Enduring Understandings - important ideas that students should carry with them years beyond the instruction received this year.

• Maps, globes, and geographic tools are used to locate information about places.

• Physical and human characteristics of places define regions.

• Physical processes shape the earth's surface.

• Chronology organizes people and events and helps explain historical relationships.

• Societies are diverse and change over time.

• Developments in technology have changed societies throughout history.

• Rules, laws, and governments develop and change over time.

• Beliefs of individuals and groups have powerful effects on societies.

• Processes and resources of historical inquiry lead to asking and answering questions about the past and present.

• Human activity changes and its affected by the physical environment.

• Exchange of goods and services leads to trade and interdependence.

• People migrate and settle in different places for a variety of reasons.

• Government involves people acquiring and using power and authority.

• Individuals and groups make, enforce, and apply rules and laws (government).

• People and nations interact politically.

• Decisions must be made about the use of scarce resources.

• Developments in technology have changed societies throughout history.

• The exchange of goods and services leads to trade and interdependence.

• Geography helps explain changes in places over time.

• How has human interaction with the environment changed since Colorado became a state?

• Citizens have rights, roles, and responsibilities.

• Resources are used to produce and distribute goods and services.

Essential Questions - most important “big picture” questions students should be able to answer after completing learning activities.

• Which key elements help us understand the information presented on maps?
• Which geographic tools can best be used to locate information about places in Colorado?
• How are the regions of Colorado defined by its landforms?
• What are the physical processes that shaped the earth's surface in Colorado?
• What are the regions of Colorado, and what physical characteristics define them?
• How can events and people of the Native American cultures who have lived in the area now called Colorado be organized chronologically?
• What cultural characteristics define each of the above cultures, i.e. prehistoric peoples?
• Which changes in technology had the greatest effect on the prehistoric cultures?
• Which of the prehistoric cultures seemed best able to govern itself?
• What do the characteristics (economic activities, social organization, political organization) of the prehistoric cultures tell us about their beliefs?
  How did the beliefs of these cultures affect the ways people lived?
• How do we find out about prehistoric people of Colorado?
• Who explored the area now called Colorado, and why?
• How can information about CO explorers be organized chronologically?
• How did trappers and traders interact with the environment and with other cultures in the area now called Colorado?
• Which was greater-- the impact of the trappers on their environment or the impact of the environment on the trappers?
• How were goods and services distributed through trade, exchange by trappers and traders?
• Why did non-Native American people migrate to and settle in Colorado?
• How did the settlers organize themselves to maintain law and order?
• How did settlers and Native American populations interact culturally, politically, and economically?
• Which was greater - the impact of the settlers on their environment or the impact of the environment on the settlers?
• How did the settlers use scarce natural, human, and capital resources to produce goods and services?
• How were the methods used by settlers and miners different from the way Native Americans produced goods and services?
• How did Colorado settlers alter their environment to facilitate communication and transportation within and outside of Colorado?
• How did developments in technology change the way people lived?
• How did developments in technology affect trade, exchange and interdependence?
• How did developments in technology affect the physical environment?
• How did Coloradoans organize themselves into a state within the United States?
• How is the government of Colorado organized?
• Which branch of  the Colorado government has the most power and why?
• How does the physical environment affect human activity today?
  How does human activity affect the environment?
• What are the most important rights, roles, and responsibilities of the citizens of Colorado?
• What goods and services are produced in Colorado? How, why, and for whom are they produced?
  How do we make decisions about how to use scarce resources?

Standards and Benchmarks

Standard History 1: Students understand the chronological organization of history and know how to organize events and people into major eras to identify and explain historical relationships.

Benchmark 1A: Students now the general chronological order of events and people in history.

Standard History 2: Students know how to use the processes and resources of historical inquiry.

Benchmark 2A: Students know how to formulate questions and hypotheses regarding what happened in the past and how to obtain and analyze historical data to answer questions and test hypotheses.                                                                                                       

Standard History 3: Students understand that societies are diverse and change over time.

Benchmark  3 B:  Students understand the history of social organization in various societies.

Standard History 4: Students understand how science, technology, and economic activity have developed, changed, and affected societies throughout history.

Benchmark H4A: Students understand the impact of scientific and technological developments on individuals and societies. 

Standard History 5: Students understand political institutions and theories that developed and changed over time.

Benchmark H5C: Students know how political power has been acquired, maintained, used, and/or lost throughout history.

Standard History 6: Students know that religious and philosophical ideas have been powerful forces throughout history.

Benchmark H6B: Students know how societies have been affected by religions and philosophies.

Standard Geography 1: Students know how to use and construct maps, globes, and other geographic tools to locate and derive information about people, places, and environments.

Benchmark A: Students know how to use maps, globes, and other geographic tools to acquire, process, and report information from a spatial perspective.      

Standard Geography 2: Students know the physical and human characteristics of places, and use this knowledge to define and study regions and their patterns of change.

