South Dakota

Introduction to America

• K.SS.1 The student learns the skills to complete the following tasks, completing each task with relative ease by the end of kindergarten.

  • K.SS.1.A The student can distinguish between a map and a globe.

    • Introduction to maps (K-F.1)

  • K.SS.1.B The student can identify and explain a map of the classroom.

    • Use cardinal directions (K-F.2)
    • Use a map key (K-F.3)
    • Use maps of the community (K-F.4)

  • K.SS.1.C The student can name his or her town, township or city, county, state or reservation, country, and continent.

    • What is a community? (K-A.1)

  • K.SS.1.D The student can distinguish on a map between oceans, lakes, rivers, and mountains.

    • Identify Earth's land features (K-D.1)
    • Identify Earth's water features (K-D.2)

  • K.SS.1.E The student can identify and describe differences in setting, housing, and clothing from different time periods.

    • Then and now: transportation and communication (K-H.1)
    • Then and now: home and school (K-H.2)
    • Then and now: work and play (K-H.3)

  • K.SS.1.F The student can use sequential terms correctly to narrate personal and historical events, including first, next, last, before, and after.

    • Left and right (K-E.1)
    • Above and below (K-E.2)
    • Next to and between (K-E.3)
    • Use location words (K-E.4)
    • Use time-order words (K-L.3)

  • K.SS.1.G The student can use a calendar correctly to identify days, weeks, months, and years and can correctly reference "today," "yesterday," and "tomorrow."

    • Days of the week (K-L.1)
    • Months of the year (K-L.2)
    • Use time-order words (K-L.3)

  • K.SS.1.H The student can use chronological and temporal terms correctly to narrate personal and historical events, including now, long ago, in the future, last or next week, month, year, and present, past, and future.

    • Days of the week (K-L.1)
    • Months of the year (K-L.2)
    • Use time-order words (K-L.3)

  • K.SS.1.I The student can use the word "because" correctly in answer to questions of "why" and cause and effect.

  • K.SS.1.J The student can give examples of rules and laws.

    • Rules and laws (K-B.1)

  • K.SS.1.K The student can give examples of treating others with and without respect for the equal human dignity of each person.

    • Good citizenship (K-B.4)

  • K.SS.1.L The student can give examples of virtues and actions related to hard work, personal potential, and individual independence.

    • Good citizenship (K-B.4)

  • K.SS.1.M The student can correctly use words related to work, including: food, clothing, home, job, money, make, serve, borrow, buy, sell, need, want.

    • Needs and wants (K-G.1)
    • Goods and services (K-G.3)
    • Producers and consumers (K-G.4)

  • K.SS.1.N The student can recite the "Pledge of Allegiance" from memory.

    • Pledge of Allegiance (K-C.4)

• K.SS.2 The student locates each of the following on a map: North America, Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean, the United States of America, Alaska, Hawaii, South Dakota and the neighboring states, and the location of the school.

  • Introduction to maps (K-F.1)

• K.SS.3 The student tells stories about figures from American history through 2008, including stories from their childhoods, lives as adults, and examples of their character.

  • Benjamin Franklin (K-I.)
  • George Washington (K-I.1)
  • John Deere (K-I.)
  • Abraham Lincoln (K-I.2)
  • Harriet Tubman (K-I.3)
  • Susan B. Anthony (K-I.4)
  • Sitting Bull (K-I.5)
  • Thomas Edison (K-I.6)
  • Helen Keller (K-I.8)
  • Amelia Earhart (K-I.9)
  • Thurgood Marshall (K-I.10)
  • Rosa Parks (K-I.11)
  • Jackie Robinson (K-I.12)
  • Cesar Chavez (K-I.13)
  • Neil Armstrong (K-I.)
  • Martin Luther King Jr. Day (K-J.9)

• K.SS.4 The student identifies and explains the meaning of different symbols of America.

  • Identify American symbols (K-C.1)
  • Identify American landmarks and monuments (K-C.2)
  • The American flag (K-C.3)