Standards

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

• Physical and human characteristics of places define the region.
• Historians use primary and secondary sources to ask and answer questions about the past and present.
• Chronology organizes people and events and helps explain historical relationships.
• People migrate and settle in different places for a variety of reasons.
• Societies are diverse and change over time.
• Decisions must be made about the use of scarce resources.
• 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.

• What are the physical regions of the U.S. and what are characteristics that define them?
• What sources of information do we use to find out about Native Americans?
• When and why did the first migration to America take place?
• What were the origins of the Native Americans, according to their stories?
• How were Native Americans in different regions alike, and how were they different?
• How does the exchange of goods and services lead to trade and interdependence?

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 H1 A: Students know 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 H2 A: Students know how to formulate questions and hypotheses regarding what happened in the past 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 H3 A: Students know how various societies were affected by contracts and exchanges among diverse people.
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 G2 A: Students know the physical and human characteristics of places.
Benchmark G2 B: Students know how and why people define regions.
Standard Geography 4: Students understand how economic, political, cultural and social processes interact to shape patterns of human populations, interdependence, cooperation and conflict.
Benchmark G4 B: Students know the nature and spatial distributions of cultural patterns.
Benchmark G4 E: Students know how cooperation and conflict among people influence the division and control of the earth's surface.
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 E2 A: Students understand that different economic systems employ different means to produce, distribute, and exchange goods and services.
Other Standards and E-skills
Identify and describe physical characteristics of regions.

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

• Unit 1: U.S. Regions & Native Americans Unit Lessons (@ 20 days)

Native American Web Resources:

• Legends of Our Times and Circle of Stories
• Colorado Indians Website - includes a virtual field trip to the Ute Indian Museum, information about food, clothing, shelter, work and tools, transportation, community life and families

Extension: Cartographer's Challenge (5 days)

Parent Resources

If you have not yet taken your child to the Indian Cliff Dwellings in Manitou Springs, this is a perfect time to do so. Your child will see how these Native Indians used natural, human, and capital resources to adapt to their environment. Your child will be able to see how this Native American group compares to others studied during this quarter. He or she will see how the Ute Indians used the natural environment to provide all of their needs. When the environment changed due to an extended drought, the entire population relocated and left the ruins we see today.

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.