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The PSU SSE Framework for NH is embedded in a living Google Document. The version visible on these pages is dated 12.08.25 and lacks links to related inquiries and resources. For full resources, follow the link to the Framework below. 

Classroom Activity

Grade 1: 

Leadership, Cooperation, Unity, and Diversity

Students deepen their understanding of the communities in which we live, exploring shared heritage and traditions, how maps show the characteristics of the communities they depict, how groups work to make decisions and regulate community behavior, and the resources communities need to sustain themselves. They also expand their discipline-specific skills, especially the use of historical sources. Students study these topics by exploring guiding questions such as “What makes communities strong?” and “How do the resources of an area affect its industries and jobs?” Additional supporting questions appear under each topic. The questions included are not meant to be restrictive but rather to serve as possible avenues for discussion and research.

Grade 1 Social Studies Topics

  • Individuals and the Community

  • Civics: Elections and Leadership

  • Geography: Reading and Making Maps

  • History: Cause and Effect

  • Economics: Resources and Production

Literacy in Social Studies

In studying these topics, students apply grades 1-2 reading, writing, and speaking and listening skills, and learn vocabulary and concepts related to social studies.

​​​Looking Ahead: Connections to Social Studies in Kindergarten

Kindergartners were introduced to the four fields of social science and began to develop research and critical thinking skills. They learned about communities, natural resources, maps, and the importance of rules to govern behavior. Second graders will build on their pre-k to grade 1 learning by concentrating on physical, political, and economic geography, looking at reasons why people migrate to new places, why we have governments, and how people make use of natural resources for their own consumption and for trading with others.

Grade Level Statewide Programs

None

Major Resources

Standards for

History and Social 

Science Practice, Pre-K-12 

 

  1. Develop focused questions or problem statements and conduct inquiries.

  2. Organize information and data from multiple primary and secondary sources.

  3. Analyze the purpose and point of view of each source; distinguish opinion from fact.

  4. Evaluate the credibility, accuracy, and relevance of each source.

  5. Argue or explain conclusions, using valid reasoning and evidence. 

  6. Determine next steps and take informed action, as appropriate.

Topic 1. Individuals and the Community 

Compelling Question: How do community traditions and stories build connection?

Suggested Content:

  1. Deepen students’ understanding of communities and how people can have similarities and differences within the same community. Students will continue to identify different types of communities. Students will identify what types of communities they reside in and identify the characteristics of where they live and the people that live there. They may identify with more than one community. 

  2. Explore different perspectives within communities and compare students’ own views with the views of others on a variety of topics, emphasizing the wide variety of opinions and viewpoints within communities.

  3. Expand students’ understanding of symbols and traditions as a means to strengthen communities, by recognizing and explaining the meaning of unifying symbols, phrases, and songs: 

  4. national symbols (e.g., the U.S. flag, the bald eagle, and the Statue of Liberty), state symbols (e.g., the Old Man in the Mountain, Moose, state flag)

  5. words, mottoes, phrases, and sentences associated with New Hampshire and the United States (e.g., “Live Free or Die,” “U.S.A.”  or “America” standing for United States of America, and the Pledge of Allegiance) 

  6. the melodies and lyrics of patriotic songs (e.g., “America the Beautiful,” “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee,” and “The Star-Spangled Banner”)

  7. Language, beliefs, customs, and traditions help shape the identity and culture of a family and a community. Families are a basic unit of all societies, and different people define family differently. Students will listen to stories about different families and will identify characteristics that are the same and different. Students will identify traditions that are associated with their families, and tell why the tradition is important. 

  8. There are significant individuals, historical events, and symbols that are important to American cultural identity. The study of historical events, historical figures, and folklore enables Americans with diverse cultural backgrounds to feel connected to a common national heritage. Students will listen to stories about historical events, folklore, and popular historical figures and identify the significance of the event or person. Students will explain when and why they celebrate national holidays, such as Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents’ Day, Flag Day, and Independence Day are celebrated. 

Suggested Inquiries:

1.1 C3 Teachers: How can families be the same and different?

1.1 History’s Mysteries: What is culture?

1.2 Coming Soon: How diverse is New Hampshire?

1.3 Coming Soon: Why are individuals, historical events, and symbols important to all American people?

1.3 History’s Mysteries: Why do people celebrate the 4th of July?

1.4 C3 Teachers: Why do families tell us stories about the past?

1.5 Coming Soon: Why do we honor these holidays?

​

Suggested Resources:

1.1 New Hampshire PBS: Making Family Traditions Packet (activity)

1.2 New Hampshire PBS: Comparing Cultures (videos)

Topic 2. Civics: Elections & Leadership 

Compelling Question: How does a group of people make decisions, and what does it mean to belong to or lead a group?

Suggested Content:

  1. Demonstrate understanding of the benefits of being part of a group and explain what it means to be a member of a group; follow the group’s rules, limits, responsibilities and expectations, and explain reasons for rules to others. For example, to clarify the concept of membership, students brainstorm the groups they belong to simultaneously – e.g., they are members of a family, a classroom, a school, perhaps a sports team, a scout group, an arts club, a religious group, a neighborhood community, town, city, or country. With their teacher, they make a list of some of the different expectations of each group and look for the similarities among them. 

