What does a student learn in StateVirginia,GradeGrade 1,SubjectSocial Studies?

Reading maps, timelines, and pictures, students learn to ask questions, find information, and explain what they discovered about people, places, and events.

Students look at real objects, photos, maps, and charts to find information. They practice using different kinds of sources, not just textbooks, to answer questions about the world around them.

Students use maps and simple pictures of places to find and describe geographic features like hills, rivers, and oceans.

Students ask questions about what they see, read, or hear to figure out why things happen or how the world works.

Students put events or facts in order, from first to last, and sort related ideas into groups. This is how they make sense of what they read, see, and discuss in social studies.

Students look at two things side by side and explain what makes them alike and what makes them different. This helps them understand the people, places, and events they are learning about.

Cause and effect means one thing makes another thing happen. Students look at events or situations and figure out why something happened and what it led to.

Students practice deciding how to spend or save a limited amount of money by weighing what they want against what things cost. They learn that choosing one thing often means giving up another.

Students practice being a good classmate and community member: listening to others, doing their best work, and taking responsibility for their actions.

Students practice using the right words when talking or writing about history, maps, and community. Knowing the vocabulary helps them explain what they learned in their own sentences.

Citizenship in the classroom means following rules, taking turns, and treating classmates with respect. Students practice the habits of a good community member every day at school.

Students practice being honest and kind, including toward themselves. These habits are the foundation of how a classroom community works together.

Students learn why classrooms have rules and practice stopping to think before they act.

Students learn to treat classmates with respect and recognize that different families celebrate different holidays, eat different foods, and follow different customs. Those differences are worth noticing and appreciating.

Students practice working as a group to get something done, like finishing a class project, by listening to others and taking turns sharing ideas.

Students practice being a community member by taking on classroom jobs and helping at home or school. Small tasks like passing out supplies or tidying up show how each person's effort helps the group.

Students vote on classroom decisions, like choosing a game or a class activity. Voting is how a group makes fair choices when people disagree.

Local leaders like mayors and state lawmakers get their jobs through elections. Students learn that citizens choose their representatives by voting.

Students learn why communities celebrate shared holidays and local traditions. They practice recognizing specific Virginia and national observances and explaining what those days mean.

Labor Day is a national holiday in September that honors working people. Students learn why communities set aside this day to recognize the jobs adults do to keep neighborhoods, towns, and the country running.

Students learn why Columbus Day, also called Yorktown Victory Day in Virginia, is set aside as a holiday and what it marks in the state's history.

Election Day is the day communities vote to choose their leaders. Students learn why voting matters and how people in Virginia and across the country take part in picking who makes decisions for them.

Students learn why Veterans Day exists and what it honors. The holiday recognizes the men and women who have served in the United States military.

Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday in November when Americans pause to reflect on what they are grateful for. Students learn why communities celebrate it and how it connects to Virginia's history and traditions.

Students learn that Christmas Day on December 25 is one of Virginia's official holidays, when many families and communities pause work and school to celebrate traditions together.

Students learn that New Year's Day on January 1 marks the start of a new calendar year. It is one of Virginia's official holidays, a day communities and families recognize together.

Students learn why the country honors Martin Luther King, Jr. each January. The holiday marks his work to make sure all people were treated fairly, no matter their race.

Students learn why Virginia sets aside a day to honor George Washington, the first U.S. president, and what his leadership meant for the country.

Memorial Day is a national holiday in late May when communities pause to honor military members who died in service. Students learn why this day is set aside and how people mark it with ceremonies and remembrance.

Students learn what Juneteenth marks: the day in 1865 when enslaved people in Texas heard they were free, months after the Emancipation Proclamation. It is now a national holiday honoring the end of slavery in the United States.

Independence Day is the Fourth of July holiday when Americans celebrate the country's birthday. Students learn why communities mark this day each year and what it means for the United States.

