Social Studies

Social Studies is the integrated study of history, geography, economics, government and civics. It is the study of humanity, of people and events that individually and collectively have affected the world.

The Lower School Social Studies program at A. Fantis helps students develop awareness both of themselves as growing individuals, and of the world in which they live.

In Kindergarten, students learn about values, ideas, customs, and traditions through folktales, legends, and music.

They also begin to learn about their role as citizens by accepting rights and responsibilities in the classroom and by learning about rules and laws.

In Grade 1, students focus on their roles as members of a family and school community, learning about families now and long ago, and studying different kinds of families that have existed in different families and communities.

Students also begin to locate places on maps and globes, and learn how maps serve as presentations of physical features and objects.

In Grade 2, students explore rural, urban, and suburban communities, concentrating on communities in the United States. These communities are studied from a variety of perspectives including geographic, socioeconomic, and ethnic.

Students continue to learn how to locate places on maps and globes and how different communities are influenced by geographic and environmental factors.

They also study about the rights and responsibilities of citizenship in their communities.

Social, political, geographic, economic, and historic characteristics of different world communities form the basis of the program in Grade 3. Students learn about diverse communities, both Western and non-Western.

They also begin to learn about historic chronology by placing important events on timelines.

Students begin to compare the roles of citizenship and the kinds of governments found in various world communities.