly enforced to protect all the…

    2.CI.2.4

    Laws are rules a community makes together to treat everyone fairly. Students talk about how those rules protect people, including people with disabilities or people whose rights have been ignored.

Economics
  • Evaluate how the availability of resources impacts the local economy

    2.E.1

    Students look at why some goods are easy to find in their town and others are hard to get. They connect those differences to jobs, prices, and what local businesses sell.

  • Define economy and resource

    2.E.1.1

    Students learn what an economy is (how people in a community earn, spend, and trade money) and what a resource is (anything used to make or provide something, like land, tools, or workers).

  • Categorize resources as natural, renewable

    2.E.1.2

    Students sort resources into three groups: things found in nature (like water or soil), things that can regrow (like trees), and things that run out permanently (like coal). Understanding the difference helps explain why some goods cost more or become harder to find.

  • Explain people as a resource in the local community

    2.E.1.3

    People are a resource too. Students learn that workers like teachers, doctors, and store owners use their skills to produce goods and services that keep the community running.

  • Examine the relationship between resources and jobs in the local community

    2.E.1.4

    Resources like farmland, forests, or harbors shape what kinds of jobs exist nearby. Students look at how the materials and geography around them explain why certain businesses and workers show up in their community.

  • Assess the relationship between consumers and producers in obtaining goods and…

    2.E.2

    Producers make goods and services; consumers buy or use them. Students learn how these two groups depend on each other to get what people need, like food from a farmer or a haircut from a barber.

  • Define consumers and producers

    2.E.2.1

    Consumers buy or use goods and services. Producers make or grow them. Students learn the difference between the two roles and how both are part of getting things people need.

  • Differentiate consumers from producers

    2.E.2.2

    Consumers buy or use goods and services. Producers make or grow them. Students learn to tell the two roles apart and see how each depends on the other.

  • Examine the interdependence of consumers and producers

    2.E.2.3

    Producers make the goods and services consumers buy. Students explore how each group depends on the other: without buyers, producers have no reason to make things, and without producers, buyers have nothing to purchase.

  • Discuss the connection between resources and producers in the local community

    2.E.2.4

    Producers need resources to make goods or provide services. Students look at how local businesses get what they need, like a baker using wheat or a builder using wood, to understand where everyday products come from.

  • Define barter system and monetary system

    2.E.2.5

    Students learn the difference between two ways people trade: swapping goods directly without money (barter) and using coins or bills to buy what they need (monetary system).

  • Compare and contrast the barter and monetary systems of trade to meet needs

    2.E.2.6

    Students learn the two main ways people trade: swapping goods directly (barter) and using money. They compare how each system works and why money made trading easier than exchanging things like chickens for bread.

  • Recognize factors that affect the price and availability of goods and services

    2.E.3

    When there aren't enough toys, apples, or workers to go around, prices tend to rise. Students learn what makes everyday goods cost more or become harder to find.

  • Define supply and demand

    2.E.3.1

    Supply is how much of something is available to buy. Demand is how much people want it. When lots of people want something and there isn't much of it, the price usually goes up.

  • Evaluate how the availability of resources impacts the price of goods and…

    2.E.3.2

    When something is hard to find or in short supply, its price usually goes up. Students learn why a toy or food item costs more when there isn't enough to go around.

  • Examine how budgets help individuals and families choose how to spend and save…

    2.E.3.3

    A budget is a simple plan for money: how much comes in and how much goes out. Students learn how families use budgets to decide what to buy, what to skip, and how much to set aside for later.

  • Identify the role of financial institutions within the community

    2.E.4

    Students learn what a bank does: it keeps people's money safe, lends money to families and businesses, and helps a community pay for things it needs.

  • Identify various types of financial institutions and their role in the…

    2.E.4.1

    Banks, credit unions, and other financial institutions are places where people save money, borrow money, or get help paying for big purchases. Students learn what these places do and why communities depend on them.

  • Identify services provided by the various financial institutions in the…

    2.E.4.2

    Banks, credit unions, and similar institutions do more than hold money. Students learn what services each one offers, such as savings accounts, loans, and safe deposit boxes.

Civil Rights
  • Determine how traditions and customs create unity and celebrate diversity…

    2.CR.1

    Students look at how holidays, foods, and shared traditions bring groups of people together while honoring what makes each group different.

  • Recognize the cultural contributions of various groups within our community

    2.CR.1.1

    Students learn how different groups of people, including families from other countries and local communities, have shaped the music, food, and celebrations around them.

  • Examine how cultures

    2.CR.1.2

    Students look at how a group's food, clothing, holidays, or everyday habits have shifted across generations. A tradition common today may look quite different from what grandparents knew.

  • Evaluate the qualities that build unity among diverse populations

    2.CR.1.3

    Students look at what brings different groups of people together, like shared rules, celebrations, or acts of kindness, and decide which qualities help a community feel like one group even when people come from different backgrounds.

  • Evaluate how diverse cultures build unity in a community

    2.CR.2

    Students look at how people from different backgrounds celebrate, share, and work together to make a neighborhood or town stronger.

  • Define respect, tolerance

    2.CR.2.1

    Students learn what it means to respect someone different from you, put up with differences you don't share, and welcome people as they are. These three ideas show up in how a community gets along day to day.