Benchmark 2A: Students know the physical and human characteristics of places

Standard Geography 3: Physical processes shaped the earth's surfaces.

Benchmark G3A: Students know the physical processes that shaped earth's surface patterns.

Standard Geography 4: Students understand how economic, political, cultural and social processes interact to shape patterns of human populations, interdependence, cooperation and conflict.

Benchmark4 A: Students know the characteristics, location, distribution, and migration of human populations.

Standard Geography 5: Students understand the effects of interactions between human and physical systems and changes in meaning, use, distribution, and importance of resources.

Benchmark5 B: Students know physical systems affect human systems.

Standard Civics 1: Students understand the purposes of government and the basic constitutional principles of the United States' republican form of government.

Benchmark C1 A: Students know and understand what government is and what purpose it serves.

Standard Civics 2: Students know how to use structure and function of local, state, and national government and how citizen involvement shapes public policy

Standard Civics 3: Students know the political relationship of The United States and its citizens to other nations and to world affairs.

Benchmark C3 A: Students know how and why governments…..interact politically.

Benchmark C2B: Students know how power, authority, and responsibility are distributed, shared, and limited.

Standard Civics 4: Students understand how citizens exercise the roles, rights, and responsibilities of participation in civic life at all levels.

Benchmark C4C: Students know how citizens can exercise their rights. 

Standard Economics 1: Students understand that because of the condition of scarcity, decisions must be made about the use of scarce resources.

Benchmark E1A: Students know that economic choices are made because resources are scarce and that the act of making economic choices imposes opportunity costs (e.g., using land for farming and ranching, forests for recreation or lumber). 

Standard Economics 2: Students understand how different economic systems impact decisions about the use of resources and the production and distribution of goods and services.

Benchmark 2A: Students understand that different economic systems employ different means to produce, distribute, and exchange goods and services.

Standard Economics 3: Students understand the results of trade, exchange, and interdependence among individuals, house holds, businesses, governments, and societies.

Benchmark 3A: Students understand that the exchange of goods and services creates economic interdependence and change.

Elementary Social Studies D-11 Indicators, K-5

History
Chronological Organization: Organize events and people in history chronologically (time lines, lists, sequencing).
Historical Inquiry: Use primary and secondary sources to ask and answer questions (who, what, when, why, how) about the past and present, and to determine cause and effect relationships.
Diverse and Changing Societies: Describe cultural similarities, differences and interactions among various groups in both past and present.
Science, Technology, and Economic Activity: Identify and explain changes in technology (scientific achievements and inventions) and how they changed history.
Political Institutions and Theories: Describe how and why rules and laws (government) have been made and enforced.
Religious and Philosophical Ideas: Identify beliefs of individuals and groups and their effects on societies.

Geography
Use of Geographic Tools: Use tools (maps, globes, photographs, graphs, charts, and databases) to locate information about places.
Physical Processes/Physical and Human Characteristics of Places and Regions: Identify and describe human and physical characteristics of places, and use them to define regions.
Patterns of Human Population: Explain why people migrate and settle in different places.
Human and Physical Systems: Describe ways humans change the physical environment and how the physical environment affects human activity.
Apply Knowledge of Geography: Describe how and why places change over time.

Civics
Purpose of Government and US Constitutional Principles: Explain how people get, use, and misuse power and authority.
Structure and Function of Government: Explain how governments are organized at the local, state, and national levels and the responsibilities of each.
Political Relationships: Describe ways that peoples and nations interact.
Citizenship Participation: Explain the rights, roles, and responsibilities of students as citizens in the classroom, school, community, state, and nation.

Economics
Scarcity and Decision-Making: Identify scarce natural, human, and capital resources and evaluate decisions about how they are used.
Resources and Production of Goods and Services: Explain how, why, and for whom goods and services are produced.
Trade, Exchange, and Economic Interdependence: Identify ways goods and services are distributed through trade, exchange and interdependence.

District 11 Diamond Units/Lessons Overview - includes information about the purpose, goals and structure of these sample instructional units:

• Quarter 1:  Geography of Colorado Unit Lessons (@ 20 days)
• Quarter 2:  Early Coloradoans Unit Lessons
• Quarter 3:  Territory to Statehood Unit Lessons
• Quarter 4:  Modern Growth and Change Unit Lessons

Parent Resources

With the Social Studies background gained in K - 3 grades, your child is now ready to build more complete understanding of the state in which we live. Fourth graders combine their knowledge of self, home, school, community, and our local past with further information about Colorado, past and present. The specific geographic landforms of our state are studied along with how and why settlers came to this part of the country. The important Colorado personalities are studied as well as the Colorado gold rush. You can support your child's learning in fourth grade Social Studies with trips to the library and local historical sites. Visits to the State Capitol Building in Denver and the Western Museum of Mining & Industry in Colorado Springs will give your child hands-on experience with Colorado's fascinating past and promising future.

ABCs of Elementary Years: These ABC Tips are designed to help you support your child’s learning in social studies during their years in elementary school.