  2. Investigate the various roles that members of a group play and explain how those roles contribute to achieving a common goal. 

  3. Discuss the role that leaders play within a group, being both a member and taking on more responsibility for inspiring others, organizing and delegating activities, and helping the group make decisions. For example, students working on a project in a small group take on the roles of leader, recorder or reporter, illustrator, or timekeeper.

  4. Give examples of why members of a group who hold different views need ways to make decisions, and explain how members of a group can make fair decisions or choose leaders by voting. Discuss the responsibilities of both those who win elections and those who lose elections in regards to the group.

  5. Explain that an election is a kind of voting in which people select leaders or make decisions to do something. For example, students connect their discussion of leadership qualities to the idea of elections, listing the qualities they would look for in a candidate for election.

  6. Identify some leaders who are chosen by elections (e.g., the President of the United States, the Governor of New Hampshire, the captain of a soccer team) and explain their roles. Clarification Statement: Students should be able to describe how the President or the Governor gets authority from the people through the election process.

  7. Demonstrate understanding that members of a town, city, or nation in the United States are called citizens, and that their rights and responsibilities include 

  8. electing leaders who serve fixed terms

  9. paying attention to the leader’s actions, and 

  10. deciding whether or not to re-elect them on the basis of how well they have served citizens.

  11. Evaluate the qualities of a good citizen or member of the community, drawing on examples from history, literature, informational texts, news reports, and personal experiences.

  12. Clarification Statements: 

  13. Students should listen to and read folktales, contemporary fiction, and biographies from the United States and around the world that illustrate the values of civic-mindedness and civic engagement on the part of individuals and groups from diverse backgrounds. They should be able to describe characters’ interactions that show citizenship in action. 

  14. Students should learn and use academic language to describe the qualities of a good citizens or community members, (e.g., well-informed, honest, reliable, respectful, polite, yet firm in speaking up to defend fairness). 

Suggested Inquiries:

2.1 Kid Citizen: What are different roles in a community?

2.2 C3 Teachers: Is the president the most important person in government?

2.3 History’s Mysteries: What makes a good leader?

2.4 Coming Soon: What legacy do history’s leaders leave behind for current and future leaders and groups of people?

2.5 Coming Soon: How can people within a group who believe different things come together to make decisions?

2.6: New Hampshire PBS: How does an election work?

2.7 New Hampshire PBS: Who do we elect?

2.8 Coming soon: What makes us all citizens?

2.9 Coming Soon: In what ways do people become citizens?

2.8 NEH: What makes someone a good citizen?

​

Suggested Resources:

2.2 KidCitizen: Community Helpers (video/activity)

2.7 New Hampshire PBS: Arthur “Get Out the Vote” (video)

2.10 Scholastic: Biographies for Kids (link to books for purchase)

Topic 3. Geography: Connections Among Places

Compelling Question: How can maps help people locate places and learn about them?

Suggested Content:

  1. Explain the kinds of information provided by components of a map (e.g., compass rose/cardinal directions, scale, key/legend, title) and give examples of how maps can show relationships between humans and the environment (e.g., travel, roads, natural resources, agriculture, mining). Clarification Statement: Students should be exposed to a variety of maps, ranging from local to world, connected to the grade 1 curriculum. These maps should be used for a variety of purposes, such as locating where stories and events in texts or in the news take place, where students in the class have family connections, how to find a route from one place to another, how to know where mountains, valleys, or rivers are.

  2. Locate and explain physical features (e.g., continents, oceans, rivers, lakes, mountains) on maps and construct maps and other representations of local places.

  3. Compare different kinds of map projections (e.g., Mercator, Peters) and explain how they represent the world differently.

Suggested Inquiries:

3.1 C3 Teachers: Can my life fit on a map?

3.1 Coming Soon: What is the purpose of using a map?

3.2 Coming Soon: How do I use words to describe where things are?

3.3 Coming Soon: What does it mean when a state calls a city a capital?

3.4 Kid Citizen: What do different places look like?

3.5 Coming Soon: What are the differences of people’s lives across the entire world?

​

Suggested Resources:

Kid Citizen: Wondering with Maps (video)

Topic 4. History: Cause and Effect

Compelling Question: How are historical events and experiences connected to one another?

Suggested Content:

  1. Recognize and document sequential patterns in seasonal events or personal experiences, using a calendar and words and phrases relating to chronology and time, (e.g., in the past or future; present, past, and future tenses of verbs). 

  2. Explain the idea of cause and effect to students, using examples from students’ personal lives and historical examples to demonstrate how cause and effect works. With prompting and support, students generate possible reasons for an event or development in the past and then select which reasons might be more likely than others to explain a historical event or development.

  3. Explore different kinds of historical sources and deepen students’ knowledge about how historical sources can be used to study the past.