Symbols like the American flag and phrases like the Pledge of Allegiance are part of how the country honors its history. Students learn what those symbols mean and why Americans use them.

Students learn the words to the Pledge of Allegiance and the National Anthem, and practice the respectful gestures Americans use when honoring the flag.

Students learn what the colors, stars, and stripes on the American flag stand for and why each part was chosen.

Students learn Virginia's official symbols: the state flag, the capitol building in Richmond, the cardinal, and the dogwood flower.

Symbols like the flag and songs like the national anthem remind people of shared values and history. Students explain why communities use these symbols and keep up traditions to show pride in their country.

Students learn about Virginia's past by reading simple sources, asking questions about what happened, and explaining what they find using maps, timelines, or pictures.

Students learn about the earliest settlements in Virginia, including a Powhatan village called Werowocomoco and the first English colony at Jamestown. They describe what those places were and why they mattered.

Students look at how a town or neighborhood in Virginia used to look and work, then describe what changed over the years. They might compare old photos, tools, or daily routines to what people use and do today.

Students find their own city or county on a map of Virginia and point to where it sits in relation to other places in the state.

Students learn about real people who changed life in Virginia, from explorers and founders to activists and leaders. They look at what those people did and why it still matters to Virginians today.

Students learn who Chief Powhatan and Pocahontas were, why they mattered to the people already living in Virginia long before European settlers arrived, and how their stories connect to the history of the land we now call Virginia.

Students learn who John Smith and Christopher Newport were and why they matter to Virginia's story. These two explorers arrived in the early 1600s and helped establish Jamestown, one of the first permanent English settlements in America.

Students learn who George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe were, and why each one mattered to Virginia and to the country they helped build.

Students learn about Virginians who broke through unfair barriers to achieve something no one who looked like them had done before, and how their actions changed life in Virginia for the better.

Students learn to read simple maps and globes, identify basic landforms like mountains and rivers, and connect places to everyday life. Geography at this level builds the habit of asking "where is this, and why does it matter?"

Reading a simple map, students identify what symbols stand for: which shapes mark land or water, where cities appear, and how roads connect them.

Reading a map, students use North, South, East, and West to describe where places are and how to get from one place to another.

Students find Virginia, the United States, the continents, and the oceans on a map or globe. They practice pointing to where things are in the world, from their home state all the way out to the largest landmasses and bodies of water.

Students draw a basic map of a place, then add a title, a key that explains the symbols, and a compass rose showing which direction is north.

Students learn how place and location shaped important events in Virginia and U.S. history. They practice connecting where something happened to why it happened the way it did.

Students learn to name Virginia's mountains, rivers, and coastline, then explain how those features shape where people build homes, grow food, or travel.

Virginia sits far enough north that temperatures shift with the seasons. Students learn why the state gets cold winters, warm summers, and two seasons in between, all because of where Virginia sits on the map.

Students find Jamestown on a map and learn why early English settlers chose that spot in Virginia. This is one of the first places Europeans built a lasting settlement in America.

Students find Richmond and Washington, D.C., on a map of Virginia and a map of the United States, learning where the state capital and the nation's capital sit in relation to each other.

Students learn that people choose how to spend money or time based on what they need most. They practice explaining why buying food comes before buying a toy, and what gets given up when a choice is made.

Goods are things you can hold, like food or clothing. Services are things people do for you, like a haircut or a doctor visit. Students learn to tell the difference between the two.

People who buy goods or services are consumers. People who make or provide them are producers. Students learn that the same person can be both, like a baker who sells bread but also buys flour.

Students learn why people work for money and how saving up lets them buy things they need or want, like food, clothing, or a toy.

Students name things made or grown in Virginia (like apples or furniture) and services people provide there (like teaching or fixing cars). This shows how Virginia workers meet the needs of people in their community.

Needs are things people must have, like food and shelter. Wants are things people would like but can live without. Students learn why having limited money means choosing needs first.