  • Examine the relationship between respect, tolerance

    2.CR.2.2

    Students look at how treating people with respect, even when their backgrounds or beliefs differ, helps a neighborhood or community feel like one group. The focus is on why accepting differences matters for getting along.

  • Recognize similarities from the various cultures of the local community

    2.CR.2.3

    Students look at the different cultures in their community and find what people share, similar foods, celebrations, or traditions that show up across groups.

Geography
  • Analyze various types of maps

    2.G.1

    Students learn to read different kinds of maps, like city maps, weather maps, and maps that show landforms. They look for patterns in what the maps show.

  • Categorize map types by representation and usage

    2.G.1.1

    Maps come in different types, each built for a different job. Students sort maps by what they show, such as landforms, country borders, or weather patterns.

  • Identify political and physical borders in the United States and across the…

    2.G.1.2

    Political borders show where one state or country ends and another begins. Physical borders follow natural features like rivers or mountains. Students learn to spot both kinds on maps of the U.S. and the world.

  • Define urban, suburban

    2.G.1.3

    Students sort places into three types: cities packed with tall buildings and traffic, suburbs just outside cities, and rural areas with farms and open land.

  • Locate urban, suburban

    2.G.1.4

    Students learn to find and label city centers, surrounding suburbs, and open countryside on maps of Mississippi and the United States.

  • Examine the connection between physical features of the Earth and where people…

    2.G.2

    Students look at maps to figure out why people build towns near rivers or flat land instead of mountains or deserts. Physical features like water and soil shape where communities grow.

  • Define human settlements and population distribution

    2.G.2.1

    Students learn why people group together in towns and cities instead of spreading out evenly across the land. They look at how things like rivers, flat ground, and farmable soil draw people to certain places.

  • Evaluate human settlements and population distribution around physical features…

    2.G.2.2

    Students look at maps to figure out why towns and cities grew near rivers, mountains, or coastlines. They explain how the land around a place shapes where people decide to build homes and communities.

  • Determine reasons for human settlement near physical features of the Earth

    2.G.2.3

    People tend to build towns near rivers, mountains, or flat land for good reasons. Students learn to explain why those features, like fresh water or fertile soil, made a place a smart choice for a community.

  • Interpret maps using latitude and longitude

    2.G.3

    Students learn to read latitude and longitude lines on a map to pinpoint where a place is on Earth. Think of it as a grid system where two numbers can nail down any location on the globe.

  • Define latitude and longitude

    2.G.3.1

    Latitude and longitude are the two sets of lines on a map or globe that work like a grid. Students learn that latitude lines run side to side and longitude lines run up and down, so any place on Earth can be found at their intersection.

  • Locate the major lines of latitude and longitude of the Earth

    2.G.3.2

    Students find the Equator and Prime Meridian on a globe or map and explain what those lines show about a location on Earth.

  • Identify then compare hemispheres of the Earth

    2.G.3.3

    Students learn that the Earth is divided into four halves called hemispheres. They look at a globe or map and identify which hemisphere a place falls in, then compare what land and ocean each half contains.

  • Analyze human modifications to the Earth

    2.G.4

    Students look at how people change the land around them, like building roads, clearing forests, or damming rivers, and think about what those changes mean for the places and people nearby.

  • Identify human modifications to the Earth

    2.G.4.1

    Students look at how people change the land around them, such as building roads, clearing trees, or digging canals. They learn to spot these changes on maps, in photos, and in their own neighborhood.

  • Compare and contrast the positive and negative impacts of human modifications…

    2.G.4.2

    Students look at ways people change the land, water, or air and decide what helped and what caused harm. They practice seeing that the same change, like building a dam, can do both.

History
  • Evaluate how people and events have shaped the local community, state

    2.H.1

    Students look at photographs, letters, and other firsthand records to figure out how real people and events changed their town, state, and country over time.

  • Identify various primary sources

    2.H.1.1

    Students learn the difference between firsthand records, like a diary or letter written by someone who was there, and secondhand accounts, like a textbook written later by someone who wasn't.

  • Use various primary sources to investigate significant people and events of the…

    2.H.1.2

    Students look at real objects from the past, like old photos, letters, and maps, to learn about important people and events in history.

  • Examine historical events from multiple perspectives by utilizing primary…

    2.H.1.3

    Students look at real historical documents, photos, or letters to understand why people in the past made the choices they did. The goal is to see the same event through more than one person's eyes.

  • Examine the relationship between history and time

    2.H.2

    History is the story of what happened before today, and time is how we keep track of the order. Students learn to put events in sequence, from oldest to most recent, to understand how the past connects to the present.

  • Identify vocabulary to express periods of time

    2.H.2.1

    Students learn words like "decade," "century," and "era" to talk about stretches of time. These words help them place events in order and make sense of how far apart things happened.

  • Illustrate events chronologically on a timeline

    2.H.2.2

    Students place historical events in order on a timeline, showing which happened first, next, and last. It is practice in reading and building the kind of visual sequence they will use throughout school.

  • Compare and contrast the eras of United States history

    2.H.2.3

    Students look at two different periods in American history and explain what changed and what stayed the same, such as how people worked, traveled, or lived.