  4. Explain the function of captions to convey information about historical sources, but then help students identify the creator (author, artist, photographer, etc.), date, and place of origin for historical sources by gathering information from within the source itself, without reference to the caption.

Suggested Inquiries:

4.1 Coming Soon: How do Americans come together with their similarities and their differences?

4.2 Coming Soon: How can symbols of our state and nation help us feel pride?

4.3 Coming Soon: What is the past, present, and future?

​

Suggested Resources:

4.1 “Families” by Ann Morris

4.1 PBS: Picture Books to Celebrate Diversity (article of book suggestions)

Topic 5: Economics: Resources and Production

Compelling Question: How do the resources of an area affect its industries and jobs?

Suggested Content:

  1. Explain the relationship between natural resources and industries and jobs in a particular location (e.g., fishing, shipbuilding, farming, trading, mining, lumbering, manufacturing). Clarification Statement: Students should learn that there are connections between geography and economics, and that natural resources can be specific to the geography of a place and can influence its economic activities.

  2. Distinguish a renewable resource from a non-renewable resource.

  3. Explain that people are a resource too, and that the knowledge and skills they gain through school, college, and work make possible innovations and technological advancements that lead to an ever-growing share of goods and services. 

  4. Describe the process by which natural resources become goods, including the skill and knowledge required to produce certain goods and services. Discuss the costs of production. 

  5. Describe the goods and services that people in the local community produce, citing specific examples from New Hampshire towns and cities.

Suggested Inquiries:

5.1 Coming Soon: What are goods?

5.2 Coming Soon: What are services?

5.3 Coming Soon: How do people make decisions when buying goods and services?

5.4 C3 Teachers: What choices do we make with our money?

5.5 Coming Soon: What is employment?

5.6 Coming Soon: What are the reasons many people try to save their money?

5.7 Coming Soon: How can where someone lives impact their jobs?

5.8 Coming Soon: What does it mean if something is/isn’t a renewable resource?

5.9 Coming Soon: How do people’s backgrounds and knowledge help our communities?

​

Suggested Resources:

Coming soon!

Library Computer Workstations

Skills Matter: teach the four dimensions of inquiry

Dimension 1: Developing Questions

Dimension 2: Applying Disciplinary Concepts and Tools

Dimension 3: Evaluating Sources and Using Evidence

Dimension 4: Communicating Conclusions and Taking Informed Action

​

Learn more at C3teachers.org

Grades 1-2 Literacy Standards for Social Studies

Grades 1-2 Reading Standards for Literacy in the Content Areas: 

 

History/Social Science

Key Ideas and Details

  1. Ask and answer questions about key details in a text. 

  2. Identify the main topic and retell key details of a text.

  3. Describe the connection between two individuals, events, or ideas in a civics, geography, economics, or history text.

Craft and Structure

  1. Ask and answer questions to determine the meaning of words in a text about history/social studies.

  2. Know and use text features (e.g., headings, tables of contents, glossaries, icons) to find information in a text.

  3. Distinguish between information provided by illustrations, maps, and words in a text.

Integration of Knowledge and Ideas

  1. Use information in illustrations, maps, and charts to describe key ideas. 

  2. Explain how an author uses reasons and details to support ideas.

  3. Describe similarities and differences between two texts on the same history/social studies topic.

Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity

  1. With prompting and support, read and comprehend history/social studies texts exhibiting complexity appropriate for the grades 1-2. 

Grades 1-2 Writing Standards for Literacy in the Content Areas

Text Types and Purposes

  1. Write opinion pieces on topics or texts in history/social science in which they introduce the topic, state an opinion, give reasons for the opinion, and provide a sense of closure. 

  2. Write informative/explanatory texts, including the narration of historical events, that name a topic, supply some facts about it, and provide a sense of closure. 

  3. Narrative Writing (Not applicable as a separate requirement. Narratives may be integrated into explanations or opinion pieces.)

Production and Distribution of Writing

  1. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

  2. With guidance and support, focus on a topic, respond to questions and suggestions from peers, and add details to strengthen writing.

  3. With guidance and support, use a variety of digital tools to produce and publish writing.

Research to Build and Present Knowledge

  1. Participate in shared short investigations and research projects. 

  2. With guidance and support, recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question. 

  3. (Begins in grades 3-5)

Range of Writing 

  1. Write routinely over for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.

Grades 1-2 Speaking and Listening Standards for Literacy in the Content Areas 

Comprehension and Collaboration

  1. Participate in collaborative discussions with peers and adults in small and larger groups on history/social science topics.

    1. Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions (e.g., listening to others with care, speaking one at a time, staying on topic).

    2. Build on other’s talk in conversations by responding to comments through multiple exchanges.

    3. Ask questions to clear up confusion about the topics and texts under discussion.

  2. Ask and answer questions about a text read aloud or a media presentation.

  3. Ask and answer questions about what a speaker says to clarify information. 

Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas

  1. Describe people, places and things related to history/social studies; speak clearly at an understandable pace and use appropriate vocabulary.

  2. Add drawings and visual displays to clarify information.

  3. Produce complete sentences when appropriate to task and situation.

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